MONTPELIER, Vt. (AP) — After voting overwhelmingly to kill marijuana legalization, the Vermont House has decided not to ask voters to weigh in.
The 97-51 vote against putting the legalization question to a nonbinding referendum followed an even stronger 121-to-28 vote against Senate-passed language to legalize the drug.
The earlier House action Tuesday made it appear that the push for legalization is dead for this year. Vermont would have become the first state to legalize by legislation. Four other states and the District of Columbia have done so by referendum.
Some House members said they support legalization, but opposed the Senate language. They argued that the Senate-proposed system of licensing and taxing growers and retailers — and banning homegrown — was too commercial an approach for Vermont.