On Monday, Vermont Gov. Phil Scott signed several bills related to animal welfare, diversity in courts, and addiction recovery support, and allowed a cannabis bill to pass into law without signature. The bill is designed to improve regulations surrounding cannabis and hemp-derived products.

Scott also allowed H.612 to pass into law without his signature. The bill creates a series of changes to Vermont’s laws on cannabis, most notably, banning psychoactive hemp-derived products. Scott said there are pros and cons, and that the bill takes “some steps forward, and some steps back” in terms of regulations to keep products safe. 

Among the pros include a loophole related to hemp products that are infused with THC. The law “ensures individuals with significant, documented medical needs continue to have access to medical cannabis,” he wrote. It “makes progress toward safeguards” for people under 21 who want access to “more potent medical products,” and the bill is “responsive to municipal concerns regarding setbacks for outdoor cannabis cultivators.”

On the other hand, Scott wrote that he is concerned about “warnings from healthcare providers that the availability of high potency medical cannabis products in more retail stores will increase use among those who do not have a valid medical prescription.”

The bill will codify rules the Vermont Cannabis Control Board already adopted last year, limiting the sale of intoxicating hemp-derived products in the state and regulate them as cannabis products if they contain more than 0.3% of total THC. 

The Brattleboro Reformer reported last May that the bill cleared the Senate. “We finally got it down,” Cannabis Control Board Chairman James Pepper told the Reformer. “The Senate made some changes then the House concurred with the Senate.” 

H.612 passed “very late in the day Friday,” Pepper said at the time. The bill loosened up advertising restrictions slightly from earlier versions and added some working groups and more requirements regarding a patient-provider relationship for people under the age of 21. 

The bill provides a path for municipalities to establish preferred cultivation districts and have some power over where cannabis can be grown. It also creates several more changes. A medical use endorsement option will allow adult-use retailers to serve patients with the same authorizations as medical dispensaries such as curbside delivery pickup and tax-exempt sales to patients. On top of the $10,000 fee retailers pay for their license will be a $250 charge for the endorsement. 

Under the bill, retailers with a medical endorsement will be allowed to sell products that exceed potency caps to medical patients. Sales to medical patients will be exempt from taxes. 

Added to the list of conditions to qualify a person for the medical registry is ulcerative colitis. Renewal terms for patients will extend from one to three years. 

Fees for medical dispensaries would be cheaper, with applications costing $1,000 instead of $2,500, and the annual charge would go from $25,000 to $5,000. An initial $20,000 fee is eliminated by the bill. 

Geoffrey Pizzutillo, executive director of Vermont Growers Association, counted more than a dozen sections in the legislation. “We have yet to see the final version of the bill,” he said. “We have an idea of what’s in the bill.” 

“Though we didn’t manage to stop the cultivation districts, we feel like a compromise was arrived at,” he said of language on zoning. “There’s not going to be immediate setbacks. There’s going to be a working group. We’re part of the working group to assess the outdoor siting issue for next year’s General Assembly.” 

Local leaders also applauded its ban on hemp-derived psychoactive products like those containing delta-8 THC and similar compounds.

“Importantly, H.612 will ban synthetic hemp derived intoxicating products with psychoactive THC that are currently unregulated and appear in gas stations and convenience stores, taking advantage of a federal loophole,” Rep. Matthew Birong, D-Addison-3, said from the floor in March before the bill headed to the Senate. “Another major theme will be adopting the medical cannabis statutes to preserve access to products for patients, as the current model for medical dispensaries is becoming economically unviable alongside adult use retail cannabis stores.”

Current state law caps the THC percentage in smokable cannabis flower products at 30%—which is high but exceeded in certain varieties—and the amount of THC in solid or liquid concentrated cannabis at 60%. Vermont also imposes a 5 mg serving size/dose cap on edibles and 100 mg cap on entire packaged edibles. The edible dosages align with what you’d see in most other states.

The governor wrote that the bill’s pros outweigh the cons as he allowed it to pass into law.

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The Vermont House of Representatives voted in favor of S.114 on May 8, which would create a working group to study the pros and cons of allowing psychedelic-assisted therapy, as well as determine what regulations would entail.

