Big Bucks And Buds: This State's Cannabis Industry Spent Millions On Lobbying Efforts

Medicinal marijuana growers and retailers in Connecticut spent a significant amount of money on lobbying in the years leading up to the legalization of the state's recreational cannabis sales.

• Watertown, Connecticut-based Theraplant spent over $657,000 on lobbying between 2019 and 2022
• New York-based Acreage Holdings ACRHF, which owns three MMJ dispensaries in the state, increased its lobbying investment from about $136,000 in 2019 and 2020 to more than $210,500 in 2021 and 2022.
• Florida-based Trulieve TCNNF also spent $158,990.80 on lobbyists in 2021 and 2022.
• Companies that specified only "cannabis" or "marijuana" in their filings spent $852,470.25 between 2019 and 2020, and $956,365.28 between 2021 and 2022.

Data was sourced from CT Insider, citing lobbyist filings reviewed by Hearst Connecticut Media.

Verano Holdings VRNOF and Curaleaf Holdings Inc CURLF are among the cultivators that currently produce cannabis for Connecticut's recreational market.

“Lobbyists play a big role in crafting every single piece of legislation in every state house in the country. I don't think that's a story that's unique to cannabis,” according to DeVaughan Ward senior legislative counsel at D.C.-based Marijuana Policy Project. “Cannabis is an issue that touches public safety, economic development, criminal justice (...) It's a really broad swath of interests that come to play when you're talking about cannabis legalization.”

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