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As the Vermont Senate prepared to vote on legalizing small amounts of marijuana, supporters urged lawmakers to move forward on the creation of a retail market for the drug.

The current bill, which is backed by the Scott administration, the House and the Senate, does not include provisions for the taxation and regulation of marijuana. A report on the implications of a retail market will not be issued until December, which means any real action on full-scale legalization will be pushed into the 2019 legislative session.

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The Senate is slated to vote early afternoon Wednesday on a measure the House approved last week that would remove civil and criminal penalties for possession of up to an ounce of marijuana for anyone 21 or older in Vermont. It also would allow possession of up to two mature marijuana plants and four immature plants.

The Senate is expected to pass the bill. If Gov. Phil Scott signs it, as he has indicated he will, Vermont will become the first state to legalize marijuana by legislation, rather than by voter initiative.

Law enforcement and medical groups in Vermont have spoken out against legalizing pot, pointing to what they say are the physical and mental health problems it can cause, risks to highway safety, and the possibility the drug could become more available to minors.

On Tuesday, backers of legalization held a Statehouse news conference to offer a more positive take.

Lt. Gov. David Zuckerman, a Progressive who also ran as a Democrat, Sen. Joe Benning, R-Caledonia, and Rep. Sarah Copeland Hanzas, D-Bradford, were among the speakers.

The measure coming up for Wednesday’s vote is a compromise developed after Scott vetoed a legalization bill in May. Some lawmakers had been contemplating legislation to set up a regulated industry of licensed growers, retail outlets and tax collections.

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Advocates Tuesday cited four possible benefits of legalization, especially if the state were to go beyond the current bill and set up a regulated market: reduced pressure on and cost to the criminal justice system; medicinal effects of marijuana extracts; new tax revenues; and job creation and economic growth.

Benning said supporters were hoping to legalize pot for other than personal reasons.

“We don’t smoke marijuana,” Benning said, referring to his colleagues joining him for the news conference. “And we’re not going to run out and smoke marijuana just because this law may come to pass.”

To concerns in some quarters that it’s unwise to legalize a previously illicit substance during an opiate epidemic, Benning said marijuana was “totally irrelevant” to the opiate issues.

“This state has numerous rehabilitation facilities. I challenge you to go into any one of them and locate an individual who is in there specifically because they are addicted to the substance of marijuana,” Benning said.

Anna Stevens, outreach director at Vermonters for Criminal Justice Reform, spoke about racial differences in Vermont policing in regard to marijuana. She cited a 2013 report by the American Civil Liberties Union that concluded black Vermonters are arrested 4.35 times more often than their white counterparts on marijuana charges despite having “nearly identical” rates in usage.

Vermont ranked 14th for largest racial disparity in marijuana arrests, tied with Alabama, in spite of 94.6% of Vermont’s population being white, Stevens said.

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