Gov. Ned Lamont gathers backers of legalized marijuana to push for legislation to raise revenue and end racial disparities in prosecutions

Gov. Ned Lamont on Wednesday pitched for legalized marijuana in Connecticut, an issue that has sputtered in the past but may now pick up steam with the prospect of needed revenue and a way to end racially disparate treatment of suspects arrested on possession charges.

He acknowledged his legislation proposing to regulate adult-use cannabis will likely require more work as it faces opposition from Republicans concerned about marijuana’s impact on health and liberal Democrats who criticize the bill as inadequate in providing equity to Black and other underrepresented communities.

“This is the beginning of a discussion, not the end of a discussion,” the governor said on a web-based call with supporters he gathered to talk up his legislation.

“This has been a long time coming. We have been talking about this for ages,” Lamont said. “I think now is the time for legalized adult-use recreational marijuana in a carefully regulated way with an emphasis on equity and justice.”

Rep. Michael D’Agostino, D-Hamden and House chairman of the legislature’s general law committee, said the governor’s bill includes “three main and very logical components:” decriminalization, regulation and generating revenue. A public hearing on the bill is scheduled for Friday.

Legal sales would begin in May 2022 under Lamont’s bill. The legislation would raise $33.6 million in the state’s 2023 budget year, a priority for Lamont, a Democrat who is resisting calls from liberals in his party to raise taxes. It would grow to $97 million in fiscal year 2026.

The legislation continues what the General Assembly began five years ago when it made possession of less than half an ounce of marijuana an infraction, D’Agostino said. Lamont’s proposal would make it legal to possess up to 1.5 ounces in the adult-use market.

The measure reduces penalties for those with more than 1.5 ounces, treating possession as a misdemeanor with fines to control the black market, he said. And it would expunge records of convictions of marijuana possession, doing it automatically or following a petition.

And the legislation would regulate and broaden the market, making it accessible to small-business owners who may have ideas to sell brownies, beverages and other marijuana products without needing large and costly selling space, D’Agostino said.

The reduced barriers to entry are a “significant equity component” of the legislation, he said,

Mike Lawlor, a former state representative and state undersecretary for criminal justice policy and planning in the administration of ex-Gov. Dannel P. Malloy, said Lamont’s bill would allow police, prosecutors and judges to focus on more dangerous activity than marijuana possession.

More than 7,500 people were arrested and charged in Connecticut last year with “some form of possession of marijuana,” nearly 10% of the total number of arrests, said Lawlor, an associate professor of criminal justice at the University of New Haven.

The legislation also would establish a “pathway to erasure of records of marijuana possession crimes” that dog people who have been arrested on possession charges, marring their applications for jobs, college and apartments, he said.

Opposition isn’t yielding to the arguments advanced by the governor and supporters of legalized marijuana,

Rep. Holly Cheeseman, R-East Lyme, said in an interview that Connecticut should heed statistics from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention that say about one of 10 marijuana users will become addicted. The number rises to one of six among those younger than 18, according to the CDC.

She said she supports provisions that expunge criminal records. She opposes legalizing marijuana, which she said undermines efforts to boost employment in Connecticut’s cities.

“Let’s look at ways to increase economic opportunity and create jobs that don’t destroy lives,” Cheeseman said.

Sen. Heather Somers, R-Groton, said she’s undecided on legalized marijuana, but she questioned General Dynamics Electric Boat President Kevin Graney at the submarine manufacturer’s annual legislative meeting Feb. 1 about his position, putting him on the record restating his opposition.

“We have to weigh one of the largest employers in Connecticut vs. the revenue Connecticut would get,” said Somers, whose Senate district includes Electric Boat. “It puts us at a disadvantage when competing for Navy contracts,” she said.

Graney said legalized marijuana could undermine the design and manufacture of America’s nuclear submarines.

“Anything that is going to deter us or result in people coming to work in a situation where they don’t have 100% of their full faculties and are focused on the job is a big concern to me,” he said. “The work that we do is too important and the safety of our workforce is too important for me to feel any other way.”

Lamont said the state legislation cannot, and does not, supersede federal regulations of defense industry workplaces.

“There are a lot of federal contractors, defense contractors around the country with legalized marijuana,” he said. “Those federal laws still hold.”

In addition to Republican opposition, Lamont’s bill is competing with legislation seeking to “correct the harm done to the working class as well as communities of color by the historical criminalization of cannabis,” Wildaliz Bermúdez, a Hartford City Council member, told legislators in testimony backing the legislation.

The bill also would establish a “labor peace agreement” between a cannabis sales business and a labor union in which the employer agrees to not oppose unionization and the union rules out a strike or other work stoppage.

Stephen Singer can be reached at ssinger@courant.com.