Committee Concurred with Senate Amendments to H.105, Adding Cannabis Possession to Youth Diversion Program

The Judiciary Committee on May 27, 2025, voted to concur with the Senateproposal amendment to H.105, a bill to expand the Youth Substance Awareness Safety Program (YSAS) and to consolidate select substance possession matters into that diversion process. The Senate amendment adds possession of cannabis to the statute, repeals the separate civil cannabis provision, removes delinquency classification for cannabis possession, and creates an option to seek review of an automatic license suspension under Vermont Rule of Civil Procedure 75 before a complaint is filed in the Judicial Bureau.

Why it matters: The changes move possession of small amounts of cannabis for people under 21 into the YSAS diversion pathway used for underage alcohol offenses, changing how youth are referred and how consequences such as automatic driverlicense suspensions are handled. Supporters said the change helps get youth into education and treatment more quickly; courts and defense counsel noted the Senateamendment also creates at least one pre-judicial avenue to contest an automatic suspension.

Ben Novogradski, outside legislative counsel, summarized the Senate changes and said, "the big substantive change here, which is the addition of cannabis possession, to the the 7 VSA §656 to consolidate all the YSAS programs and the elimination of it as a delinquency." He noted most edits in the side-by-side were technical cross-reference fixes after the billreordered definitions and provisions.

The Senate amendment carries into 7…