Tag: connecticut

Connecticut To Double Limit on Weed Purchases

Connecticut’s cannabis regulatory agency announced last week that it is increasing the amount of cannabis that can be bought in a single transaction by doubling the state’s limit on recreational marijuana purchases. Under the new regulations approved by the Connecticut Department of Consumer Protection (DCP), adult-use cannabis consumers will be permitted to purchase up to a half-ounce (about 14 grams) of cannabis flower or its equivalent beginning next month. 

The limit on purchases of medical marijuana has not been changed. It remains at 5 ounces of cannabis flower or the equivalent monthly, with no limits on purchases in a single transaction.

The DCP noted in a statement that the decision to increase the limit on adult-use cannabis purchases was made based on an ongoing analysis of supply and demand in Connecticut’s regulated cannabis market. The agency also said that the limit will continue to be reviewed over time, adding that the caps are in place to help ensure an adequate supply of cannabis for both adult-use consumers and medical marijuana patients.

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New gun control laws sweep three blue states

Starting in October, three blue states will put into effect a slew of new gun reform legislation. Lawsuits against Colorado and Maryland have arisen, while Connecticut has steered clear of any new legal trouble.

Below is a breakdown of the legislation that went into effect on Oct. 1 in Colorado, Maryland, and Connecticut.

Once considered a purple political state, Colorado has been passing gun control legislation at a fast-moving pace. Two laws, passed by the legislature in April, will instill a three-day waiting period for firearm purchases and make the path easier for gun violence survivors and victims to sue manufacturers and dealers.

House Bill 23-1219 imposes a three-day waiting period and a background check for those who seek to purchase a firearm. Customers previously could purchase a gun and receive it the same day. If gun stores violate the new regulations, they could be charged a $500 fine for a first offense and up to a $5,000 fine for a second offense.

A gun rights group filed a lawsuit challenging the new timeline requirements, calling the waiting period “unconstitutional.” The Rocky Mountain Gun Owners initially filed a lawsuit against the law after the Democratic-led legislature passed the bill in April, but the group withdrew its suit after a judge ruled there was no standing.

“We will not bow down to unconstitutional infringements on our Second Amendment freedoms,” Rocky Mountain Gun Owners Executive Director Taylor Rhodes said in a statement last week.

“We’ve reloaded our legal arsenal and are ready to take on this absurd waiting period that does nothing but trample on the rights of peaceable gun owners. We will not let tyranny prevail.”

The group cited the Supreme Court ruling from last year, New York State Rifle & Pistol Association v. Bruen, saying the ruling invalidates “the lower court rulings’ justification for gun control.”

Senate Bill 23-168 makes it easier for Coloradans who are victims of gun violence to file lawsuits against gun manufacturers and sellers by removing the requirement to pay the defendant’s legal bills for those who lose the lawsuit. Similar laws have been enacted in New York and New Jersey and are also facing legal troubles.

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Cannibal Released From Connecticut Psych Ward Early For ‘Good Behavior’ Even Though He Told Psychiatrist He Wanted to Eat Her Flesh

Tyree Smith, a brain-eating cannibal was released from a Bridgeport, Connecticut psych ward 50 years earlier than his scheduled release date for ‘good behavior’ even though he previously told his psychiatrist he wanted to eat her flesh.

“Tyree Smith is an individual with a psychiatric illness requiring care, custody and treatment,” the board stated in its report this week. “Since his last hearing Tyree Smith has continued to demonstrate clinical stability. Mr. Smith is medication compliant, actively engaged in all recommended forms of treatment, and has been symptom-free for many years.”

Smith, who was 36 at the time, was sentenced to 60 years in a psych ward in September 2013 (effectively a life sentence) after a jury found him not guilty of murder by way of insanity.

In December 2011, Smith murdered a homeless man, Angel Gonzalez, mutilated his body and ate his brains and eyeballs.

A psychiatrist previously testified that Smith said he heard voices that told him to eat Gonzalez’s brains and eyes ‘to better understand human behavior’ and ‘to gain vision into the spiritual real.’. He also expressed his desire to consume her flesh.

Tyree Smith was released from the psych ward this week after the state board determined he has been ‘symptom-free’ for many years.

“He denied experiencing cravings but stated that if they were to arise, he would reach out to his hospital and community supports and providers,” the report stated, according to the CT Post.

