Last week, the Global Commission on Drug Policy, which included prominent former heads of state and a former U.N. secretary-general, issued a report calling the war on drugs a failure, encouraging governments to decriminalize marijuana. It seems Connecticut may have been listening: the Connecticut Senate narrowly approved legislation to decriminalize small amounts of pot yesterday.
It was close though: the vote was stuck at 18-18, until Lt. Gov. Nancy Wyman tipped the balance with her vote. The bill now moves to the House of Representatives. "We've spent billions of dollars building more prisons and prison cells, and put greater emphasis on punishment with little to no emphasis on rehabilitation, and the numbers of people being convicted and sentenced did not decrease. We're trying something a little different in hopes that results will be better,'' said Sen. Eric Coleman, a Democrat from Bloomfield and co-chairman of the legislature's judiciary committee.
The bill had its ardent detractors, including Sen. Toni Boucher, who spoke at length about the "gateway" effect of marijuana; she also persuaded the majority Democrats to amend the bill to require that someone caught three times with less than a half-ounce must seek drug treatment: "When we do this, and it has been shown in other states that have gone down this path, there is both an increase in use and an increase in crime," said Boucher, who is also against medical marijuana.
But Democratic Gov. Dannel P. Malloy called the bill "commonsense", and after the passing, said that the state is "doing more harm than good when we prosecute people who are caught using marijuana -- needlessly stigmatizing them in a way they would not if they were caught drinking underage."
If the bill is approved in the House, Connecticut's marijuana laws will be similar to New York: possession of less than a half-ounce of marijuana would result in a $150 fine for a first offense and a fine ranging from $200 to $500 for subsequent offenses. You can see NY's laws here. Of course, even if it does pass, Connecticutians should still be wary; after all, NYC has still turned into the "marijuana arrest capital of the world," and the number of low-level pot arrests during the Bloomberg administration is greater than in the 12 years of Mayor Koch, plus the four years of Mayor Dinkins, plus the first two years of Mayor Giuliani combined.
