Next year’s legislative session will be the last for Gov. Peter Shumlin, who announced in June that he won’t be seeking reelection in 2016. And some prominent lawmakers are hoping to get a marijuana legalization bill to his desk before he leaves office.

Perhaps no single person has done more to advance the legalization effort in Vermont than Shumlin. The third-term governor came out in support of a tax-and-regulate model back in 2013, and like-minded legislators devoted substantial time to the issue earlier this year.

Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont, a 2016 presidential candidate on the Democratic side, says he has smoked marijuana two times but that it “didn’t quite work” for him.

“I coughed a lot,” he said in an interview with Yahoo News’ Katie Couric. “I smoked marijuana twice — didn’t quite work for me.”

“It’s not my thing, but it is the thing of a whole lot of people,” he said. “And if you want to make the argument that maybe marijuana is less harmful to health than tobacco, I think you’d probably be making a correct argument. Some may disagree, but I think it’s probably true.”

Bernie Sanders moved to Vermont in 1968, during a mass "hippie migration" that attracted young people eager for a new life and experimenting with communal living. It's the sort of thing that evokes folk music and drugs, but Sanders wasn't exactly your stereotypical hippie.

In an interview with Yahoo News' Katie Couric, Sanders said he tried marijuana but wasn't a fan.

"Because I coughed a lot, I don't know," he said. "I smoked marijuana twice, didn't quite work for me. ... It's not my thing, but it is the thing of a whole lot of people."

A striking feature of the rollout of the state-legalized retail sales of marijuana has been the tremendous popularity of edible marijuana products. Marijuana brownies have long been a staple of cannabis coffee shops in the Netherlands, but the new products are quite different. They are skillfully produced and packaged to closely mimic popular candies and other sweets. These products can now be purchased legally in four states; retail stores are operating in Colorado and Washington State, and voters recently approved retail sales in Alaska and Oregon.

Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) said Tuesday that he supports the decriminalization of marijuana possession and the legalization of medical marijuana, and suggested that he's also open to considering further reforms when it comes to recreational marijuana.

Recently, the Attorney General’s Office was contacted by parents concerned about the legality, under state law, of their receipt and/or possession of a specific cannabis oil product used to treat children with seizure disorders and other medical conditions. The cannabis oil product at issue is made from cannabis which is high in cannabidiol (CBD) but low in tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) and referred to generically as “CBD oil.”

American Seed & Oil Company Brings DuBe Hemp Energy Shot to Three More States - Colorado, New Hampshire and Vermont

DALLAS, March 27, 2015 /PRNewswire/ -- Algae International Group, Inc. (OTC: ALGA), through its operating subsidiary American Seed & Oil Company, today announced an expansion of the previously announced  distribution agreement of the DuBe Hemp Energy Shot in Texas and Kentucky.  American Seed & Oil will now be selling the DuBe Hemp Energy Shot in Colorado,New Hampshire and Vermont.

The legislative season is in full swing across the country, and pot is hot -- especially in New England

And we’re not even talking about medical marijuana or decriminalization bills, we’re talking about outright legalization bills.

Recent comments from the founders of the ice cream brand Ben & Jerry's about legalized marijuana are sparking discussion in Vermont, a state where lawmakers in both chambers of the state legislature have introduced recreational marijuana legalization bills.

In a video interview with the Huffington Post, after a viewer suggested a flavor containing marijuana for states where it is legal, Ben & Jerry's co-founders Ben Cohen and Jerry Greenfield signaled support for the idea.

"If it were my decision, I'd be doing it," Cohen said in the Huffington Post conversation, referring to manufacturing ice cream for the edible marijuana market.

A bill introduced on Tuesday in Vermont could end the prohibition of marijuana by legalizing its possession, use and sale in the state for people aged 21 and over. It would be the first in America to do so by law rather than through the ballot box.

Under Senate Bill 950, adult residents could possess up to one ounce of marijuana and grow up to nine plants (two mature, seven immature) for personal use. Cultivation would be limited to secure indoor facilities; there would be no smoking in public and non-residents could purchase up to one-quarter of an ounce from a licensed retail shop.