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Connecticut enacts its most sweeping gun control law since the Sandy Hook shooting

Connecticut’s most wide-ranging gun control measure since the 2013 law enacted after the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting takes effect Sunday, with proponents vowing to pursue more gun legislation despite legal challenges happening across the country.

The new law, signed by Democratic Gov. Ned Lamont in June, bans the open carrying of firearms and prohibits the sale of more than three handguns within 30 days to any one person, with some exceptions for instructors and others.

“We will not take a break and we cannot stop now, and we will continue to pass life-saving laws until we end gun violence in Connecticut. Our lives depend on it,” said Jeremy Stein, executive director of Connecticut Against Gun Violence.

Immediately after it was passed, the law was challenged in court by gun rights supporters. Connecticut’s landmark 2013 gun law, passed in response to the 2012 elementary school shooting in Newtown that claimed 26 lives, is also being contested in court.

Besides Connecticut, which has some of the strictest gun laws in the country, other politically liberal-leaning states including California, Washington, Colorado and Maryland also have passed gun laws this year that face legal challenges. They come in the wake of the U.S. Supreme Court last year expanding gun rights.

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Hundreds of state troopers may have falsified thousands of traffic tickets, audit finds

Connecticut state police troopers may have falsified thousands of traffic tickets.

WFSB reports a recent audit found nearly 26,000 fake tickets.

According to an internal investigation, troopers falsified tickets for their own personal benefit as those who appear productive are often eligible for federally funded overtime.

And lawmakers are now demanding answers.

Governor Ned Lamont said those who intentionally wrote bogus tickets should be let go, including management.

The audit also reportedly found that troopers not only falsified thousands of tickets but more than 32,000 were inaccurate.

“Those people should go, and I think their management should take a look at themselves as well,” Lamont said.

Ken Barone with the Public Policy Institute at the University of Connecticut pushed for the audit.

According to Barone, this has raised concerns about skewing racial profiling data.

“The records that should have been likely reported to the system were not,” Barone said.

Officials said it’s possible hundreds of state troopers were involved in falsifying tickets.

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A Connecticut Couple Challenges Warrantless Surveillance of Their Property by Camera-Carrying Bears

Mark and Carol Brault, who own 114 acres of forested land in Hartland, Connecticut, operate a private nature preserve that charges admission to visitors interested in seeing bears and other wildlife. In a 2020 lawsuit, the town of Hartland accused Mark Brault of violating a local ordinance against feeding bears, a charge that he denies. The latest wrinkle in that ongoing dispute involves the Connecticut Department of Energy and Environmental Protection (DEEP), which the Braults say has defied the Fourth Amendment by attaching a camera to a black bear that is known to frequent their property.

“Turning wildlife into unguided surveillance drones is unbearable,” Institute for Justice (I.J.) senior attorney Robert Frommer, a Fourth Amendment specialist who is not involved in this case, writes in an email. “Connecticut should paws its animal camera program so as not to infringe on Nutmeggers’ privacy and security.”

DEEP’s bear-borne camera is a twist on longstanding warrantless surveillance of private property by wildlife agents, which I.J. has challenged as a violation of state constitutional protections in Pennsylvania and Tennessee. In a complaint that the Braults filed last week in the U.S. District Court for the District of Connecticut, they argue that DEEP’s deployment of an ursine spy, identified by a state tag as Bear Number 119, violates the Fourth Amendment’s ban on unreasonable searches.

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Small amounts of ‘psychedelic’ mushrooms would be decriminalized in CT, under bill

At a time when more research is showing that the controlled ingestion of psilocybin mushrooms can help patients deal positively with depression, trauma and end-of-life issues, the state House of Representatives on Wednesday approved legislation that would decriminalize the possession of small amounts of the hallucinogenic fungi.

The bill, which opponents warned could lead to the eventual full legalization of the drug, passed 86-64 and next heads to the Senate. Thirteen Democrats voted against the bill and two Republicans voted for it.

If approved in the Senate and signed into law by the governor, the penalty for a first-time possession of a half ounce or less would be $150. State Rep. Steve Stafstrom, D-Bridgeport, co-chairman of the legislative Judiciary Committee, said that a number of patients with behavioral health issues, including substance abuse, can benefit from the use of the drug, also called “magic mushrooms” or psychedelic mushrooms. But the research, much being done at Yale University, is moving slowly because of the illegality of the drug.

