The Record
What actually happened in 2025
Proposed H.B. No. 5429 was filed, referred, heard, and never voted on. This is the published legislative and testimony record, reproduced from the General Assembly’s own files.
The bill
| Bill | Proposed H.B. No. 5429, Session Year 2025 |
| LCO number | 2394 |
| Title | An Act Concerning Caregivers, Qualifying Patients and the Palliative Use of Cannabis |
| Committee | Joint Committee on General Law |
| Text | Twelve numbered lines directing that chapter 420f be amended, with eight enumerated changes |
Sponsors
Introduced by Rep. Michael “MJ” Shannon, 117th District, and Rep. Laurie Sweet, 91st District.
Co-sponsored by Rep. Josh Elliott, 88th · Rep. Marcus Brown, 127th · Rep. Geraldo C. Reyes, 75th · Rep. Kadeem Roberts, 137th · Rep. Anne M. Hughes, 135th · Rep. Nicholas Menapace, 37th · Rep. Nick Gauthier, 38th.
All nine sponsors were Democrats. That is the reason the first ask on the For Legislators page is a Republican co-sponsor.
What the committee did
| Date | Action |
|---|---|
| January 17, 2025 | Referred to Joint Committee on General Law |
| February 3, 2025 | Reserved for subject matter public hearing |
| February 7, 2025 | Public hearing noticed for February 14 |
| February 14, 2025 | Public hearing held |
| — | No committee vote was ever taken. The bill died without a roll call. |
Every testimony filed
The General Law Committee's testimony index for the bill contains sixty-six filings. Sixty-two supported, one opposed, two marked no position and one submitted general comments. The table below lists each filer once; several filed more than once. The Department of Consumer Protection filed without marking a position, raising four substantive concerns which are answered on the Concerns page.
Reproduced as published in the Committee’s testimony index. Names, affiliations and stated positions are those the filers themselves submitted. A few people filed twice.
| Filed by | Affiliation as filed | Position |
|---|---|---|
| Joseph Accettullo | CannaWarriors / HighBazaar | Supports |
| Joseph Accettullo | OG CT | Supports |
| Anonymous | Medical cannabis advocate | Supports |
| Stephen Bellantuono | — | Supports |
| Stacey Bernstein | — | Supports |
| Jason Blakesley | — | Supports |
| Diane Boudreau | — | Supports |
| Lauren Boyett | CT CannaWarriors | Supports |
| James Brabham | — | Supports |
| Alex Brown | — | Supports |
| De-Andre Brown | Fallen Angels Music / BLM860 | Supports |
| Heather C. | CT CannaWarriors | Supports |
| Bryan Cafferelli | Commissioner, Dept. of Consumer Protection | No position marked |
| Christina Capitan | CT CannaWarriors | Supports |
| Sarah Cook | — | Supports |
| Ericka Cousineau | CannaWarriors | Supports |
| Dr Uma Dhanabalan | — | Supports |
| Erin Doolittle, MA MFT | CT CannaWarriors | Supports |
| Jeffrey Duggan, PhD | JXD Bioanalytics | Supports |
| Brian Dunphy | MMP of CT | Supports |
| Cassidy Erwin | — | Supports |
| Angerlyk Frytz | — | Supports |
| Michael Goodenough | DG AgTek LLC | General comments |
| Rebecca H. | — | Supports |
| Patrick Hannon | Patient since 2015 | Supports |
| Jacob Harvey | — | Supports |
| Laurie Joslin | — | Supports |
| Erin Gorman Kirk | Office of the Cannabis Ombudsman | Supports |
| Rachel Lang | — | Supports |
| Kevin Liang | — | Supports |
| Jaime Lier | — | Supports |
| Jayson Luther | Middlesex Hospital | No position marked |
| Duncan Markovich | Better Ways LLC | Supports |
| Olivia McGuire | — | Supports |
| Jennifer Messore | Leaf Ministries | Supports |
| Douglas Moore | — | Supports |
| Andrea Mulcahy | — | Supports |
| Neal Musk | New England Clones | Supports |
| Andreas Papanicolaou | — | Supports |
| Avery Pessa | — | Supports |
| Norman Plude | SweetTiva Farms | Supports |
| John Rhines | — | Supports |
| Cody Richard | Cannabis Connection | Supports |
| Lou Rinaldi | Data and policy analyst | Supports |
| Rafael Rosario | — | Supports |
| Audrey Rotunda | CannaWarriors / NECCA | Supports |
| Josiah Schlee | CT CannaWarriors | Supports |
| Devan Schleich | Cannabis caregiver | Supports |
| Kylah Shafer | — | Supports |
| Neenah Shafer | — | Supports |
| Rep. MJ Shannon | State Representative, 117th District | Supports |
| Dana Elise Silverman | — | Supports |
| Jennifer Simpson | Leaf Ministries | Supports |
| Doug Szydlo | — | Supports |
| Carl Tirella | Budr Cannabis | Supports |
| Carl Tirella Jr | Budr Cannabis | Supports |
| Bryan Williams | ICE DEESCH LLC | Supports |
| Nathan Williams | — | Supports |
| Gwen Winkler | — | Opposes |
| Uzma Zakir, RPh | bloomHigher | Supports |
Why this page exists
A proposal that has never been tested looks speculative. This one has been through a public hearing, and the result is on the record: the submitted testimony showed near-unanimous support among those who took a position, and no committee vote.
None of these filings is an endorsement of the 2027 draft, which was written in August 2026 and differs from the 2025 bill in substantial ways. The distinction is set out on the Supporters page.