S.114 was first read in the Senate on March 1, and passed on March 27. It was read in the House two days later, but a majority of action in the House has taken place over the past week in May. Due to a variety of changes made between Senate and House versions of the bill, another vote is necessary in order to pass the bill on to Gov. Phil Scott. If passed, the first meeting by the working group would take effect starting on July 1, 2024, with the first meeting to be held before July 15, with a report to be presented by Nov. 15. After that, the working group will conclude its role and cease to exist by Jan. 1, 2025.

The working group’s role would be to “review the latest research and evidence of the public health benefits and risks of clinical psychedelic assisted treatments” and “examine the laws and programs of other states that have authorized the use of psychedelics by health care providers in a therapeutic setting,” while also seeking testimony from Johns Hopkins’ Center for Psychedelic and Consciousness Research.

One of the more recent hearings included a change that tasks the Vermont Psychological Association to work with the Vermont Department of Health “for purposes of scheduling and staffing meetings and developing and submitting the report.”

When Sen. Martine Larocque Gulick first introduced the bill, it included language to legalize possession and consumption of psilocybin. The Senate Health and Welfare Committee removed that portion to primarily target the working group.

At the floor hearing on May 8, Rep. Tristan Roberts shared his personal experiences with psychedelic-assisted therapy. “I now recognize that my night terrors were my body’s way of asking me to face my fears,” said Roberts. “Psychedelic-assisted therapy gave me the tools to do that that I hadn’t found in 40 years of looking.”

He also spoke of the positive results of therapy and its benefits. “I sleep much better now. Depression and anxiety are more often symptoms that move through me; they are not me,” Roberts said. “I felt for the first time in memory that I could appreciate and add to the beauty in life. Psychedelic medicine helped me uncover again my true nature.”

In a hearing at the beginning of May, Rep. Anne Donahue voiced concerns about the safety of psychedelics as medicine. “I have lived the life of somebody who has been told, ‘Oh, this is safe, this is safe, this is safe.’ You know, ‘We in psychiatry and mental health know what we’re doing is safe. This is safe, this is safe, this is safe,’ and having my life practically destroyed,” Donahue said. “I see the new ads on TV about, ‘Oh, your distracted mother, calm her down with this drug!’ That’s a drug that’s prohibited in nursing homes, because it’s used to keep their behaviors in line. And it causes early, premature death. But, you know, give it to mom because she needs to be calmed down!”

Donahue did admit that if the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is actively investigating psychedelic-assisted therapy, then Vermont should be “following [the FDA’s] lead” rather than acting too quickly. The FDA also recently recommended that cannabis be rescheduled from a Schedule I substance to Schedule III earlier this year in January.

Evidence is building in high-profile research in favor of psychedelic-assisted therapies. In September 2023, MAPS published its research on its Phase 3 Trial on MDMA-assisted therapy for post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). “It’s the first innovation in PTSD treatment in more than two decades. And it’s significant because I think it will also open up other innovation,” said MAPS Public Benefit Corporation (MAPS PBC) CEO Amy Emerson.

Last December, MAPS PBC submitted an application for approval to study MDMA-assisted therapy for those who suffer from PTSD. “The filing of our NDA is the culmination of more than 30 years of clinical research, advocacy, collaboration and dedication to bring a potential new option to adults living with PTSD, a patient group that has experienced little innovation in decades,” Emerson said. “If approved, MDMA-assisted therapy would be the first psychedelic-assisted therapy, which we hope will drive additional investment into new research in mental health.”

Recently in Vermont, concerns are mounting against a cannabis company that has had its products recalled by the Vermont Cannabis Control Board for having used myclobutanil. Board Chair James Pepper spoke to local news outlet Seven Days about the harm in using such as fungicide. “Some pesticides are OK for human consumption,” said Pepper. “This one is a very known toxic one. So there’s no excuse here. And the fact that they’ve been through this once before leaves very little room for any sort of leniency.”

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You can’t ignore the elephant in the room—that is, that cannabis is now legal in Vermont and sold to adults, and it’s only a matter of time until high school students are fully aware of their future options when they become adults.

WCAX in Vermont profiled various school officials to probe what their plans are and how the conversation around cannabis will continue, now that sales are legal for adults.

