JAMES PEPPER, chair of the Vermont Cannabis Control Board, and Olga Fitch, the board’s executive director, told the House Appropriations Committee on Jan. 7 that they are requesting roughly $630,000 in one‑time funding in the Budget Adjustment Act to restore funding for a state reference cannabis testing laboratory.

The board said the lab was authorized by Act 158 (2022) and earlier allocations were made under Act 83 (2022) and subsequent budget action, but the board learned the previously appropriated funds were inadvertently reverted to the general fund at the close of fiscal year 2024. Fitch said equipment has been purchased and is boxed and awaiting setup. "The money had inadvertently been transferred back to the general fund and not carried forward," Fitch said, and finance and management instructed the board to seek equivalent funding in this BAA.

Pepper and Fitch also reviewed market and revenue data. Fitch reported 571 active cannabis licenses as of December and said the board sees the market trending back toward pre‑closure levels after a temporary spike in applications when the board had briefly closed. On excise tax projections, the board cited a GFO projection of about $157 million in taxable sales and over $22 million in excise tax revenue for the fiscal year; the board reported $7,380,000 in excise tax collected in the first four months and fee revenue of about $1.38 million recorded in the first six months, or roughly 52% of a $2.6 million fee projection.

On medical access, Pepper described the medically endorsed business program that lets retailers with enhanced training serve medical patients. He said 22 medically endorsed locations have come online and that patients benefit from specialized staff, tax exemptions on purchases and access to products not available in adult‑use retail. "There are certain benefits that cannot be supplanted by the adult use system," Pepper said.

The board also discussed federal rescheduling news: Pepper said moving cannabis from Schedule I to Schedule III would likely provide immediate economic benefit to businesses by allowing tax deductions and encouraging research, but would not legalize interstate commerce or automatically resolve federal banking restrictions. "What moving from Schedule 1 to Schedule 3 will definitely do is be kind of a very immediate boost for cannabis businesses in the state," Pepper said.

The cannabis officials presented the lab funding request and market data to the committee; no formal committee vote on the $630,000 restoration request was recorded in the transcript. The committee recessed for a break after the presentation.