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State Senator Proposes Bill to Decriminalize Marijuana

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In his state budget address, Governor Dannel Malloy proposed changes to how Connecticut deals with drug offenders.  WNPR’s Jason Cunningham reports on one of four new proposed bills that tackle marijuana reform.  

“There are too, there are simply too many people also, who have been arrested for and jailed for minor, non-violent or drug offenses.”

While Governor Malloy didn’t directly address the issue of marijuana reform in his budget proposal, he did talk about "alternative forms of punishment" for those convicted of some minor crimes.

It's something that State Senator Martin Looney has been working on for years. Looney has proposed a bill that aims to establish what he calls a more rational drug policy. The bill would decriminalize the possession of less than one ounce of marijuana and the possession of drug paraphernalia.

“Ah, the cost of processing those low-level, ah, cases within the system are, are, are very high and by changing possession of a small amount of the substance to a, an infraction rather than a misdemeanor, ah those cases would be handled with ah, ah, less of a commitment of resources within the criminal justice system.”

He says that too many people, particularly young people, have had their lives ruined by minor drug charges.

“I think that ah, part of the problem has been we’ve, we have, ah, painted drug enforcement with too broad a brush and we need to be more careful about who we brand as a criminal.”

Catherine LeVasseur, the Program Manager of Safe and Drug-Free Communities at the Governor’s Prevention Partnership, says that her organization doesn’t have an official stance on Looney’s bill.  But she also doesn't  want legislation to send the wrong message.

"We want to make sure that any, any bill that comes out doesn't send that message to youth saying that, you know, marijuana isn't a drug of concern."

According to LeVasseur, alcohol use is a much bigger problem than marijuana use for young people in Connecticut.   

 

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