VT S0284

Creates a 13-member Drug Use Health and Safety Advisory Board to establish benchmark personal use supply quantities for each regulated drug, with recommendations due by January 1, 2027

Reduces low-level drug possession penalties from one year imprisonment and $2,000 fine to six months imprisonment and $500 fine for cocaine, LSD, heroin, methamphetamine, hallucinogens, ecstasy, and other depressant/stimulant/narcotic drugs

Downgrades certain higher-level possession offenses from felonies to misdemeanors by reducing maximum sentences from five years to two years and fines from $25,000-$100,000 to $2,000-$5,000

Eliminates the crime of "dispensing" regulated drugs in most contexts, removing it from penalty provisions while retaining penalties for "selling"; dispensing to a person under 21 by someone at least three years older remains a five-year felony

Repeals the existing statute criminalizing dispensing cannabis to persons under 21 and raises heroin possession thresholds (e.g., felony threshold increases from 200mg to 1 gram)