This article was written and reported by Eileen McNamara.
Officials with the state's Department of Consumer Protection are hammering out new rules that will govern how the Connecticut dispensaries are allowed to sell pot for medical purposes.
The law allowing the "palliative use of marijuana" passed in the legislature last year, but sales of the drug, which cancer patients and others use to alleviate the symptoms of their illnesses, had to await the state's action on regulations for the drug's sale.
In addition to a Monday hearing, the consumer protection department is taking written testimony through the end of this week. Instructions on how to submit testimony can be found here.
The lengthy regulatory process is intended to appease critics of the state's moves in recent years to ease pot restrictions, including the decriminalization for the possession and recreational use of small amounts of marijuana. The state legislature approved that measure in 2011.
When the medical marijuana law passed the Connecticut Senate last May, Gov. Dannel P. Malloy stressed that consumer protection would regulate the industry to prevent any problems.
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