Vermont Business Magazine Advocates to legalize marijuana in Vermont are ramping up the pressure on the Legislature today by announcing an old fashioned marketing campaign. A new television ad featuring a former Vermont attorney general speaking out in support of regulating marijuana will begin airing statewide on Tuesday. Speaker of the House Shap Smith said earlier this month that he believes legalization will happen, but not this session. Governor Peter Shumlin, like Smith, supports legalization, but with very strict controls on availability, regulation and law enforcement. Pro-legalization advocates are pushing the issue now before the Legislature and the governorship turn over next year.
In the ad, titled “Time to End Prohibition (Again)”), former Vermont Attorney General Kimberly Cheney (Republican, 1973-75) draws a comparison between current marijuana prohibition laws and the failed policy of alcohol prohibition.
“We all know that prohibition was a disaster,” Cheney says as images from the era of alcohol prohibition appear on the screen. “It forced alcohol into the underground market, where it was controlled by criminals, and consumers did not know what they were getting. It made us a nation of hypocrites and lawbreakers.
“Marijuana prohibition has caused a lot of the same problems,” according to Cheney. “That’s why most Vermonters agree it’s time for a more sensible approach,” he says, referencing a September Castleton Polling Institute poll that found 56% of Vermonters support — and only 34% oppose — legalizing and regulating marijuana for adult use.
The ad ends with Cheney urging viewers to contact their state senators and tell them, “It’s time to end prohibition and start regulating marijuana in Vermont.”
Smith and Shumlin oppose one of the key selling points used by marijuana legalization advocates, which is the potential for a tax revenue windfall. The political leaders want marijuana taxed a a low level with the purpose of putting illegal distributors out of business; those drug dealers, they say, also sell all manner of illegal substances and contribute to the opiate crisis. If marijuana were highly taxed, they say, a black market would remain a viable option for buyers. They want to get marijuana out of the hands of criminals, while doing the utmost to keep it out of the hands of minors.
Advocates are also pushing legal marijuana as a commercial opportunity by drawing visitors to Vermont, who will perhaps spend their money on other things as well, much as Canadians come here to buy cheaper clothes, cigarettes and gasoline, and might stop to eat and shop.
“Mr Cheney decided to appear in this ad for the same reason he served as the state’s top law enforcement official,” said Matt Simon, the Montpelier-based New England political director for the Marijuana Policy Project, which produced the ad on behalf of the Vermont Coalition to Regulate Marijuana. “He cares strongly about the safety and well-being of Vermont citizens.
“There are a lot of current and former law enforcement officials out there who support ending prohibition and regulating marijuana,” Simon said. “It’s important that citizens and lawmakers hear from them.”
During a Thursday hearing before the Senate Committee on Judiciary, Windham County Sheriff Keith Clark expressed support for ending marijuana prohibition and replacing it with a “more controlled and regulated system.”
“By eliminating the prohibition on marijuana and the need to utilize funding for enforcing a failed policy, we as a state can focus on what is important,” he said.
The ad will appear on WCAX, CNN, Fox News Channel, and MSNBC through Sunday.