Connecticut’s leaders are some of the latest in the United States to become infatuated with commercializing cannabis as a way to generate tax revenue.
States have been more open to legalizing cannabis for adult use after seeing the public demand that could raise millions in taxes. The average amount of tax revenue the eight states that have fully operational markets for recreational cannabis made in 2020 was $285 million, according to the personal finance site The Motley Fool.
Legalizing cannabis for recreational use will add approximately 5,000 to 7,000 jobs to Connecticut’s workforce and will bring the state $35 million to $48 million in the first year of operations in direct tax revenue, according to a study published by University of Connecticut finance and economics professor Fred Carstensen.
Carstensen projects that cannabis job growth in Connecticut will nearly double within five years of recreational legalization and raise up to $223 million in tax revenue for the state as well.
“Legalization will generate significant job creation, strong growth in GDP, and hundreds of millions in new tax revenues,” Carstensen said in his report. “In the face of the challenge of recovering from the COVID-19 pandemic, legalization offers a path to a stronger recovery.”
How to legalize cannabis is a debate aflame in the Connecticut Legislature. With multiple bills on the table, legalization is a matter of how, not if.
State lawmakers are currently in negotiations with Lamont’s office on a bill that will include policies from both of these previous bills. Two bills leading the conversation of how cannabis should be regulated in Connecticut come from Gov. Ned Lamont’s office and Labor Committee Co-chairwoman Rep. Robyn Porter (D-New Haven).
Lamont’s proposal, “An Act Responsibly and Equitably Regulating Adult-Use Cannabis,” which passed through the Judiciary Committee earlier this month and will head to the Senate floor next to be recommended by other committees, allows 21-year-old adults and older to possess up to 1.5 ounces of cannabis. It also gives people convicted of cannabis-related drug crimes after October 1, 2015 the right to have those charges erased from their criminal record.
Though his bill allocates 70% of state tax revenue to communities targeted by the War on Drugs, a President Nixon-era campaign to stop illegal drug use and distribution that targeted minorities across the country, and other initiatives such as mental health programs, some Democratic lawmakers have voiced concerns that this plan is not equitable enough for those incarcerated in the past for possessing cannabis.
Porter’s bill, titled “An Act Concerning Labor Peace Agreements and a Modern and Equitable Cannabis Workforce,” is viewed as an alternative in that it takes fairness for Black-owned businesses and fairness in the industry into more consideration.
The bill sets a framework for a state-run Cannabis Control Commission that oversees cannabis research, commerce and labor and helps those who have been convicted with cannabis-related drug charges to find a job within the industry, as well as a Social Equity Council that would help develop policies for equity, licensing and tax revenue allocation.
“This bill really truly, thoroughly does an accounting of the damage done by the war on, you know, what some people call the war on drugs. What I call the war on Black, brown and poor people,” Porter said at a roundtable with Gov. Lamont in February. “It uses that as it determines how reinvestment must look in order to be most effective.”
Porter’s proposal, which is sponsored by the Labor and Public Employees Committee, allows Connecticut residents to grow cannabis as well as decriminalize possession of any amount. The bill also proposes that cannabis tax revenue for the first two years of legalization go to the state general fund and after three years it would be divided up so 55% of the revenue would go to a cannabis equity fund, 15% would help state drug prevention and recovery programs and the remaining 30% would stay in the general fund.
The bill negotiated upon between state lawmakers and the governor’s office will head to the Senate once both sides agree upon tax revenue allocation and policies concerning public health, safety and social equity. The current legislative session ends on June 9.
What would legalization mean for Connecticut?
Connecticut is on pace to join its neighbors Massachusetts, New York and other states that have legalized cannabis for residents 21 years or older. Adult-use legalization is no longer an if, but a when, and current medicinal cannabis businesses are watching closely to see how it will affect their growth.
“Equity is all about leveling the playing field or making sure everyone has the same starting point, or is brought to speed at the same rate,” said Kebra Smith-Bolden, a medicinal cannabis business owner, registered nurse and health policy consultant based in New Haven.
Many cannabis legalization advocates argue that the new industry will create jobs and serve justice for communities who were victimized by the “War on Drugs.”
