There’s a 50-50 chance Connecticut will legalize recreational marijuana next year, incoming House Speaker says

As Connecticut advocates believe they have their best chance ever at legalizing recreational marijuana, incoming House Speaker Matt Ritter rated the chances Thursday at 50-50.

Ritter is a strong advocate as the drug is already legal in Massachusetts, and voters in New Jersey passed the a marijuana legalization measure in a referendum on Election Day.

But Ritter, a Hartford Democrat, knows there is still strong opposition from some lawmakers. The measure has repeatedly failed over the past five years in the legislature, but Democrats now hold larger majorities in both chambers than in recent years — 97 to 54 in the House and 24-12 in the state Senate. Momentum is heading toward legalization as New York and Rhode Island are also considering it.

During a virtual meeting with the Connecticut Retail Merchants Association, Ritter disputed one of the main reasons that some lawmakers push for legalization — tax revenue to help close the state’s budget gap. In Connecticut, the projected deficit is $935 million for the current fiscal year and more than $1 billion in each of the next two years. As more states legalize in the region, the money for each state generally goes down in the same way that the proliferation of casinos in Massachusetts, Rhode Island and New York has had a direct impact on Connecticut’s casinos.

“To me, marijuana has nothing to do with revenue,” Ritter said. “I could care less. Every year that goes by brings in less revenue for the state. I don’t care if it brings in one dollar or $30 million. It’s completely irrelevant to me.”

Ritter, 38, said that two key issues are driving his thinking, including what he has seen in his own neighborhood.

“It is now legal in New Jersey, New York is coming, and it’s legal in Massachusetts,” he said. “Connecticut cannot fortify its border. We’ve also decriminalized the possession of marijuana under a certain amount. I have a lot of neighbors and friends that go to work every day who take care of their families. They go to Northampton, they buy pot. They drive back, and they are still practicing responsible adults. You can’t just pretend that it’s not all around you and readily available.”

As a longtime city dweller who went to college in a small town in central Maine, Ritter has seen all sides of the marijuana issue.

“The second reason why I would vote for legalization, I think this year could be the year,” he said. “For too long, Black and brown people in cities back in the 80s and 90s went to jail for marijuana offenses and people in the suburban towns — and I’ve had both ends of my life — I’m born and raised in Hartford, and I went to Colby College. I’ve seen both folks smoke marijuana with impunity. There were no crimes. It was ‘turn the other way.’ The expungement of those criminal violations is very, very important to me — to right historical wrongs. Those are the two reasons I’m voting for legalization. And I think it’s got a 50-50 chance of passing this year, and I think you should have a vote regardless.”

Incoming Senate Republican leader Kevin Kelly, who appeared on the same panel with Ritter, said the issue crosses party lines with supporters and opponents on both sides.

“I really don’t think this is a Republican-Democrat necessarily view,” Kelly said. “It’s more individualized than that. And it will depend upon where one’s perspective is and where they come in on the equation. A lot of what Speaker-elect Ritter pointed to with regards to the decriminalization and dealing with people who have had problems and issues with this in their past, I think was the reason why the state looked at it from that perspective.”

Kelly noted that Connecticut permits the use of marijuana for medicinal purposes under strict guidelines but that recreational use is another category.

“A lot of the reasons why states adopt this is because of the money — is to get more revenue,” said Kelly, an eldercare lawyer who lives in Stratford. “And just because other states do it doesn’t necessarily mean that Connecticut must do it. I think we have to look at what our own people, what our own families want and what we hear from our constituents and decide whether or not this is something that, as a social policy, is good for our state and the youth of our state. Is it something that we want them to be engaging in and to be utilizing on a daily basis or more frequently than they’re allowed to?”

Rep. Josh Elliott, one of the legislature’s most outspoken proponents of legalization, said recently that he expects the change to happen over the next two years because Democrats have increased their majorities in both chambers.

“Whether or not we can pass this law depends every two years on what happens in November,” said Elliott, a Democrat from Hamden. “The die is cast, and we either have the numbers or we don’t. We have the wins that we need.”

The Connecticut Police Chiefs Association has lobbied strongly against legalizing marijuana bill for years, saying that officers do not have a reliable test to prove that a driver is under the influence of marijuana, which is different from the test for alcohol.

Christopher Keating can be reached at ckeating@courant.com.

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