An act relating to possessing regulated drugs and establishing the Drug Use Health and Safety Advisory Board

H.856 establishes Vermont's Drug Use Health and Safety Advisory Board to determine "benchmark personal use supply" amounts for regulated drugs, aiming to reduce criminal penalties for small-scale possession. The bill lowers penalties for low-level drug possession: reducing misdemeanor charges to a maximum $500 fine or six months in jail, and reclassifying some felony-level offenses as misdemeanors. The Advisory Board, composed of 13 members including people with lived drug use experience and harm reduction experts, must recommend these benchmarks by January 2027. These changes directly affect individuals possessing small, personal-use amounts of drugs like cocaine or LSD under specified thresholds.