Last Updated July 9, 2004

Medical Marijuana: Vermont allows patients to use medical marijuana if they have a debilitating medical condition and a state-issued registry condition. This law was enacted in May 2004 after Gov. Jim Douglas allowed a bill to become law without his signature.

Recent Drug Reforms: In 1996, Vermont became one of the first states to pass a meaningful industrial hemp bill when it enacted a bill authorizing research into the feasibility of hemp as a commercial product. Four years later, the legislature passed a resolution urging the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration, the U.S. Department of Agriculture, and the U.S. Congress to reconsider federal policies that prohibit the cultivation and sell of industrial hemp and related products.

In 2000, the legislature finally legalized methadone (Vermont had been one of only eight states in the U.S. with no methadone maintenance treatment for heroin addiction). Methadone maintenance treatment (MMT) is the proven most-effective method of treating heroin addiction, yet methadone remains one of the most regulated, restricted, and insufficiently available medications in the U.S.

State rules governing the distribution of methadone expired in the summer of 2004, and Vermont is now governed by the looser federal guidelines. As a result, locating new methadone clinics around the state will be easier. A Burlington clinic has also begun allowing patients to take methadone treatment at home.

Vermont's Drug Policy Reform Organizations: 

• Vermont Harm Reduction Coalition