“Acknowledging that marijuana laws have changed—it’s for sale—so we take a really nuanced view here, which is talking to them about the realities of situations, but also talking to them about where they’re at in their actual lives,” Matt Meunier, a student assistance programming counselor at Champlain Valley Union High School in Hinesburg, Vermont, told WCAX.

Chittenden County—home to Champlain Valley Union High School—is also home to at least 10 cannabis retail stores, and school officials can’t keep pretending that they don’t exist.

“Talking about decision-making, what choices you want and what life you want to live helps take it away from just, ‘Hey, this is all available to you now,’ to what type of member of my community do I want to be? What are my habits?” said Meunier.

Meunier said there are more ways to consume cannabis now, but that there hasn’t been a noticeable increase in student use.

“I think the longer that students put off using for the first time or experimenting for the first time, the easier it gets for them to make those choices and the healthier it will be for them at the end,” said Meunier.

Kelly Dougherty with the Department of Health said that Vermont has the second-highest percentage of people nationwide aged 12 to 17 reporting using cannabis in the past 30 days—but that it’s ultimately up to parents to teach their kids about cannabis, among other things.

The results of a Monitoring the Future (MTF) Survey, conducted by the University of Michigan, were released on Dec. 16, 2015 by the university and the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA). The study revealed that daily cannabis use among high school seniors has “changed little since 2010,” despite the advent of legalization in several states and its consideration in many others.

Another interpretation of the study, however, notes that cannabis use becoming more popular than tobacco use, because for the first time “more high school seniors smoke marijuana daily than cigarettes.”

“Parents are the number one influence on their kids. Our kids are watching us all the time and they model the behavior that they see. So, even with alcohol, we recommend that if parents are using alcohol, keep it kind of out of sight and talk to your kids about the risks of it,” said Dougherty.

The main concern appears to be curbing underage use until they are old enough to decide on their own.

“We like to focus on helping youth develop healthy coping strategies, again, protecting brain health so they can be their best selves. Just because something is legal doesn’t mean it’s safe,” said Dougherty.

Adult-Use Cannabis in Vermont

On Jan. 22, 2018, Gov. Phil Scott signed the adult-use cannabis bill into law, which made Vermont the ninth state in the nation at the time to have legalized cannabis for both medical and recreational purposes. Starting July 1, 2018, adults living in Vermont were permitted to possess up to one ounce of cannabis, as well as grow up to six plants. 

It would take over a year for retail sales to launch in the state.

In 2020, Vermont became the 11th state to tax and regulate cannabis for adults. Two years later, sales figures are beginning to show the rewards. Adult-use cannabis sales officially launched in Vermont recently, with stores in three communities opening their doors to customers.

Under Vermont law, a portion of the excise tax revenue is allocated to fill any deficit in the control board’s budget. Of the excise tax revenue, 70% goes to the state general fund, and 30% goes towards substance abuse and prevention funds. Cannabis sales tax revenue is earmarked for after-school and summer learning programs.

Vermont’s adult-use cannabis industry took off with a bang. According to the Vermont Department of Taxes, Vermont cannabis stores sold $2.6 million worth of product in October, the first month of legal cannabis sales.

James Pepper, chair of the Vermont Cannabis Control Board, said that $2.1 to $2.4 million in excise taxes could be collected during the first nine months of cannabis sales. That translates to around $233,000 to $267,000 per month. “They look pretty much like our projections were accurate,” Pepper said.

Vermont legalized personal possession and cultivation of cannabis for adults back in 2018. The state legalized medical cannabis in 2004.

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“Historic” flooding in Vermont is causing an unprecedented number of landslides in the state, impacting businesses including those in the cannabis industry. After Vermont cannabis businesses were denied federal assistance, local trade organization, Cannabis Retailers Association of Vermont, and local festival Higher Calling plan to raise funds.

Summer flooding wreaked havoc upon the state of Vermont over the summer months. It’s probably not the last of flooding the state is in for: “I don’t want to be alarmist, but I also want to be realistic,” Ben DeJong, the state geologist told VTDigger. “This could be something we deal with again.”

Even with provisions that work in other industries, such as federal crop insurance, cannabis businesses often are left out of those programs. Although Vermont Gov. Phil Scott asked the U.S. Department of Agriculture disaster declaration, it still would not allow affected cannabis farmers to receive federal crop insurance, according to a USDA Farm Service Agency executive director. 

