ACTION ALERT: The Time is NOW for Social & Economic Equity and Agricultural Access in Cannabis!

Big news! The “miscellaneous cannabis bill” (H.270) is in the VT Senate, and there is a rare opportunity to make some real progress towards a cannabis economy which is racially just, economically equitable, and agriculturally accessible in VT!  

TAKE ACTION THIS WEEK!

Contact your representatives and these particular people and committees and ask them to support Rural Vermont and the VT Cannabis Equity Coalition’s policy recommendations for H.270 (scroll down for a draft message and list of VCEC's recommendations and talking points).

WHO TO CONTACT

SAMPLE MESSAGE
(copy, paste, customize!)


To: rstarr@leg.state.vt.us, bcollamore@leg.state.vt.us, rawestman@gmail.com, bcampion@leg.state.vt.us, iwrenner@leg.state.vt.us, kramhinsdale@leg.state.vt.us, AClarkson@leg.state.vt.us, jkitchel@leg.state.vt.us, aperchlik@leg.state.vt.us, rbrock@leg.state.vt.us, acummings@leg.state.vt.us, wharrison@leg.state.vt.us, rsears@leg.state.vt.us, pbaruth@leg.state.vt.us, vlyons@leg.state.vt.us

Subject: H.270 and support for Rural VT / VT Cannabis Equity Coalition Recommendations

Dear members of the Senate Agriculture, Economic Development, and Appropriations Committees,

I support the VT Cannabis Equity Coalition’s priorities to integrate greater racial justice, economic equity, and agricultural access into H.270 and VT’s cannabis laws.

[From here, you can include more about why this is important to you, and add any specific concerns or ideas you’d like to mention from our list below or your own. Lawmakers especially appreciate personalized messages vs. form messages.]

Thank you.

These are some of the reforms we think there is a path to be included in H.270:

  • Social Equity Funding: Cannabis Development Fund and Community Reinvestment Fund

  • Increase the income limit for Tier 1 Manufacturing License

  • Extend the existing Tier 1 Outdoor Cultivation license exemptions to all tiers and types of outdoor cultivation such that it is regulated "in the same manner as" agriculture. 

  • Propagation License and cultivation license sales of seeds and immature plants to the public

  • Medical program reforms

  • Increased plant counts for caregivers and home growers 

  • Address potential Federal Hemp Program conflicts

  • Public Consumption

Here are some specific and narrative bullet points on some of these issues which could be included in your message to lawmakers:

  • Ask VT lawmakers to treat outdoor cannabis cultivation in VT as agriculture to the best of their ability - small farms and farmers are struggling with unnecessary barriers and bias to participate in this market!  Extend all of the Tier 1 outdoor cultivation exemptions to all tiers and types of outdoor cultivation!  

  • Ask VT lawmakers to devote 10% of the cannabis excise task to the Cannabis Development Fund (the fund for social equity applicants which has no long term source of funding), and to create and devote 20% of excise tax funding to the Community Social Equity Program and Board to oversee the direct dispersal of this money into communities which have been disproportionately harmed by the criminalization of cannabis!

  • Ask VT lawmakers to support small farmers and people in the community gardening cannabis at home by allowing smaller tiers of cultivators to directly sell immature plants and seeds to the public, and for the Propagation License proposed in this bill to also include the allowance to sell directly to the public.  People need places to get their seeds and plants locally - and local producers are excited to provide them to their communities!

  • Ask VT lawmakers to respect the knowledge and expertise of VT’s medical cannabis community, caregivers, and patients - and to follow through with the recommendations of the Green Mountain Patients’ Alliance with respect to determining “qualifying medical conditions”, an adequate number of caregivers per patient, and a number of other priorities!

  • There are very few ways of legally consuming cannabis in VT unless you are an owner of private property; and in states like Massachusetts there have continued to be significant racial disparities in arrests post-legalization partially due to laws like this which significantly limit places one can legally consume cannabis.  Ask VT lawmakers to approve public consumption of cannabis anywhere tobacco can be consumed, as has happened in our neighboring state New York.

THANK YOU!

Please be in touch with questions or if you need support in reaching out to your representatives or the relevant Committee members.

Rural VermontCannabis