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The New Hampshire House of Representatives has approved another bill to legalize marijuana in the state\u2014except this one contains no regulations or limitations on cannabis.<\/p>\n
About a month after the House passed a comprehensive legalization, taxation and regulation measure<\/a> that\u2019s being sponsored by bipartisan leaders, members on Thursday took up the simpler legislation to remove marijuana from the state\u2019s listed of banned substances.<\/p>\n The chamber first voted, 210-160, to overrule the House Criminal Justice and Public Safety Committee, which had deemed the measure from from Kevin Verville (R) \u201cinexpedient to legislate\u201d last month. Members then approved the bill in a voice vote, sending it to the Senate.<\/p>\n Verville said ahead of the vote that, over his years in office, he\u2019s come to learn that the legislature likes \u201csimple\u201d and \u201cshort\u201d bills.<\/p>\n \u201cWhen bills get complicated and they get long and they get confused, people vote against them,\u201d he said. \u201cThis is the shortest, easiest way to affect the change that the majority of our constituents want\u2014and that is the legalization of cannabis.\u201d<\/p>\n Rep. Jodi Newell (D) recognized that lawmakers \u201chave multiple bills attempting to legalize cannabis\u201d this session.<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019ve been at this for years and still struggling to get it done,\u201d she said. \u201cThe people of New Hampshire favor legalization. So far, we have failed them.\u201d<\/p>\n The simple legalization bill would remove marijuana from the state\u2019s controlled substances list and strike multiple provisions in statute that refer to criminal penalties for cannabis-related offenses.<\/p>\n It would also add language to make it so people under 18 who possess marijuana would be subject to a substance misuse assessment. People between the ages of 18 and 21 would face a violation for simple possession, effectively decriminalizing the substance for that age group. Public consumption would also be a violation.<\/p>\n The legislation would allow people with past cannabis convictions or pending cases as of the effective date to have their records annulled.<\/p>\n State laws restricting the use of an electronic benefit transfer (EBT) cards at dispensaries, punishing negligent storage of cannabis-infused products and blocking pharmacists from dispensing marijuana would be repealed.<\/p>\n During Thursday\u2019s floor debate, Rep. Terry Roy (R) said that he would be voting against the proposal primarily because marijuana is federally illegal, and so legislators need to pursue reform \u201cvery carefully, very thoughtfully and in a way that will not draw attention to the fact that we are flouting federal law.\u201d<\/p>\n While the bill<\/a> was deemed inexpedient to legislate in committee, some members voted for that designation despite supporting legalization \u201cin principle\u201d because they prefer the separate comprehensive reform measure that the House passed, according to the majority report.<\/p>\n \u201cThese members felt that as New Hampshire is the lone state in New England that still criminalizes cannabis, there is a high likelihood that New Hampshire citizens who want to obtain and use cannabis products, probably already are,\u201d the report says. \u201cThey felt that if that is the case, by keeping it criminal we are accomplishing nothing other than exposing more citizens to potential criminal justice system involvement.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cThese members also expressed that by legalizing it, there would be a better chance that the products being used would be safer than that which is available on the black market,\u201d it continues<\/a>. \u201cThat being said, these members believe other legislation that is before other committees is the best vehicle to accomplish this.\u201d<\/p>\n Opponents of legalization argued that cannabis represented a public health and safety risk.<\/p>\n The committee minority that voted against the inexpedient to legislate designation said they believe \u201ccannabis should be legal for adult use, that its health impact is much less detrimental than that of alcohol, which is legal over the age of 21, and that the lifelong harm of criminalization far outweighs that of responsible consumption.\u201d<\/p>\n Now eyes are turned to the Senate to see what type of vehicle, if any, members ultimately decide to advance.<\/p>\n \u2014 The commercial legalization bill from Majority Leader Jason Osborne (R) and Minority Leader Matthew Wilhelm (D) would be the preference of many advocates, as it would provide regulated access, generate tax revenue and support various agencies and programs in the state.<\/p>\n While the measure passed the House, it was then sent to the Ways & Means Committee, where it must advance and then go back to the floor before potentially being transmitted to the Senate.<\/p>\n Osborne spoke about next steps for the reform<\/a> during a committee hearing on Monday and described the types of compromises that have gone into the proposal throughout its legislative journey.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m sure you know that the House routinely passes some kind of bill like this every year and the other body routinely shuts it down,\u201d the majority leader said. \u201cWe\u2019d like to get this done all at once, once and for all.\u201d<\/p>\n An executive session for a committee vote was scheduled for Wednesday, but the chairman said on Monday that members would first hold a work session to get feedback from state agencies. That\u2019s now been scheduled for next week.<\/p>\n To increase the bill\u2019s chances of passage in the Senate, sponsors deliberately excluded annulment and home cultivation provisions. But a separate measure that advanced out of the House Health, Human Services and Elderly Affairs Committee last week would allow medical cannabis patients to grow their own plants.<\/p>\n That bill from Rep. Wendy Thomas (D), which was placed on the consent calendar for House floor consideration without a minority report, would let patients and designated caregivers cultivate up to three mature plants, three immature plants and 12 seedlings.<\/p>\n While there\u2019s optimism about the prospects of legalization finally moving in the Granite State this year, advocates still have work cut out for them.<\/p>\n Republicans held on to the both the House and Senate after last year\u2019s election, and the latter chamber is where marijuana reform has faced its toughest obstacles in past sessions even as the House has repeatedly approved legalization bills. The Senate\u00a0rejected two House-passed reform bills last year<\/a>, including one that would have created a non-commercial cannabis program and another providing for commerce under a state-run model.<\/p>\n In the Senate, there were some shifts that favor reform, however. For example, a Democratic senator who opposed legalization efforts was replaced by a Republican who voted in favor of ending prohibition during his time as a House member.<\/p>\n Gov. Chris Sununu (R), who was reelected last year, remains opposed to legalization\u2014but his more recent comments on the issue seem to show a softening of his position. He said during a debate last year that reform \u201ccould be inevitable,\u201d but he added that states need to \u201cbe patient about how you do it.\u201d<\/p>\n After the Senate rejected two reform bills last year, the House included legalization language as an amendment to separate criminal justice-related legislation\u2014but\u00a0that was also struck down in the opposite chamber<\/a>.<\/p>\n The non-commercial legalization measure that was defeated had previously\u00a0passed the House under Democratic control<\/a>\u00a0in 2020 but was defeated in the Senate at the committee stage.<\/p>\n Lawmakers also filed separate bills to\u00a0put marijuana legalization on the state\u2019s 2022 ballot<\/a>, but the House rejected them.<\/p>\n Treasury Secretary Says Regulators Are \u2018Looking For Solutions\u2019 To Marijuana Banking Problem As Schumer Recommits To Addressing The Issue<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n Photo courtesy of Mike Latimer.<\/em><\/p>\n The post New Hampshire House Votes To Legalize Marijuana With No Regulations Or Limitations<\/a> appeared first on Marijuana Moment<\/a>.<\/p>\n
The New Hampshire House of Representatives has approved another bill to legalize marijuana in the state\u2014except this one contains no regulations or limitations on cannabis. About a month after the House passed a comprehensive legalization, taxation and regulation measure that\u2019s being sponsored by bipartisan leaders, members on Thursday took upContinue Reading<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":458,"featured_media":62746,"comment_status":"false","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[18,81,126],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/62745"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/458"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=62745"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/62745\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":62747,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/62745\/revisions\/62747"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/62746"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=62745"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=62745"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=62745"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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\nRead More: New Hampshire House Votes To Legalize Marijuana With No Regulations Or Limitations<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"