Scott Gacek | Reposted to the GrokWatch News Desk
Meet Joe Lachance. Joe has a bachelor’s degree in criminal justice, two master’s degrees, is an active member of his local Congregational Church and the Republican party, and is married with two children.
Joe is a veteran of the United States Army, having served in the 25th Infantry Division from 1989 to 1992. While serving his country, Joe suffered an injury that resulted in permanent nerve damage to his back and right leg, resulting in severe chronic pain that persists to this day — one of several service-related conditions he incurred while serving.
Joe’s injuries would qualify him to receive medical marijuana in New Hampshire under a law enacted almost two years ago. But, like many other veterans, parents, and patients living in a state whose motto is “Live Free or Die,” Joe can not legally access medical marijuana in a state where he is a lifelong resident.
Even if Joe were to somehow obtain marijuana, Joe would be subject to arrest, high fines, and possible jail time, and would not even be allowed to defend himself in court using a medical necessity defense without a valid medical marijuana card.
Joe cannot get a New Hampshire medical marijuana registration card. No one can.
As a private citizen, Joe feels he has been let down by his state’s sluggish implementation of a medical marijuana law passed nearly two years ago. But Joe is more than just a private citizen: he is a state representative in New Hampshire, a Republican elected by the people of Manchester.
And Joe wants answers.
In June 2013, New Hampshire became the 19th medical marijuana state when the New Hampshire Legislature passed House Bill 573. Governor Maggie Hassan signed the bill into law on July 23, 2013, enabling the state Department of Health and Human Services to begin its rule-making process for the medical marijuana program.
New Hampshire’s medical marijuana law mandated that the Department must approve at least two medical marijuana dispensaries within the first 18 months — by the end of January 2015.
They haven’t. As of June 1, 2015, no medical marijuana is being grown in New Hampshire. No dispensaries have been authorized.
As originally written, House Bill 573 would have allowed patients to grow a small amount of marijuana until dispensaries — referred to as “alternative treatment centers” in the medical marijuana law — opened. But that language was removed from the bill at Gov. Hassan’s request based on concerns from law enforcement.
Any patient caught growing their own marijuana, even for medical use, faces felony penalties for home cultivation.
If New Hampshire patients were issued registration identification cards, they could instead obtain medical marijuana from nearby New England states that recognize other states’ medical marijuana identification cards — such as Maine and Rhode Island — but New Hampshire has yet to issue a single patient registration card.
No patients have even been allowed to apply for the program, because the application forms still do not exist.
In February 2014, the New Hampshire Attorney General advised the state health department not to issue patient registration cards “prior to the availability of a lawful source of cannabis in New Hampshire.”
It is now June 2015, and patients still can not apply for a medical marijuana card. Patients still face criminal charges for possessing marijuana, even if they do so on advice from their doctor.
Meanwhile, patients from other states who visit New Hampshire are protected from arrest if they possess a valid medical marijuana card from their home state, as long as they have a doctor’s note stating they have a condition that qualifies under New Hampshire law.
Currently, the most recent “rough timeline” from the Department of Health says that the alternative treatment centers could be open sometime in early 2016. The Department does not plan to issue registration cards to patients until about six weeks before the first dispensaries open.
Meanwhile, the department’s selection process continues to face delays while shrouded in secrecy, and patients continue to suffer without medical marijuana, or risk arrest for obtaining and possessing it illegally.
Enter Joe Lachance.
As a lawmaker, Rep. Lachance has co-sponsored a proposal to decriminalize small amounts of marijuana, has sponsored a bill to expand the medical marijuana program in New Hampshire, and supports granting home cultivation rights to patients and authorizing post-traumatic stress disorder as a qualifying condition.
As a private citizen, Joe is filing a lawsuit in Merrimack Superior Court to force the health department to fully — and finally — implement the medical marijuana program.
If the lawsuit is successful, Joe says, the application process should be opened for all qualifying New Hampshire patients. But Joe needs help, and has launched an online crowdfunding campaign to help defray the estimated $25,000 needed to fund costs and legal expenses of the lawsuit.
“While New Hampshire patients suffer, the Department of Health and Human Services is dragging its feet and making excuses,” Joe says. “No one knows the true motivations. Is someone holding it up? Or is this just a shining example of bureaucracy? To suffering patients, the difference doesn’t matter.”
“It seems like someone does not want medical marijuana to be implemented,” Joe adds. “We expect the Department will fight against obeying the law tooth and nail, including excuses and legal technicalities.”
“The goal is to get the courts to recognize that the DHHS is ignoring the law,” Joe told us via email. “And hopefully to even compel them to follow it.”
“Gov. Hassan (D) has created a Catch-22 for suffering patients,” said Lachance’s attorney, Brandon Ross. “In one hand, she’s saying the Department can’t give patients their registry cards because no patient can say which dispensary he’ll buy from. With the other hand behind its back, the Department is quietly declining to approve any of the 14 dispensaries that have applied. Even though the legislature clearly mandated that two should be approved by last January—at the very latest.”
“The Department has simply failed to do what New Hampshire law requires,” Ross added. “The only persons suffering any penalties are patients suffering from chronic, debilitating conditions.”
In addition to the lawsuit, New Hampshire residents can contact their elected state representatives and state senator to ask why the Department of Health and Human Services isn’t following the law.
Rep. Joseph LachanceNH State Representative (Hills-08)
Proudly Serving Manchester, Ward 1
House Ways and Means Committee
Published with permission form Joe Lachanc – Originally published at The Daily Chronic.net
If you would like to contribute to the GrokWatch News Desk and join New Hampshire’s local New Media citizen Journalists please email GrokWatch@granitegrok.com. Please be sure to put “GrokWatch News Desk” in the subject line of your email.
