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New Hampshire House lawmakers have taken up a bipartisan bill that seeks to put a constitutional amendment on the state ballot that would let voters decide if they want to legalize \u201ca modest amount\u201d of marijuana for adults 21 and older<\/a>.<\/p>\n As lawmakers in both chambers consider a variety of cannabis reform proposals for the 2026 session, the House Criminal Justice and Public Safety Committee on Wednesday took up legislation from Rep. Jonah Wheeler (D) that would put the issue before voters.<\/p>\n The proposal would allow adults 21 and older to \u201cpossess a modest amount of cannabis for their personal use.\u201d If enacted, the constitutional amendment would appear on the November 2026 state ballot.<\/p>\n Here\u2019s the text of what would go to before on the November ballot under CACR19:<\/strong><\/p>\n \u201cAre you in favor of amending the first part of the constitution by inserting after article 2-b a new article to read as follows:<\/p>\n [Art.] 2-c. [Adult possession of cannabis.] All adults who are 21 years of age or older shall have the right to possess a modest amount of cannabis intended for their personal consumption.\u201d<\/p>\n Testifying at the hearing, Wheeler called New Hampshire an \u201cisland of illegality\u201d surrounded by other states that have already legalized marijuana.<\/p>\n \u201cThis very simply would put on the ballot in the next November election whether or not the people of the state of New Hampshire want to legalize cannabis,\u201d he said. \u201cAnd I think it is given where they are in the polls\u2026 The very bare minimum that we could do in this legislature to put the complex issues that we seem to not be able to find a solution to, to the people.\u201d<\/p>\n Rep. Heath Howard (D), who is cosponsoring the proposal, said lawmakers \u201cneed to address a fundamental failure of leadership that has persisted within these halls for far too long.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cFor years, people of New Hampshire have been watching their neighbors across New England\u2014from Maine, Vermont, Massachusetts\u2014 [and] even Canada embrace common sense legalization,\u201d he said. \u201cWhile the government here in Concord has consistently failed to provide even a basic viable option for simple usage and possession, this legislative stalemate has ignored the clear will of our constituents, with over 70 percent of Granite Staters consistently favoring reform.\u201d<\/p>\n Rep. Jared Sullivan (D), another cosponsor of the measure<\/a>, said \u201cit\u2019s time for us to stop arresting people\u201d for cannabis.<\/p>\n \u201cI think it\u2019s pretty sad that in New Hampshire, a state that prides itself in trying to be less regulatory and less big government, we continue to arrest people for crimes that are not crimes in most states\u2014all the states around us, and many states in this country,\u201d he said. \u201cI think it\u2019s unfortunate that in this process, we ruin the lives of thousands of people and prevent them from being able to participate in all sorts of parts of society because of the criminal record that comes along with these arrests.\u201d<\/p>\n Beside Wheeler, the legislation has nine cosponsors\u2014a mix of Democrats and Republicans that includes Rep. Jared Sullivan (D), who is championing a separate legalization measure that cleared the House earlier this month<\/a>.<\/p>\n In the Senate, meanwhile, the Judiciary Committee last week took up a bill from Sen. Donovan Fenton (D) that would allow adults over the age of 21 to legally possess up to four ounces of cannabis in plant form<\/a> and 20 grams of concentrated cannabis products, as well as\u00a0other products containing no more than 2,000 milligrams of THC.<\/p>\n The Marijuana Policy Project (MPP) projects that the bill would generate an estimated $27-56 million per year in revenue once the market matures.<\/p>\n Gov. Kelly Ayotte (R) has already threatened to veto any legalization bill that reaches her desk, though the constitutional amendment proposal would not require gubernatorial action.<\/p>\n The governor said in August that her position on the reform\u00a0would not change even if the federal government moved forward with rescheduling the plant<\/a>. Since then, President Donald Trump has directed the attorney general to finalize the process of moving cannabis from Schedule I to Schedule III of the Controlled Substances Act (CSA).<\/p>\n Meanwhile, the House also approved a\u00a0bill this month from Rep. Wendy Thomas (D) that would\u00a0allow medical marijuana dispensaries (known as \u201calternative treatment centers,\u201d or ATCs, in the state) to convert their dispensary licenses to become for-profit entities<\/a>. HB 54, which passed on the consent calendar with other legislation, previously advanced unanimously out of the House Finance Committee.<\/p>\n Part of the motivation behind the legislation is the fact that medical marijuana dispensaries don\u2019t qualify for federal non-profit status. But in the state, they\u2019re considered non-profit organizations, which has resulted in disproportionately increased operating costs.<\/p>\n This month, the House Health, Human Services and Elderly Affairs Committee also took up a pair of bipartisan bills to legalize the regulated use of psilocybin for medical purposes<\/a>.<\/p>\n \u2014 Other bills filed for 2026 include two proposals to protect the gun rights of medical cannabis patients.<\/p>\n There are also a few pieces of legislation aimed at regulating hemp sales\u2014an issue that\u2019s receiving heightened attention given that Congress passed, and Trump signed, an appropriations bill that would effectively re-criminalize most consumable hemp products.<\/p>\n Meanwhile, after the House added provisions to a Senate-passed bill last year that would allow medical marijuana patients to grow cannabis at home,\u00a0those measures were stripped in conference<\/a>.<\/p>\n Photo courtesy of Philip Steffan<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n The post New Hampshire Lawmakers Take Up Bill To Let Voters Legalize \u2018A Modest Amount\u2019 Of Marijuana At The Ballot This November<\/a> appeared first on Marijuana Moment<\/a>.<\/p>\n
New Hampshire House lawmakers have taken up a bipartisan bill that seeks to put a constitutional amendment on the state ballot that would let voters decide if they want to legalize \u201ca modest amount\u201d of marijuana for adults 21 and older. As lawmakers in both chambers consider a variety ofContinue Reading<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":458,"featured_media":85262,"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\/85261"}],"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=85261"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/85261\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":85263,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/85261\/revisions\/85263"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/85262"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=85261"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=85261"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=85261"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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\nRead More: New Hampshire Lawmakers Take Up Bill To Let Voters Legalize \u2018A Modest Amount\u2019 Of Marijuana At The Ballot This November<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"