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 V.S.A. §656 the cannabis possession thresholds taken from existing law: possession of 1 ounce or less of cannabis, 5 grams or less of kashish, two mature cannabis plants or fewer, or four immature plants or fewer. That possession language was moved from 18 V.S.A. §4230(b) into the consolidated 7 V.S.A. section and the prior civil provision in 18 V.S.A. was repealed.

Tom Zornay, chief superior judge, explained the practical effect of adding a pre-judicial remedy. "Prior to the Senate's adding that language about rule 75, the way this worked is a police officer gives a youth a ticket. A ticket after 11 days means that youth loses their license for 90 days. There was no hearing, no remedy," he said, describing why the Senate added notice language and the Rule 75 review option to the notice of suspension. Under the amendment the commissioner of motor vehicles is the named official who imposes the automatic suspension, and the notice given to the youth must inform them of the option to seek review under Rule 75 of the Vermont Rules of Civil Procedure.

State Court Administrator Chan Khorsen said the court administrator will update forms and can meet the bill's timetable: "We have a Notice of Violation form already ... we will be creating that form, a new Notice of Suspension form," and confirmed forms can be modified for the bill's effective date of July 1, 2025. He also noted the Judicial Bureau and court offices can supply data points for the annual report the Attorney General must produce beginning Oct. 1, 2026.

Program staff and advocates said moving cannabis possession into YSAS will speed youth access to services. Lisa Pepe, youth restorative services coordinator at the Burlington Community Justice Center, testified that referrals through YSAS often permit an assessment and required counseling within weeks, while court diversion referrals can take many months. "I feel that opening the eligibility age of cannabis referrals to the YSAS program would assist in streamlining the process for all youth so we can take immediate steps," she said, describing a case that closed in roughly two months through YSAS versus another that took eight months in diversion.

The Defender General's Office and court diversion staff expressed support for consolidation and the Rule 75 review option. Marshall Paul of the Defender General's Office said the changes "help to just sort of consolidate all that and put all of it into the place where it belongs, which is in the YSAS program." He and others noted the Rule 75 mechanism is a workable stopgap; if Rule 75 is used frequently a tailored administrative procedure could be developed later.

Prosecutorsrepresented by Kim McManus of the Department of State's Attorneys said the office was neutral in the Senate when cannabis was added, and emphasized that the amendment does not prevent criminal or delinquency charges when other drugs or additional aggravating circumstances are present. "If other regulated drugs are involved ... this does not prevent the state from bringing delinquency charges," McManus said.

The bill also includes several procedural and reporting changes: updated cross references and definitions to mirror Title 23 motor-vehicle terms (for example, clarifying "commissioner of motor vehicles" as the official imposing an automatic suspension), instructions that notices specify the effective suspension date (the suspension typically takes effect on the 11th day after issuance), and a data-collection requirement to support an annual outcome report to the Attorney General beginning Oct. 1, 2026.

During committee business the Judiciary Committee voted to concur with the Senate amendment to H.105. The motion to concur passed on the record with a tally recorded as 9-0-2. The committee did not adopt a separate new suspension hearing process modeled on the adult 23 V.S.A. civil-suspension statute; witnesses and several members said that larger reorganization of the statute would be better considered in a later session when there is more time to redesign hearing timelines and form language.

Ending note: Committee members and witnesses who testified said they viewed the changes as incremental and operationally helpful but recommended follow-up data collection and review. Several witnesses urged the committee to monitor how often Rule 75 is used to challenge juvenile automatic suspensions; if use becomes frequent, judicial and legislative staff said they would consider proposing a statutory hearing process modeled on the adult civil-suspension procedure.