Vermont has officially become the ninth state to legalize marijuana for recreational use. The new law took effect over the weekend and gives residents certain rights with respect to the cannabis plant. However, it doesn’t as far as enlisting a taxed and regulated scheme like other legal states. This means there are no retail dispensaries like in Colorado and California, according to a recent report from the Burlington Free Press.
The way Vermont went about legalizing the leaf is important in the grand scheme of cannabis reform. Instead of cannabis advocates pushing an expensive initiative through the ballot measure process, the state legislature took on the issue at the Capitol. Vermont is the first state to legalize in this fashion. Other states have tried and failed to legalize in this manner due to the inability of lawmakers to reach consensus on what exactly legalization should look like. But there is hope that now that one state legislature has found a way that others will follow suit.
Still, the Vermont Legislature did not create a perfect system. The state’s recreational law gives adults 21 and older the freedom to possess up to 1 ounce of weed and grow as many as two mature (four immature) cannabis plants at home for personal use.