Support for Latest Marijuana Legalization Bill Not Worth The "Price" - Granite Grok

Support for Latest Marijuana Legalization Bill Not Worth The “Price”

NHLA HB1694 NAY on ITL
The NHLA Gold Standard supported HB 1694 as pro liberty. In this instance, taken as a whole, I have to disagree.

This week on GrokTALK! we spent a few minutes questioning House Bill 1694, an act to legalize and regulate Marijuana in New Hampshire. My concern had nothing to do with whether any particular quantity of marijuana should be legal, but I did have a moral objection to the bill. It felt like a deal with the regulatory devil.

From Gary Rano, whom I quoted on this week’s news read.

House Bill 1694 would legalize marijuana for those 21 years old and older and would impose not only a $15-per-ounce tax on the leaves, but also a $530-per-ounce tax on the much more potent flowers, which also can be used to cultivate plants.

Exchanging high taxation and regulation for some liberty looks (to quote Mike Rogers) like a vote buying scheme. Elizabeth Ferreira, on the NHLA Facebook page, did a nice job of articulating my own concerns.

[HB 1694] was a legalization bill with some very good points, but it would have grown government more under the guise of liberty. Another liberty member referred to it as “the Cronyjuana Tax Bill”….(and while) The NHLA works very hard and usually gets things right, I’m afraid I couldn’t agree with their recommendation this time. I would have voted for *complete* decrim. The taxation and bureaucracy aspect of the bill was, and should be, in my opinion, unacceptable if you’re trying to keep government smaller rather than larger.

I expressed a similar reservations back in late 2012, after then newly elected Democrat Gov. Maggie Hassan hinted at some tolerance (unlike her Democrat, predecessor John Lynch) for a path to legalization.

Any Democrat approved plan will include licensing, lots of regulations, fees or taxes, and some manner of bureaucracy to manage it all. But don’t think for one minute that the existing load of lick-spittle paper pushers will be adequate. Some number of new state (union) employees, complete with new salaries and pensions will be a staple with zero offsetting reductions in the fixed costs associated with the law enforcement side.  In fact, I would calculate that additional law enforcement will be requested sooner or later to deal with “enforcement issues” as the interpretation of the word “medical” (legislated or otherwise) expands to achieve new definition.

There are good things in the bill. It allows for private use and possession of small quantities of marijuana and marijuana plants without criminal penalty or fear of forfeiture. It includes the legal growing of hemp, which is a multi-use industrial product, that is restricted for no good reason whatsoever. But there is a huge price. The regulatory language is lengthy and imposing and the taxes seem oppressive if not just excessive.

Taxes, once enacted, rarely go down. The regulatory state, it’s unions, Democrat foot-soldiers, and the friendly grow-government-first media short-stroke any effort other than expansion as backwards and destructive. There is no small win with such a large loss, particularity in the growth of the regulatory state required.

So whose bright idea was this legislation? The bill has four sponsors. Rep. Joe Lachance had an A+ Liberty rating in 2015 (NHRA 93.7%), though I suspect these will take a huge hit after his grinning support for ObamaCare Medicaid expansion. The other Republican sponsor is John O’Conner with a C+ Liberty rating, NHRA – 70%. The Democrats are Geoffery Hirsch -F Liberty rating and an 11.4% NHRA score, and Mario Ratzki – C+ Liberty rating and a 13.4% NHRA score. These are all 2015 scores.

If the liberty movement had a boy band, this would not be it.

Lachance, for all his recent and fatal failings, has been a persistent advocate for medical marijuana, and a path to decriminalization, but HB 1694 jumps the shark. It is a desperate attempt, in my opinion, to advance what should be a pro-liberty position at the expense of liberty itself.

So if you are of a mind to badger (or porcupine) those who voted to kill the bill (and did), you are of course free to do so, but understand that any defense of HB 1694 is not flattering and no one who voted against it should be punished for wondering if it was too a great a price to pay for what it promised to deliver.

 

HB1694

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