{"id":1037,"date":"2020-02-29T04:18:12","date_gmt":"2020-02-29T04:18:12","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/hqnn.org\/hqpress\/2020\/02\/29\/2020228senator-josh-elliot-discusses-connecticuts-relationship-with-recreational-marijuana\/"},"modified":"2020-09-05T19:19:03","modified_gmt":"2020-09-05T19:19:03","slug":"2020228senator-josh-elliot-discusses-connecticuts-relationship-with-recreational-marijuana","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/hqnn.org\/hqpress\/2020\/02\/29\/2020228senator-josh-elliot-discusses-connecticuts-relationship-with-recreational-marijuana\/","title":{"rendered":"State representative Josh Elliott discusses Connecticut’s relationship with recreational marijuana"},"content":{"rendered":"

California, Oregon, Nevada, Washington, Alaska, Colorado, Illinois, Michigan, Vermont, Maine and Massachusetts \u2014 these are the 11 states where the use and sale of recreational marijuana are legal. For state legislatures like Josh Elliott, the hope is that in the next few years, Connecticut will join that list. <\/p>\n

Since winning the election for the 88th District House seat in the Connecticut General Assembly in 2016, Elliott often is outspoken on passing laws to make the use and sale of marijuana recreationally in Connecticut legal. <\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve actually been a casual user since I was 18, so I\u2019ve been pro-legalization for 17 years,\u201d Elliott said. \u201cI\u2019ve been very outspoken since I got elected, I\u2019ve been vocal about since I ran for my first term, so nothing much has changed in terms of my advocacy, unfortunately, new electors are usually only about 50-50 in support of it.\u201d <\/p>\n<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
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Senator Josh Elliott seen at Best Video: Film & Cultural Center. Courtesy: Jason Hirsch<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p><\/div>\n

In 2019, three different bills to legalize, tax, and sell marijuana passed in the Connecticut General Assembly, only to never be voted on in either the House or the Senate. According to Elliott, there are a couple of factors at play as to why the success in the Assembly yielded no positive results last year and more than likely result in similar disappointment in 2020. One of those issues is the age of users.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe governor is vocally in support, so it comes down to what each voter has an issue with,\u201d Elliott said, \u201csome voters have an issue with the age, some are fine with 18, some are fine with 21, some want 25+.\u201d<\/p>\n

A second issue facing the progression of a vote is debate over what the money through taxes and selling marijuana will go towards.<\/p>\n

 \u201cSome want to see it go towards improving African-American and minority communities,\u201d Elliott said. \u201cOthers want to see it go towards improving mental health and addiction services, and there is a threshold there somewhat, to see it go towards our pension and debt obligations.\u201d<\/p>\n

The third big issue is concern over testing for people who drive under the influence of marijuana.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe don\u2019t have roadside testing currently,\u201d Elliott said. \u201cIt wouldn\u2019t be testing blood or saliva, because both of those have proven to be ineffective.\u201d<\/p>\n

According to Elliott though, the biggest issue facing these bills getting voted on is not policies, but instead politics. <\/p>\n

\u201cThere are a number of folks (legislatures) who would have no problem with this being legal but do not want to be the one to have to vote on it being legal,\u201d Elliott said. \u201cI have a Republican colleague who is fine with it, he thinks his district is fine with it, but the people who are close to him on the Republican town committee do not want it.\u201d <\/p>\n

Elliott feels that by being active in trying to get recreational marijuana passed into law, that people think the government is condoning the use of drugs. <\/p>\n

\u201cSome people feel that we\u2019re sending a message that the government is okay with drugs basically, and I think that makes some people uncomfortable,\u201d Elliott said.<\/p>\n

According to the Marijuana Policy Project<\/span><\/a>, an organization dedicated to legalizing cannabis across the U.S., 65 percent of residents in Connecticut are in favor of passing laws making the selling and consumption of recreational marijuana legal. <\/p>\n

Elliott explains that it is not just having a majority of residents in favor that matters, but also where the residents live that plays the biggest determining factor. <\/p>\n

\u201cWhile it is two-thirds of the state majority, it is not two-thirds of the state spread out evenly,\u201d Elliott said. \u201cAll the folk from urban centers will be in support, but you need support across the board. The suburban folk are against it, rural areas are generally against it, so that\u2019s the problem.\u201d <\/p>\n

While Elliott remains hopeful, he does not believe that this year will yield better results for the passing of recreational marijuana laws.<\/p>\n

\u201cProbably not,\u201d Elliott said. \u201cTwo-year terms, we couldn\u2019t get it over the finish line last year, no reason to think that anything is going to change for this year. The biggest change is that we have a UFCW (United Food & Commercial Workers), who are trying to unionize what would be a new market, so they are being proactive in trying to push this year. The MPP, they are lobbying for this. The governor\u2019s office wants this too, but they don\u2019t really know how the political effect of this would work yet, they may not ever know, so this may have to be just a legislature led issue, so they are not going to be helpful.\u201d <\/p>\n

For people who are interested in helping these bills pass into legislation, Elliott suggests writing and calling your local representation consistently and let them know that you support the selling and consumption of recreational marijuana. Even if nothing comes out of it, voicing your support on issues that matter to you is always better than staying silent. <\/p>\n<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
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Map showing different marijuana laws of each state. Marijuana use is fully legal in 11 states, only medicinally legal in 36 states, and completely prohibited in just three states (Idaho, Nebraska, and South Dakota).<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

88th District Representative Josh Elliott sits down with us to talk about the relationship between Connecticut and the legalization of marijuana.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":128,"featured_media":1038,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5,142],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1037","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-hamden","category-homepage"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/hqnn.org\/hqpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1037","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/hqnn.org\/hqpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/hqnn.org\/hqpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hqnn.org\/hqpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/128"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hqnn.org\/hqpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1037"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/hqnn.org\/hqpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1037\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1292,"href":"https:\/\/hqnn.org\/hqpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1037\/revisions\/1292"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/hqnn.org\/hqpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1037"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hqnn.org\/hqpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1037"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hqnn.org\/hqpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1037"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}