Smith-Bolden, who has over 20 years of experience in the healthcare field, is the only Black cannabis business owner in Connecticut. She started her business, CannaHealth, to offer disadvantaged communities impacted by the war on drugs in Connecticut, Maryland, Pennsylvania and Washington, D.C. education about medicinal cannabis and works with patients to receive certification through their state’s programs.
“As far as ownership goes, it’s not that Black and brown people can’t come up with businesses that are profitable or work a dispensary application from beginning to end and open a dispensary or open a grow facility, it’s that the barriers and the obstacles and the costs related are overwhelming and substantial,” Smith-Bolden said. “And so, being competitive is difficult.”
As an educator through her activism, Smith-Bolden said that equity in the emerging cannabis industry needs to take form in minority groups having the same access to building businesses like everyone else. She appreciates that Gov. Lamont’s bill will allocate tax earnings to disadvantaged communities, but believes that the better strategy is creating a campaign about the benefits of working in the industry, like access to jobs as proposed in Rep. Porter’s bill.
Smith-Bolden’s business requires a team of medical experts such as registered nurses to evaluate patients, as well as business-side management to facilitate appointments and adhere to state medical cannabis program guidelines.
Once Connecticut legalizes adult-use cannabis, Smith-Bolden hopes to convert her six CannaHealth locations in New Haven, Milford, Middletown, Stamford, Hartford and Danbury to offer educational and therapeutic services for residents over 21 years old along with helping patients become certified to buy medical cannabis. She envisions expanding CannaHealth into a full-service spa and physical therapy center that utilizes cannabis products to treat patients.
Businesses like Smith-Bolden’s will expand the services they offer once cannabis becomes legal to use among all adults. The more demand there is for cannabis products within the state, the greater the supply there needs to be available.
States require their medical cannabis growers to operate within an indoor, climate-controlled environment. This process requires both time and patience as warehouses need air conditioning and dehumidifiers for plant life to survive. Along with that, growers need a mother plant — the best possible plant genetics that can be paired with strains to produce cannabis.
The process moves plants to several different rooms, starting with a room to allow the plant to sprout roots for two weeks to a room with LED lighting to simulate a light cycle so that the plant grows and matures for up to 10 weeks, finally to a room where the product is harvested and dried. From there, the flower could be broken down further into oil or concentrate for products like vape cartridges or edibles.
Connecticut actively works with four cannabis growing labs for its medical cannabis program: Advanced Grow Labs in West Haven, Connecticut Pharmaceutical Solutions LLC in Portland, Curaleaf in Simsbury, and Theraplant LLC in Watertown. A third-party lab periodically tests batches each grower produces for heavy metals, pesticides and mold and the Department of Consumer Protection regulates the products coming from growing labs. This process is no different than the procedures the state uses to test alcohol and prescription drugs.
There are currently 18 dispensaries in the state that serve approximately 50,000 medical cannabis patients. On top of dispensary jobs, there will be a need for growers and trimmers around the state, as well as an increase in packaging and bakery workers to create products, if a law is enacted.
The cannabis industry is a sophisticated market, unlike what social stigmas suggest. With this comes entrepreneurs, accountants, lawyers and quality-control jobs needed to prop up businesses.
Cannabis business, just like any business, can be publicly traded and people can invest stock in the company. In order to convince people it’s an industry worth buying into, public relations officials have to break down the misconceptions about the product.
Stephanie Cunha, the regional director of public relations for Curaleaf, a publicly traded cannabis company that owns 102 dispensaries across 23 states including locations in Hartford, Groton and Milford, is in charge of creating the company’s external communications strategy along the East Coast. One of the issues she runs into the most as a public relations representative is having to combat the stigma around cannabis.
“I do a lot of these like ‘influence the influencer’ type meetings,” Cunha said. “And we do one on ones because everybody comes into the meeting with a specific set of stigmas around with their own set of stigma around candidates based on their own experience or based on their family, friends, experiences, and this education budget here because there’s a lot of things people don’t know about the industry and they just think of stoners. There’s a Cheech and Chong stigma, but it’s a legitimate industry.”
