All but one Republican member of the Senate voted against the legalization bill.
Topic: Legislation
The measure amends the state’s child neglect statute so that the use of cannabis by a parent or a child’s guardian is no longer considered to be prima facie evidence of a crime.
All but eight GOP members voted against the bill’s advancement, assuring that it would not meet the 60 vote threshold necessary to move forward under Senate rules.
The new law creates a process for residents to “verify whether automatic expungement has occurred, and [to] request expedited automatic expungement if eligible charges have not yet been expunged.”
The bill’s sponsor says that the results will be used for purposes of establishing probable cause only; a positive test result would be not viewed as prima facie evidence of impairment.
Provisions in the bill would have repealed adult-use sales, limited home cultivation, and greatly raised taxes of medical cannabis products.
The legislation sought to impose new criminal penalties for any motorist who operates a vehicle with the presence of THC in their blood above 5ng/ml.
The law appropriates $650,000 in funding for the creation of the Center for Medicinal Cannabis Research within the University of Utah.