
“Papaya Punch” is a popular item at The Pass in Sheffield, Mass.
Photo by Hunter O. Lyle
The first in a series on the legalization of cannabis in Connecticut.
LAKEVILLE — Change is coming to Connecticut with the legalization of a recreational drug that was once part of an underground culture, and it’s a momentous step for a state that as recently as 10 years ago continued to honor its Puritan heritage by barring liquor stores from opening on Sundays.
A little more than a year ago, Gov. Ned Lamont signed a bill allowing for the sale and possession of recreational marijuana, known in the trade as “adult-use cannabis.” Nine years earlier, then-Gov. Dannel Malloy had signed a bill allowing for the sale of marijuana prescribed by a physician for medical purposes.
Marijuana as medicine has been less controversial than recreational, as evidenced by the fact that only a handful of mostly conservative states such as Mississippi and Idaho continue to prohibit it. Still, the legalization of adult-use cannabis in progressive Connecticut did not happen overnight. Possession of small amounts was decriminalized in 2011 and an initial effort to legalize it died in 2018.
Unless it’s carefully planned in advance, the legalization of adult-use cannabis typically prompts a mad rush among the states as officials scramble to figure out how to regulate the cultivation and sale of a substance that, on the federal level, remains a Schedule 1 narcotic on a par with heroin, LSD and mescaline.
Until recently, almost all the states that legalized adult-use cannabis had done so through ballot initiatives. That’s mostly because elected officials were hesitant to leave their fingerprints on legalization, lest something go terribly wrong. So they were willing to let the people decide.
Except for legislatively referred constitutional amendments, Connecticut has no such mechanism for putting issues before voters in the form of a referendum, so it was up to the General Assembly to pass legislation, which it did last year. Some key Democrats withheld support for the measure unless it included provisions for “social equity.” More on that later.
For guidance and, in an effort to avoid mistakes already made elsewhere, Connecticut looked to other states that had already legalized the substance. As cannabis aficionados in the Nutmeg State are aware, the cultivation, sale and use of recreational cannabis-related products was legalized in neighboring Massachusetts through a 2016 ballot initiative. The measure passed by almost 7.5 percentage points statewide and by roughly 30 points in neighboring towns to our north such as Great Barrington and Egremont. Implementation of the new law was left to the hastily created state Cannabis Control Commission (CCC).
In Connecticut, officials opted against creating a stand-alone commission to regulate the industry. Instead, the state Department of Consumer Protection (DCP) was charged with regulating and licensing cannabis businesses. The DCP says it expects retail sales of adult-use cannabis to begin in Connecticut in late 2022 or early 2023.
For its part, the Bay State was able to learn from Colorado, which had legalized adult-use in 2012. What officials have found in both Massachusetts and Connecticut is that the barrier to entry into the business nationwide is quite high. Because cannabis remains illegal on the federal level, most banks will not loan money to cannabis entrepreneurs for fear of losing their federal charters. One Boston-area cannabis investor told the Boston Globe it takes at least $1 million to get started in the retail cannabis sector.
As a result, officials in Massachusetts were concerned that those who had been disproportionately affected by cannabis prohibition — mostly people in communities of color — would be among the least likely to obtain commercial financing.
The CCC subsequently created the Social Equity Program, the goal of which is to “ensure that people from communities that have been disproportionately harmed by marijuana law enforcement are included in the new legal marijuana industry.”
In Connecticut, officials have created the Social Equity Council, which says on its website that it was “developed in order to make sure the adult-use cannabis program is grown equitably, and ensures that funds from the adult-use cannabis program are brought back to the communities hit hardest by the war on drugs.”
Last month the DCP allowed 16 cannabis cultivators to move forward with applications that had been previously approved by the Social Equity Council. The licensing fee is a whopping $3 million but those funds will be allocated into the state’s social equity fund to help social equity applicants.
The state has identified more than 200 census tracts that qualify as “disproportionately impacted areas,” including 12 in Litchfield County (11 in Torrington and one in Morris) but none yet in the far Northwest Corner towns of the Region One School District, according to the DCP website.
There is also the matter of cannabis cultivation needed to supply demand from retail outlets and consumers. Connecticut took a cue from Massachusetts, as officials here amended state statutes defining agriculture.
In what is surely the first of more to come, one social equity applicant, Hartford Cannabis Company, last week filed a lawsuit against the DCP, claiming it had been “wrongfully denied a provisional cultivator’s license” earlier this month.
“The terms ‘agriculture’ and ‘farming’ do not include the cultivation of cannabis,” the state Department of Agriculture announced not long after the General Assembly voted to legalize adult use.
This means that so-called “right-to-farm” communities may regulate cannabis production, and neighbors who have the standing may engage in litigation to stop it. Since the mid 1980s, at least a dozen towns, mostly in the rural eastern portion of Connecticut, have passed right-to-farm ordinances that broadly protect those who engage in agricultural activities from certain nuisance lawsuits and regulations regarding odors, noises and other nuisances associated with traditional farming. Cannabis cultivators do not enjoy those protections.
Next week: What are towns in the Northwest Corner doing to prepare for the retail and cultivation of adult-use cannabis?
Bunny McGuire, at center holding the big scissors, surrounded by her family as she cuts the ribbon to the park that now bears her name in North Canaan on Saturday, June 7.
