NORWICH — With marijuana currently legal to consume for people 21 and older in Connecticut, and sales of recreational marijuana products to be allowed in 2022, many businesses owners want to know any potential impact to them.

The Aug. 16 target opening of the city’s first medicinal marijuana dispensary in a former west side bank turned out to be more ambitious than successful.

But the opening of the Mill Plain Road dispensary, which has been rebranded The Botanist, is not far off, an executive for the parent company said last week.

Recreational cannabis became legal in Connecticut last month and as local growers expand their footprint, researchers from the University of Connecticut are tracking pathogens infecting plants.Ph.D. candidate Cora S. McGehee and associate professor of horticulture Rosa E. Raudales from the College of Agriculture, Health and Natural Resources recently published the first paper documenting the presence of pathogens in Connecticut’s cannabis growing facilities.

GLASTONBURY, Conn. — A local father is under arrest after marijuana was found in his daughter’s lunch box at school.

Back on June 10, a local daycare reported to Glastonbury Police Department Lefrancois’ 3-year-old daughter was sent to school with marijuana in her lunch box.

Lefrancois was found in East Haven and transported to GPD for processing. He is charged with risk of injury to a child and is being held on a non-surety bond of $5,000.

He is scheduled to appear in court in Manchester on Sept. 15.

On June 22, 2021, Governor Lamont signed the Act Concerning Responsible and Equitable Regulation of Adult-Use Cannabis into law, legalizing the use of recreational marijuana in our state.

The new law allows adults (21 and older) to have on their person up to 1.5 ounces of marijuana or have up to 5 ounces in a locked container. It also allows for the expungement of some marijuana-related convictions, sets up a framework for businesses to apply for licenses to grow, manufacture, retail and distribute, and carries out restrictions on employers and protections for employees.

NEW HAVEN, Conn. — Focusing on social equity, a black woman whose business certifies residents for Connecticut’s medical marijuana card is taking advantage of measures in a new state law that target the issue most important to her.

A groundbreaking part of the new law, which went into effect July 1, is social equity.

Connecticut will be rolling in heavy green due to its legalization of recreational marijuana, according to the state’s Office of Fiscal Analysis.

The OFA projects that the medical marijuana industry will generate $3.1 million in sales during fiscal year 2022 – which runs from July 1, 2021 through June 30, 2022 – and another $1 million in municipal taxes.

Retail sales are expected to begin in Connecticut by the end of 2022, with the result that FY23 will generate $20.4 million in sales and another $5.9 million in municipal taxes, all of which will go to the general fund.

Democratic Gov. Ned Lamont signed a law in June to legalize, tax and regulate cannabis for in Connecticut. The legislation, sponsored by Senate President Martin Looney and House Speaker Matt Ritter, received final approval from both chambers of the state legislature in a special session.

Effective today, recreational marijuana is legal for personal use in Connecticut. Your employees might think that this means they have free reign to use marijuana in the workplace. They would be wrong. In fact, the new law provides employers with significant authority to prohibit marijuana use in the workplace and punish marijuana use outside of the workplace. The new law also imposes additional restrictions on smoking and vaping (both tobacco and cannabis) at work.