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Former Planned Parenthood Director Commits Suicide as Child Porn Investigation Intensifies

A former Planned Parenthood director, Tim Yergeau, 35, was found dead in his New Haven, Connecticut, apartment on Tuesday from suicide.

His death comes as a police investigation into a child pornography case intensified but was hampered by a botched raid on the apartment building in which Yergeau resided.

The Middletown Press reports:

Investigators are looking into the city police department’s botched child pornography raid last week at the apartment building of Long Wharf Theatre staffer Tim Yergeau who died by suicide on Tuesday, officials said.

“The person who died was definitely the suspect in a child pornography investigation and the person who committed suicide,” New Haven Police Chief Karl Jacobson told Hearst Connecticut Media Group on Wednesday.

The chief has requested an internal affairs investigation after members of the Special Victims Unit investigating the child pornography case broke down the door of Yergeau’s neighbor and handcuffed the woman before realizing they raided the wrong apartment.

“They obviously hit the wrong door,” Jacobson said.

The internal affairs investigation will also examine how Yergeau wound up taking his own life five days later, the chief said.

“Unfortunately, a mistake was made,” Jacobson said. “We feel for the woman and we’re going to do everything we can to make it right.”

“The investigation is part of holding my department accountable and transparent,” he added.

Jacobson, who said he plans to reach out to the woman, declined to confirm Yergeau was the suspect in the child pornography investigation. But Yergeau’s neighbor and the state Office of the Chief State Medical Examiner both confirmed he died Tuesday morning. The medical examiner also confirmed Yergeau died by suicide.

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Connecticut Democrats Seek to Create a Censorship Board to Limit Free Speech

The  Democrat-dominated Connecticut legislature is seeking to create a censorship board through Senate Bill 6410 to regulate online speech.

The bill would establish a board to study so-called online “harassment” of individuals, including government officials, and recommend legislation to censor free speech by the creation of reporting guidelines. The censorship board would consist of nine members, four of whom would represent the minority Republican party.

The bill states:

Such assessment shall include, but need not be limited to,

(1) short term and long term effects of harassing behaviors online on elected officials, public officials and residents of this state,

(2) what state or municipal action is needed to address negative online behaviors that consider a citizen’s right to freedom of speech versus an individual’s right to be free from harassment including, but not limited to, potential changes in state law concerning  additional penalties or enforcement of online harassment, and

(3) establishing guidelines for the reporting of online harassment of elected state and municipal officials that find a balance between making elected officials accessible to the people whom they serve and protecting them from abusive, offensive or threatening online harassment.

Chris Zeller, executive director of the Connecticut Republican party (CTGOP), told Breitbart News the Democrats are trying to pass a censorship measure to cover up their agenda.

“They are trying to hide years of incompetent governance and a far-left agenda that is too radical for the average Connecticut voter,” he said.

According to a policy brief from Yankee Institute, about 150 people commented on the legislation via (presumably written) testimony. The vast majority of these opposed the bill. Some of those who opposed the bill said it would be used to “inhibit freedom of speech.”

Kate Prokop, president of Connecticut Residents Against Medical Mandates (CTRAMM), stated in her testimony that she is worried her organization will be censored because certain Democrat state politicians labeled CTRAMM as “extremist” during the pandemic.

“I’m not advocating for hate speech or condemning people. [I’m] against online censorship because it establishes an unnecessary paternal relationship with the government,” Prokop said. “Proposed Bill 6410 aims to limit constitutionally protected free speech online by demanding self-censorship from residents that have been gaslighted by elected officials for years.”

The bill was approved by committee March 17 and will now get a vote in the House.

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12-year-olds could get vaccinated without parental consent under bill proposed in Connecticut

Connecticut state Rep. Kevin Ryan has introduced a bill that would enable kids aged 12 and up to be vaccinated without parental permission.

“Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives in General Assembly convened: That the general statutes be amended to allow a child twelve years of age or older to receive a vaccination with the consent of such child’s parent or guardian,” the text of the measure reads.

Connecticut House Minority Leader Rep. Vinnie Candelora described the proposal as “very disturbing.”

State Rep. Holly Cheeseman pushed back against the proposal, raising the prospect of a scenario in which a person’s child experiences “an adverse reaction” but the parent does not know what has happened to the child.

“Minors under the age of 18 cannot be vaccinated by a healthcare provider without parental consent,” according to portal.ct.gov. But the proposal put forward by Ryan would rob parents of this authority.

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