sp/lo/ta/jb//mi/km 1 HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES June 16, 2021 THE CONNECTICUT GENERAL ASSEMBLY THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES Wednesday, June 16, 2021 (The House of Representatives was called to order at 10:00 a.m., Speaker Matthew Ritter of the 1st District in the Chair.) SPEAKER RITTER (1ST): (Gavel) The Chamber come to order. Will the Members and staff, guests please rise and direct your attention to the dais where Representative Carpino will lead us in prayer today. Representative, welcome. GUEST CHAPLAIN, REPRESENTATIVE CARPINO: Let us pray. Lord, we ask Your blessing on the legislators who serve in this Chamber as well as their families. Guide us in our deliberations during this Special Session so that we may meet the needs of all our citizens. God bless. Amen. sp/lo/ta/jb//mi/km 2 HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES June 16, 2021 SPEAKER RITTER (1ST): Thank you, Representative. Representative Chafee will join us in the Pledge of Allegiance, the new father, congratulations. Come on up. REP. CHAFEE (33RD): I pledge allegiance to the Flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands, one Nation under God, indivisible with liberty and justice for all. SPEAKER RITTER (1ST): Any announcements or introductions? Don’t see any, so we will call on Representative O’Dea. REP. O'DEA (125TH): Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. The Republicans will be caucusing in room 110 downstairs. Thank you very much. sp/lo/ta/jb//mi/km 3 HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES June 16, 2021 SPEAKER RITTER (1ST): Thank you, sir. I think Representative Stafstrom just leaned over by accident. I don’t see Representative Genga in the Chamber, Oh, he is there. Representative Genga, did you hit your button buddy? No. Okay. Representative Rojas. REP. ROJAS (9TH): Thank you, Mr. Speaker. House Democrats will be caucusing in the old Appropriations Room, room 310. SPEAKER RITTER (1ST): Okay, Chamber will stand-at-ease. (Gavel) (Gavel) Chamber will come back to order. I hope everybody had a nice lunch and nice caucus and sorry for the delay. Let’s get back to work. I believe there is one announcement. Representative Dathan you have the floor, madam. Just hit your button please, madam. sp/lo/ta/jb//mi/km 4 HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES June 16, 2021 REP. DATHAN (142ND): Mr. Speaker, a Point of Personal Privilege. SPEAKER RITTER (1ST): You may proceed, madam. REP. DATHAN (142ND): Fire Chief Mike Grant worked for the City of New Haven for 42 years. He started out as an instructor at the State Fire Training School in Derby, in the Valley and then came to New Haven where he also was an instructor. He was key to operations in the fire department and rose to be the chief. Over his years as Firs Chief he received many citations including the Medal of Valor because he put his own life at risk to save someone who was in danger. He cared passionately about the personnel in the department and about the safety of the city. I would - he passed the other day and we are, and he will be waked Thursday in New Haven. He is widely respected throughout the state and country not just in New Haven but he was a constituent and dear friend. And I would like to ask the sp/lo/ta/jb//mi/km 5 HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES June 16, 2021 Members if they would join me in a moment of silence to honor his memory. SPEAKER RITTER (1ST): Thank you, Representative Dathan. Will the Chamber please rise for a moment of silence for Chief Grant and thanking him for his service to the New Haven Fire Department. Our thoughts and prayers are with his family. Thank you, Representative Dathan. Any more announcements or introductions. Representative Buckbee you have the floor, sir. REP. BUCKBEE (67TH): Thank you, Mr. Speaker I rise for a Point of Personal Privilege. SPEAKER RITTER (1ST): Please proceed, sir. sp/lo/ta/jb//mi/km 6 HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES June 16, 2021 REP. BUCKBEE (67TH): After sad news, I’d like to offer some good news. It’s sad that I can’t be there today as we are here, but today’s is my parent’s 59th wedding anniversary and on the same day my nephew is getting his Eagle Scout award so it’s a pretty big day in the best town in the U.S.A. but I thought I’d bring some good news up and say congratulations to them and hopefully they are having a great day. (Applause) SPEAKER RITTER (1ST): Representative Callahan. Good afternoon, sir. REP. CALLAHAN(108TH): A moment of Point of Personal Privilege, please. SPEAKER RITTER (1ST): You may proceed, sir. sp/lo/ta/jb//mi/km 7 HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES June 16, 2021 REP. CALLAHAN(108TH): On Saturday some light news, the New Fairfield girls Lacrosse team one a fourth consecutive State Championship in Class S defeating Weston, so I wanted