Legal marijuana is coming to New England.
Voters in Massachusetts approved a ballot initiative Tuesday to legalize the recreational use of the drug, according to results from the Associated Press. A similar ballot question was up for a vote in Maine, where the vote remained tight late Tuesday.
The introduction of the marijuana industry in New England could put increased pressure on the Connecticut legislature to consider legalizing the drug. With no ballot initiative process, the only way the sale and use of marijuana could become legal in Connecticut would be if the General Assembly passed a law and Gov. Dannel P. Malloy signed it.
See live map of Election 2016 results here.
While Malloy was a proponent of decriminalizing marijuana and supported the implementation of the state’s medical marijuana, he has said he doesn’t support legalization.
“I’ve done my part on marijuana,” he said recently when asked about the Massachusetts ballot question. “We did medical and we did decriminalization [of small amounts of marijuana]. I’d rather not encourage it, which I think legalization does.”
Proponents of legalization in Connecticut have said it would bring much-needed tax revenue to the state and help to drive marijuana dealers out of business. Opponents say any new money would be offset by law enforcement and societal costs and that it sends the wrong message, particularly while the region is gripped by an opioid crisis.
See town-by-town results for Election 2016 here.
It’s anticipated that the first retail marijuana locations in Massachusetts will open in January 2018. Malloy said he expects stores selling marijuana to open along the Massachusetts-Connecticut border, drawing buyers across the state line. “We already have people going to buy liquor there,” he said.
“We’ll look at all that stuff,” Malloy said. “I just think it’s a mistake because I think a lot of people read it as encouraging it. I talked to my friend, the governor of Colorado, and I think there’s a number of people giving second thoughts to what they did there. It seems to be a big rush right now.”
Lawmakers have introduced legalization bills dating back several years in Connecticut, but the legislation has never been seriously considered and a public hearing on a legalization bill has never been held. In the spring an informational hearing was held on marijuana legalization, where interested lawmakers heard from both sides of the debate.
The last time a poll was done on the issue — in March 2015 — 63 percent of Connecticut voters said they supported allowing adults to possess small amounts of marijuana for personal use, according to the survey by Quinnipiac University.
Marijuana is legal for recreational use in four states — Colorado, Washington, Oregon and Alaska — but Maine and Massachusetts are the first East Coast states where the drug would be taxed and regulated. All the states that have approved the recreational use of the drug have done so through ballot initiatives. The debate in Massachusetts this year was fierce, with both sides raising millions of dollars to run television ads urging voters to vote “yes” or “no” on Question 4.
One of the largest donations to fight the measure came from the Archdiocese of Boston, which gave $850,000 to fight the measure. Millions of dollars for the campaign supporting the measure poured in from New Approach PAC, a Washington, D.C.-based marijuana advocacy group.
Massachusetts and Maine were among five states that voted on ballot initiatives to legalize recreational marijuana Tuesday. Three more states voted on whether or not to begin medical marijuana programs.
Courant staff writer Daniela Altimari contributed to this story.
