03/05/2026
Below is my written testimony for today's General Law Hearings on HB 5350 and 5351...
To Chairpersons Lamar and Maroney, members of the General Law Committee, the Connecticut cannabis industry and community, and beyond -
My name is Duncan Markovich – owner and co-founder of Better Ways, a cannabis education center in Branford founded in 2019.
With regards to HB 5350 and 5351 I oppose these bills as written.
For the last several years, myself and many other advocates, business owners, farmers, entrepreneurs, parents, and cannabis patients have consistently come before this committee with the hopes of helping design an innovative and sustainable cannabis marketplace, industry, community and culture.
Instead of collaboration, we have been met with legislative responses and complicated omnibus bills that favor mega-corporations and out of state operators more concerned about profits versus the safety of the very people that may use and rely on this plant daily for medical purposes. The numbers don’t lie and while many states around us not only grow and thrive, our heavily regulated and under licensed marketplace simply is collapsing.
Below are some of my major concerns with these two bills as written.
Lottery for future licensing decisions – Lottery mechanisms are not equitable nor are they merit based. A game of chance and whether someone is backed by millions of dollars shouldn’t be the discriminant factors for issuing any kind of cannabis license. Would you create a lottery system for heart surgeons or would you make someone get certified. Why doesn’t the cannabis industry follow the same common-sense concepts in other industries like food, banking, insurance, or medicine? When I wanted to advance my career path at TD Bank as a Financial Advisor I was required to study, sit, and pass several state governed insurance and investment license tests…why in the world are these practices not being implemented before issuing cannabis licensing?
Right now, across the board the model here in CT is who do you know and how much money do you have access to and how much capital has been placed into lobbying efforts. Why are we continuing a modality that has gotten us all to the very dire circumstances we are all addressing and trying to solve for today?
Cannabis remediation – I deeply applaud this committee’s focus on transparency, safety, and trust rebuilding with requiring remediated and irradiated products to come with disclosures as well as educational signage in dispensaries about these notifications.
However, I do need to continue to ask why we allow these products on the shelves at all? Product remediation is a direct reflection of operational size. With legislation favoring larger scale, MSO designed cultivation operations, the telltale botany issues that come with the cannabis plant are not only being allowed to occur, but then placed with the band aid of remediation and in many cannabis professionals’ opinions in CT and beyond, a safeguard for sheer mediocrity and ineptitude.
Why would anyone in their right mind, especially a medical cannabis patient, want to use products that have failed testing up to two times and or support a brand or operator relying on remediation tactics to save “failed crops” versus doing what any other farmer would do which would be destroy the products and root out the issues with their SOPs.
We continue to have an environment here in Connecticut where the wrong operators not only are the only ones to participate but they are driving policy in a direction that protects their limited market and even further limited grasp that they are causing significant harm to the evolution of this industry while balancing consumer safety.
Again, we never issued licenses based on if someone was qualified to actually participate in the license they applied for, only how much money they had access to. Capital doesn’t equal one’s capability or capacity and we have already seen brands and licensees exit CT’s confounded marketplace. Even existing licensees are saying CT is failing so why are we continuing to uphold a model of limited licensing?
H**p Industry
Senator Osten hit the nail on the head earlier in the year with regards to why the Connecticut h**p industry has been gutted and more importantly why the DCP has failed to provide any accurate information as to why the very industry it was tasked with oversight is failing. What once seemed to be a new and hopeful industry to participate and innovate in, was quickly attacked and fettered by those in the adult use market thinking the h**p industry was the enemy. And now with over 80% of h**p cultivation licenses shuttered and an obvious biomass, minor cannabinoid, and CBD shortage in the dispensaries where are we to go now?
The hurdles and hoops getting jumped through to maintain a limited licensed market in this state are nauseating. Licensees, patients, business owners, the community and beyond are suffering with this never-ending grip that only placates the few.
Corporations have robbed Connecticut of its cannabis identity and in turn residents and patients spend their dollars out of state because they do not trust or believe what Connecticut has created for them.
A better balance must be struck between the h**p industry that Governor Lamont created and started in 2019 and the space the regulated cannabis market in CT operates currently. At the end of the day operators and patients are suffering and this squabbling and contention only ever puts CT further behind.
THC Potency Caps Elimination – Serious and severe medical conditions require high potency cannabis products. As someone afflicted with severe pain management issues and nerve damage, having access to higher potency products affords me the physical and mental peace I deserve and strive towards in a responsible capacity. It is an unseen battle for myself and many others in a daily struggle. I am happy to see an increase in dosage limits but I also understand the significant concerns of parents and those in the mental health industry with how higher potency THC products can impact developing minds and those already having dispositions to mental health issues like anxiety and psychosis.
As with all things education is tantamount. The responsibility lies in the consumer and patient facing environment, more often than not medical cannabis prescription providers, doctors, and on the front lines with better education and training for budtenders and all dispensary employees.
My response to this concern is offering greater access to higher CBD products, products that I myself have recommended and been successful to those afflicted with these mental health issues or simply to those interested in getting relief from the cannabis plant but want to maintain their mental faculties and not get high. More often than not patients and consumers come to me and my store frustrated that these kinds of products aren’t readily available in dispensaries.
We know that this is due to supply chain issues and sourcing restrictions placed on operators within the CT regulated market and the CT h**p industry over the last several years. Each decision to limit who gets to do what, when, or how impacts patient’s options and ultimately tax revenue generation for the state.
True Cannabis Consumption Lounge Need
I have seen firsthand the dangers of mixing alcohol and cannabis. While consumption and interaction times are different, I am cautious about the comingling of alcohol and cannabis in establishments before a true cannabis only consumption lounge is established, and no, not an adjacent location attached to an existing dispensary in efforts to boost sales for failing brands and operators.
More often than not, cannabis is preferred to be consumed in the privacy of one’s home since the stigmatization of this plant-based medicine has made cannabis users to feel isolated and ostracized from consuming in more social settings, however alcohol seems to have a societal approval on almost every corner and restaurant in this state even though it is proven that alcohol is far more dangerous and damaging on our society.
Summation
More work to be done and more listening and thoughtful consideration on all sides of the fence. We need more comprehensive conversations outside of these hearings.
Thank you for your time and consideration while reading my testimony. – Duncan Markovich
