Vermont is the latest state to legalize marijuana dispensaries, passing the legislation with bi-partisan support earlier this month.  Governor Peter Shumlin signed the bill on June 2, despite pressure from the federal government to not pass the controversial legislation.

S. 17 permits up to four medi-pot dispensaries to be established in Vermont, making the Green Mountain State the eighth in the nation to legalize dispensaries.  Maine, Rhode Island, Colorado, New Mexico, New Jersey, Delaware and Arizona all allow dispensaries. Vermont already allows patients and/or caregivers to grow pot, but added the dispensaries for those unable to grow the drug for themselves. Nationwide, 15 states and the District of Columbia allow the medical use of marijuana.

The Vermont Department of Public Safety will oversee the application process and conduct background checks of viable candidates applying to establish one of the four dispensaries. The department is expected to issue licenses for the state dispensaries within a year. Dispensaries will be permitted to grow 28 mature plants, 98 immature plants and possess 28 ounces of usable medicine. Dispensaries with more than 14 patients can grow two mature plants and seven immature plants and possess two ounces of medi-pot for each patient.

Last month, U.S. attorney for Vermont, Tristram J. Coffin, sent letters to state lawmakers warning them against voting for S. 17.  His threat did not stop the bill from passing with bi-partisan support. Gov. Shumlin signed the bill the same day that U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder was in Rhode Island promising that the U.S. Justice Department will work with governors in states that have legalized medical marijuana in order to reach a “satisfactory solution” in establishing medical marijuana dispensaries and to reach “clarification” on the issue “sooner rather than later.”

Bianca Slota, spokeswoman for Shumlin, said the governor does not minimize the threat from Coffin but he still feels that patients need safe places to buy marijuana to cope with medical ailments.“Obviously, it gives us something to think about,” she said. “We are not brushing [Coffin’s letter] aside, but it’s going to be a year before the dispensaries open. We will have to see what happens at the federal level.”

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During the governors’ annual visit to the White House last month, President Obama addressed the health care reform law.  Since the law was passed over a year ago, many GOP Governors and other lawmakers have incessantly complained about the reform.  Some Republican governors are refusing to implement the new law.  Obama issued a challenge to these complainers at their visit to the White House.  Obama called the GOP’s bluff.  It is easy to criticize.  It is much more difficult to offer another solution.  And that, in essence, is what Obama has told the Republicans.  Any states can offer their own health care solution.  As long as the plan covers at least as many as The Affordable Care Act, is the same cost to consumers, and does not increase the federal deficit—have at it.

Over a month later, the only states that have taken up on Obama’s challenge are Democrat-led states.  Oregon and Vermont.  Vermont is where extraordinary things are happening.  Not only does that state get Bernie Sanders as a representative, but now they may have a single payer health care.  That is right, single payer.  Do not tell Glenn Beck.

Vermont has actually been working on this plan for quite some time.  Last year, lawmakers in the state passed a bill to hire a team of consultants, including Harvard School of Public Health Professor William Hsiao,  to design a new healthcare system for the Green Mountain State.  The team recommended a single-payer system that would ensure coverage for all residents. An independent public body would oversee the system and contract out administration of all claims. Private insurers could compete for this work, as they have done for years to administer the state’s Medicare program. The bill, currently in committee, would take an estimated three to six years to implement.

Just months into Democratic Gov. Peter Shumlin‘s first term in office, the single payer healthcare bill has already passed the state House and is waiting on a vote from the State Senate.  Shumlin supported a single-payer healthcare system during his campaign, calling Vermont’s current system “broken.”

Dr. Deborah Richter, president of Vermont for Single Payer, which has advocated for a new health system since 2003, says that “on the whole” the group supports Hsiao’s plan. “Estimates are that [Hsiao's system] will not only be able to cover everybody, but for less money,” Richter says. “Vermont is uniquely poised to get this done.”

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