Cunha had experience with healthcare communication at CVS before taking a position at Curaleaf and says that the cannabis industry is more layered than traditional pharmacy care because of the push for equity and reversing the effects of the war on drugs. Curaleaf pledged this year to commit 10% of new hires to people who previously received cannabis-related drug charges and will work with over 420 Black-owned businesses by 2025. Though Curaleaf is attempting to bring more equity to the industry, many states have left it up to cannabis businesses to achieve this on their own.
“Some of the things that we’ve seen too outside of finding funding, which is a huge barrier for a lot of the minority-owned businesses because funding is really hard to find, it’s also the mentorship, finding people who can show them how to grow and cultivate and make the most,” Cunha said. “I don’t think anyone’s perfected it, to be honest.”
Cunha’s role in Curaleaf is to keep a clean image for the business and cannabis for investors. She combats social stigma through education, working to filter out media interpretations of cannabis that could harm business with consumer studies. Most recently, Curaleaf published a study on its website about how parents have been consuming more cannabis than alcohol in the pandemic.
Curaleaf originally began business in Massachusetts but has since expanded into states with different degrees of legality surrounding cannabis. Once adult-use comes to Connecticut, Cunha expects sales to increase at the three Curaleaf locations in the state once any adult can purchase cannabis products.
“I think we’re just at the tip of the iceberg,” Cunha said. “I think once this becomes a little less stigmatized and people get a little bit more educated around cannabis, you’re going to see more consumers.”
Connecticut residents have mixed views about legalization and the potential of becoming a consumer, but most are eager to see more sides of the debate.
“I think it’s important to view all sides,” Jess Simonetta of Wallingford said. “It’s getting the medical, political and financial people all to think similarly. That is the issue. There is not enough medical research being done to make it a medical research cash cow yet. I’m a better person overall from it, but that’s on the negative scale of opinions and influence.”
Bill Connors of Wallingford is worried about how, or if at all, the state will consider motor vehicle accidents and DUI statistics tied to legal cannabis in other states, as well as hearing expert opinions on cannabis’s effects on job performance, mental health and addiction services and education.
“There are a lot of moving parts to consider while the government only considers two things: tax revenue and votes,” Connors said. “These are the kind of things that should be considered before legalizing pot and would help in the regulation of should it become legal.”
Steve Gold from Suffield is the administrator of the Connecticut Medical Marijuana Patient Canna-family, a Facebook group with over 1,000 state medical cannabis program patients and caregivers. As advocates for the medical program, the group is not worried about recreational legalization affecting dispensary operations.
“From what I understand, there will be separate entrances as well as different products,” Gold said. “The medical program will always take precedent. They still will test the product for medical use. It will be up to the state if they decide to test legal products.”
Gold, Canna-family members and cannabis activists met at the Connecticut Legislative Office Building in Hartford on April 20 to protest for fair and equitable legalization for businesses. Activists then met nearby to celebrate the cannabis holiday at a cookout event sponsored by the local chapter of the Black Lives Matter movement.
Not all Connecticut residents, however, are ready to get behind the legalization of recreational cannabis.
Hamden resident Heather Constantinescu believes that only medical cannabis and possessing small amounts should be legal.
“It is a slippery slope that eventually leads to an increase in homelessness and crime,” Constantinescu said.
Peter McConnell of Wallingford believes that cannabis is a problem, but having it be illegal makes matters worse.
“First of all, marijuana isn’t on the same level as alcohol or heroin,” McConnell said. “It does thwart young people who may wish to succeed, though. It should be controlled and taxed to support treatment. For adults, THC use can be safe.”
As someone ready to legalize, Gold said he knows that the state would not vote to legalize it until all risks had been considered.
“If the state did [legalize] it, they would assure a product that’s safe and the money generated would be great for the state,” Gold said.
One reply on “CT cannabis businesses have high hopes that legalization will create new jobs”
[…] simply legalized leisure hashish use in July, a choice that’s anticipated to create 5,000 to 7,000 new jobs. If you may have a inexperienced thumb, you could possibly get a part-time gig as a plant […]