“Because we are a federal agency, we have to follow federal law,” said Small Business administration public information officer, Carl Dombek. “Cannabis is not legal under federal law, and therefore we are not able to lend to cannabis dispensaries.”

Forbins Finest in Barre was among the cannabis stores that were impacted. “The water came in pretty hard, pretty fast,” said Angela Payette, co-owner of Forbin’s Reserve, Inc. 

“To get right back into action, get back open so that people can have just a little bit of relief in some tough times,” said Brandon Marshall, the other co-owner of Forbin’s Reserve, Inc. However, Forbins Finest was able to reopen, while others were not, such as Capital Cannabis.

“The North Branch River was cresting over and immediately flooded the back parking lot as we were pulling out and we haven’t been able to move back in since,” said Lauren Andrews, who owns Capital Cannabis in Montpelier. Capital Cannabis was relocated to the Central Vermont Marketplace in Berlin.

Higher Calling

To lend a helping hand, the Cannabis Retailers Association of Vermont is selling tickets to Higher Calling, a two-day music festival in Cabot, and providing a portion of proceeds to flood victims. Organizers hope to sell 1,500 tickets for Higher Calling. The festival takes place on Sept. 15 and 16 in Cabot, Vermont, at Pransky Farm.

Organizers say that all the proceeds going beyond the festival expenses will go towards flood victims in the industry. “Any money that we make from sponsorships that exceeds the expense of the festival, 100% of those funds will go into the fund to support cannabis businesses,” said Todd Bailey, the executive director of the Cannabis Retailers Association of Vermont.

Planning for the festival began months ago, The Cannabis Retailers Association of Vermont said. But they quickly shifted focus to transform the festival into a fundraising effort once the severity of flooding became more apparent. 

Barre, Vermont was one of the cities most impacted by flooding. Landslides took out houses, powerlines, and infrastructure. Debris litters the streets. It was bad enough that they renamed the state’s annual Green Up Day, Flood Recovery Clean Up Day, which will take place on Saturday, August 26. The idea is to clean up roadsides, rivers, parks, and other areas hit hardest by the recent wave of widespread flooding.

The day is meant to “keep Vermont the clean and beautiful place we know and love, as we welcome visitors to support our economy and communities,” Gov. Phil Scott said during a press conference on Tuesday.

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Vermont’s adult-use cannabis industry took off with a bang. According to the Vermont Department of Taxes, Vermont cannabis stores sold $2.6 million worth of product in October, the first month of legal cannabis sales.

“It really is just kind of tracking pretty closely with what our projections were,” Brynn Hare, executive director of the Vermont Cannabis Control Board told Seven Days. “If you carry those numbers out—if we continue to get licenses out, we get the tourist revenue that we were anticipating into the state—then I think we’re on track to hit our projection for [fiscal year 2023].”

According to James Pepper, chair of the Vermont Cannabis Control Board—$2.1 to $2.4 million in excise taxes could be collected during the first nine months of cannabis sales. That translates to around $233,000 to $267,000 per month. “They look pretty much like our projections were accurate,” Pepper said.

Seven Days reports that Vermont legislature’s Joint Fiscal Office predicted higher numbers, with annual sales estimates ranging from $3.3 million to $9.1 million, translating to monthly excise tax revenues of $275,000 to $758,000.

In 2020, Vermont became the 11th state to tax and regulate cannabis. Two years later, sales figures are beginning to show the rewards. Adult-use cannabis sales officially launched in Vermont recently, with stores in three communities opening their doors to customers.

The three retailers to open this weekend were FLORA Cannabis in Middlebury, Mountain Girl Cannabis in Rutland, and CeresMED in Burlington, according to the Associated Press, which noted that a “fourth business has been licensed to sell recreational pot but isn’t ready to do so yet.” 

Vermont’s 2018 law, which was signed by Republican Gov. Phil Scott, did not establish a regulatory framework for an adult-use cannabis market, making Vermont an outlier compared to other states with legal cannabis. That changed two years later in 2020, when lawmakers in the state approved a bill that set up a regulated marijuana industry.

Vermont’s Cannabis Tax Structure

Officials also say the state has collected $329,231 in excise tax revenue—set at 14%—in the past two months since sales began. Patrons must also pay Vermont’s 6% sales tax on general sales, which amounted to another $144,000 for the state.

