Travel show host Rick Steves to lobby for marijuana reform in Vermont

Travel writer and TV host Rick Steves will be in Vermont next week to tout reform of the state's marijuana laws.

The guidebook author and host of “Rick Steves’ Europe” on public television is scheduled to be in the state house in Montpelier at 1:30 p.m. Feb. 15. He is to attend a news conference with legislators and advocates of taxing and regulating a commercial cannabis market in Vermont, according to the marijuana-legalization organization Heady Vermont.

A recently-passed Vermont law that takes effect July 1 allows for limited possession of marijuana plants in Vermont but does not allow commercial sale of the drug.

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Steves also plans to speak at a lunch at noon Feb. 16 at The Skinny Pancake in Burlington. Admission is free, but attendees are encouraged to arrive early to secure seating, according to Heady Vermont.

Steves is best known for his enthusiastic support of independent travel through Europe but has spent years lobbying for marijuana legalization in the United States. The board member of the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws (NORML) has lobbied successfully for marijuana legalization in his home state of Washington as well as in Massachusetts and Maine.

In an essay on his website, Steves writes that “we should learn from the Europeans and, rather than lock up pot smokers, embrace a ‘pragmatic harm reduction’ approach that treats drug abuse as a health and educational challenge.”

“Marijuana use – and how we deal with it – is a serious, expensive and persistent challenge in our society,” Steves writes. “And it’s time for a new approach.”

Contact Brent Hallenbeck at 660-1844 or bhallenbeck@freepressmedia.com. Follow Brent on Twitter at www.twitter.com/BrentHallenbeck.