to offer them congratulations. Nice job girls. (Applause) SPEAKER RITTER (1ST): And I will also take a moment to congratulate my daughter, Emma Ritter who graduated from kindergarten today. Daddy could not be there but grandma was there. We are very proud of you and love you. Congratulations, Sweetie. (Applause). Okay, let’s get down to business. Will the Clerk please call Senate Bill 1021. CLERK: Emergency Certification Senate Bill 1201, AN ACT CONCERNING RESPONSIBLE AND EQUITABLE REGULATIONS OF ADULT-USE CANNABIS. Introduced by Senator Looney and Representative Ritter. sp/lo/ta/jb//mi/km 8 HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES June 16, 2021 SPEAKER RITTER (1ST): Representative Stafstrom, you have the floor sir. REP. STAFSTROM (129TH): Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I move passage of the Emergency Certified Bill. SPEAKER RITTER (1ST): Question is passage of the Bill. Representative Stafstrom you may proceed. REP. STAFSTROM (129TH): Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker Connecticut’s time has finally come. Today we take the next step as this Chamber in recognizing that the war on drugs has failed us and the criminalization of cannabis was the wrong course of action for our state and for our nation. Mr. Speaker, we as a state legalized drugs that are less addictive and less harmful to the body than cannabis is. After years or working through Legislation the Bill we have before us is the product, the sp/lo/ta/jb//mi/km 9 HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES June 16, 2021 culmination of those efforts and of the study that this Chamber has taken in this effort. The legalization of recreational cannabis, Mr. Speaker will be heavily regulated. In this Bill we limit the amount someone can possess and the amount they can purchase. We limit dosage and give discretion of the Department of Consumer Protection to further regulate. We restrict packaging and advertising. We ban smoking and vaping in most locations, public locations. We allow local towns to set appropriate zoning, we increase the enforcement and intervention of driving under the influence of drugs. We provide protection to our employers and we increased the amount of funding going to prevention of drug and cannabis use. But Mr. Speaker at the same time this Bill also addresses of equity. Certainly, this Bill is a start. There is further work to be done by the Social Equity Council that is set up in this Bill and by various state agencies to effectuate the policy laid out at the 30,000 foot level in this Bill. And Mr. Speaker, we invest much of the proceeds from the tax revenue of legalization back into those communities that were most impacted by this war on drugs. sp/lo/ta/jb//mi/km 10 HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES June 16, 2021 Mr. Speaker, the Clerk is in possession of Senate Amendment “A”, LCO No. 10906, I ask the Clerk please call the Amendment and I be granted leave of the Chamber to summarize. SPEAKER RITTER (1ST): Will the Clerk please call LCO 10906, we will mark it Senate “A” CLERK: Senate Amendment Schedule “A” LCO No. 10906 offered by Senator Winfield. SPEAKER RITTER (1ST): The Representative seeks leave of the Chamber to summarize the Amendment. Is there objection? Seeing none, you may proceed with summarization, sir. REP. STAFSTROM (129TH): Through you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker as I said, the underlying Bill is the product of intense negotiations and sp/lo/ta/jb//mi/km 11 HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES June 16, 2021 deliberations over a number of years by various Committees and leaders in this Chamber and certainly with the governor’s office as well. The Amendment we have before us essentially changed the underlying Bill by doing two things. First it increased the prohibition on legislators getting involved in the cannabis industry. I think something we all can recognize is good public policy and create transparency to the public that legislators are not going to immediately jump into this industry. Something we all support and later on today I will be offering an Amendment to put that into the underlying Bill. But Mr. Speaker this Amendment also will change the definition of social equity applicants. I think it has been well understood by Members of this Chamber and others that provision given it’s late entrance into this discussion became controversial. I would ask us to reject this Amendment today to send this Bill back up to the Senate with a non-concurring action to allow the original definition of social equity applicant to stand and certainly to allow as I indicated the Social Equity Council to continue to do its work and flush out what is social equity under this Bill as we move forward as was sp/lo/ta/jb//mi/km 12 HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES June 16, 2021 intended by the original Bill.