“Those numbers are actually right on track with our projected numbers from our financial model,” Nellie Marvel with the Vermont Cannabis Control Board told WCAX. The state now has two dozen stores and Marvel says they are expecting tax dollars to steadily increase. “The number of retailers that are open, the price of cannabis—and the price of cannabis, of course, is a function of the number of cultivators that are licensed, the size of their harvest—and the state’s tourism numbers.”

Under Vermont law, a portion of the excise tax revenue is allocated to fill any deficit in the control board’s budget. Regarding the rest of the excise tax revenue, 70% goes to the state general fund, and 30% goes towards substance abuse and prevention funds. Cannabis sales tax revenue is earmarked for after-school and summer learning programs.

According to the latest count, the control board approved licenses for 36 cannabis shops throughout the state.

Cannabis stores are stocking up in anticipation of busier days during the holidays. “Wednesday was awesome,” Sarah Coshow, director of retail operations at Green State Dispensary, told My Champlain Valley. “Everyone preparing to go home to the family. They did a lot of preparation by standing in line and picking up some pre-rolls and edibles.” 

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Recreational marijuana sales officially launched in Vermont over the weekend, with stores in three communities opening their doors to customers on Saturday.

The three retailers to open this weekend were FLORA Cannabis in Middlebury, Mountain Girl Cannabis in Rutland and CeresMED in Burlington, according to the Associated Press, which noted that a “fourth business has been licensed to sell recreational pot but isn’t ready to do so yet.”

The Burlington Free Press reported on the grand opening at Ceres in Burlington, where the newspaper said that “a line of a couple hundred people stretching from the storefront around the corner and down an alley” had gathered for the occasion.

You would be forgiven if you assumed that recreational pot sales were already underway in the Green Mountain State, which legalized personal possession and cultivation of marijuana for adults back in 2018. The state legalized medical cannabis in 2004; according to the Free Press, Ceres “has been in business for about a decade catering to medical-marijuana customers, and that established infrastructure helped the company get going smoothly.”

But the 2018 law, which was signed by Republican Gov. Phil Scott, did not establish a regulatory framework for an adult-use cannabis market, making Vermont an outlier in the legalization movement.

That changed two years later in 2020, when lawmakers in the state approved a bill that set up a regulated marijuana industry.

“Ten of the eleven states that have legalized adult-use marijuana possession have also wisely regulated the retail cannabis market; until today, Vermont had been the sole exception,” NORML State Policies Coordinator Carly Wolf said at the time.

With Saturday’s openings in Middlebury, Rutland and Burlington, Vermont now becomes the 15th state with legal adult-use cannabis sales.

In signing the bill back in 2020, Scott said that the bill had been “a top priority for the majority in the Legislature for four years, but their work is not complete.”

“They must ensure equity in this new policy and prevent their priority from becoming a public health problem for current and future generations,” Scott said in his signing statement. “For these reasons, I am allowing this bill to become law without my signature.”

According to the Associated Press, the state’s Cannabis Control Board “prioritized review and waived licensing fees for social equity applicants,” such as “[applicants who are] Black or Hispanic, or from communities that historically have been disproportionately affected by cannabis being outlawed or who have been or had a family member who has been incarcerated for a cannabis-related offense.”

Other states that have established a regulated marijuana market have enacted similar social equity measures. In New York, where legal sales could launch by the end of this year, the first round of recreational dispensary licenses will go to individuals who have previously been convicted of a pot-related offense.

The Associated Press reports that “more than 30 social equity applicants, mostly growers, have been approved.”

When he signed the bill that established Vermont’s new cannabis market, Scott noted that it “requires cities and towns to authorize these businesses before retail establishments may open,” and “ensures local zoning applies to cannabis cultivation and production.”

He also said that the law “dedicates 30% of the excise tax, up to $10 million per year, to education and prevention efforts,” and that “the sales and use tax on cannabis would fund a grant program to expand afterschool and summer learning programs.”

Scott said at the time that the state’s ensuing budget “includes language I proposed to move toward a universal afterschool network, which is based on a successful model from Iceland and is focused on preventing drug use and improving academic and social outcomes.”

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