New Hampshire is behind all of our neighbors when it comes to marijuana and cannabis laws, that’s for sure. Some say that’s for the good, some disagree. So what is holding New Hampshire back on marijuana, even for medical use?
There were three bills related to cannabis that the Governor vetoed this year: SB88, SB145, and HB364. One of them got overturned. Many thought a second would be overturned, but it didn’t come to pass.
The first, SB88, was one of only two vetoes this year to be overturned. The bill repealed the current statute requiring a patient and doctor to have a minimum 3 month relationship prior to the doctor certifying a qualifying condition for cannabis for cannabis for medicinal purposes. While ‘well intended’ like most laws, this harmed patients who otherwise need addictive opiates to treat their disease. Thank you, legislature, for repealing this statute.
The second, SB145, had mixed reviews among the pro-cannabis crowd and liberty legislators. While it may have been a short term small step in the right direction, it would have created a government enforced monopoly type structure similar to the monopoly Lou D’Allesandro’s perennial casino bill would create. This one deserved to be sustained.
But its the last that separates us from other states around us and across the country. HB364 would have allowed medical marijuana patients to grow their own medicine. The horror!
Maine, for instance, allows 6 mature plants, 12 immature plants, and unlimited seedlings. Municipalities can increase the 12 immature to 18 if they choose for recreational use.
Massachusetts, not notorious for personal liberty, allows up to 6 mature plants per adult with a maximum of 12 per household.
Vermont – 2 mature and 7 immature.
New Hampshire – zip, zero, zilch. Grow pot, go to prison. Bye bye.
So, what’s holding New Hampshire back?
One of only a handful of bills the House voted to overturn the Governor on, it’s not the House. The liberty republican legislators and Democrats came together to improve personal freedom and help New Hampshire’s patients save money, time, and stay out of jail.
It seems that a weird conflagration of Democrats and Republicans in the Senate held this back, despite legalizing marijuana being a core part of the Democrat platform. Senate President Donna Soucy (D-Manchester) and Lou D’Allesandro (D-Manchester) voted against the bill. Huh.
Though progress is being made on the GOP side with respect to cannabis, the Democrats have been for recreational legalization for quite some time. But, when it comes to the New Hampshire Senate Democrats? Not so much, I guess. They ‘killed’ the full legalization bill earlier this year, and now they voted to prosecute patients who dare grow their own medicine (outside the scope of taxation revenue sources.) . Instead, patients must travel to only one of four locations in New Hampshire to purchase their fully taxed medicinal cannabis.
***Correction: an earlier version of this post detailed that doctors prescribe cannabis. They do not. They certify conditions that qualify the patient for legal cannabis use under medical marijuana statutes.