NORTH CANAAN — The park on Main Street in North Canaan was officially renamed Bunny McGuire Park at a ceremony beneath the pavilion Saturday, June 7.
Clementine “Bunny” McGuire was recognized for her lifelong commitment to volunteerism in town. Her civil contributions include work with the Beautification Committee, the Douglas Library, the historical society, a poll worker, an employee of North Canaan Elementary and Housatonic Valley Regional High Schools and a volunteer at her church.
“People like Bunny are the lifeblood of small towns and we should all be grateful for the bountiful benefits we have derived from having this vital and generous force in our midst,” said Kathryn Boughton, town historian.
First Selectman Brian Ohler described McGuire as, “A person whose name is truly synonymous with service, kindness, civility and generosity.”
First Selectman Brian Ohler praised McGuire for her impact on the town. "Bunny, you are so, so loved," Ohler said. "The outpouring of suppourt is not a surprise."Photo by Riley Klein
Ohler noted the impact McGuire has had on the town, as evidenced by the nearly 100 guests in attendance and the long list of donors who contributed to updating the facilities at the park.
“Bunny, you are so, so loved. The outpouring of support is not a surprise,” said Ohler.
Among the recent improvements include a new dog park fenced area, basketball hoops, updated playground, parking lot pavement, landscaping, new signage, paint and lighting for the pavilion.
“Everyone says I have done so much for the town, but this town has done so much for me,” said McGuire. “Just look around you, what we have,” she said tearfully. “A big thank you to all of you. I love you.”
SHARON — Angela Derrick Carabine, 74, died May 16, 2025, at Vassar Hospital in Poughkeepsie, New York. She was the wife of Michael Carabine and mother of Caitlin Carabine McLean.
A funeral Mass will be celebrated on June 6 at 11:00 a.m. at Saint Katri (St Bernards Church) Church. Burial will follow at St. Bernards Cemetery. A complete obituary can be found on the website of the Kenny Funeral home kennyfuneralhomes.com.
Sam Waterston
On June 7 at 3 p.m., the Triplex Cinema in Great Barrington will host a benefit screening of “The Killing Fields,” Roland Joffé’s 1984 drama about the Khmer Rouge and the two journalists, Cambodian Dith Pran and New York Times correspondent Sydney Schanberg, whose story carried the weight of a nation’s tragedy.
The film, which earned three Academy Awards and seven nominations — including one for Best Actor for Sam Waterston — will be followed by a rare conversation between Waterston and his longtime collaborator and acclaimed television and theater director Matthew Penn.
“This came out of the blue,” Waterston said of the Triplex invitation, “but I love the town, I love this area. We raised our kids here in the Northwest Corner and it’s been good for them and good for us.”
Waterston hasn’t seen the film in decades but its impact has always remained present.
“It was a major event in my life at the time,” Waterston said of filming “The Killing Fields,” “and it had a big influence on me and my life ever after.” He remembers the shoot vividly. “My adrenaline was running high and the part of Sydney Schanberg was so complicated, so interesting.”
Waterston lobbied for the role of the Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist for years, tracing his early interest to a serendipitous connection while filming in England. Even before Joffé’s production was greenlit, he had his sights set on playing the role. “I knew I wanted the part for years even before it was a movie that was being produced.”
What followed was not just critical acclaim, but also a political awakening. “The film gave all of us an intimate acquaintance with refugees, what it is to be a refugee, how the world forgets them and what a terrible crime that is.”
In Boston, at a press stop for the film, two women asked Waterston a pointed question: now that he knew what he knew, what was he going to do about it? “I said, ‘Well, you know, I’m an actor, so I thought I’d go on acting.’ And they said, ‘No, that’s not what you need to do. You need to join Refugees International.’” And join he did, serving on the organization’s board for 25 years.
Both Schanberg and Dith Pran, whose life the film also chronicles, were “cooperative and helpful … in a million ways,” Waterston said. Upon first meeting Pran, Waterston recalled, “He came up to me, made a fist, and pounded on my chest really hard and said, ‘You must understand that Sydney is very strong here.’ He was trying to plant something in me.”
There were more tender gestures, too. Schanberg used the New York Times wire to relay that Waterston’s wife had just given birth while he was filming in Thailand, adding to the personal and emotional connection to the production.
Though “The Killing Fields” is a historical document, its truths still resonate deeply today. “Corruption is a real thing,” Waterston warned. “Journalism is an absolutely essential part of our democracy that is as under siege today as it was then. It’s different now but it’s the same thing of ‘Don’t tell the stories we don’t want heard.’ Without journalists, we are dust in the wind.” Waterston added, “Democracy is built on the consent of the governed but the other thing it’s built on is participation of the governed and without full participation, democracy really doesn’t stand much of a chance. It’s kind of a dead man walking.”
When asked what he hopes the audience will take away from the screening, Waterston didn’t hesitate. “This is the story that puts the victims of war at the center of the story and breaks your heart. I think that does people a world of good to have their hearts broken about something that’s true. So, I hope that’s what the impact will be now.”
Tickets for the benefit screening are available at www.thetriplex.org. Proceeds support Triplex Cinema, a nonprofit home for film and community programming in the Berkshires.