New Hampshire Committee Weighs Proposal To Legalize And Regulate Marijuana For Adults


A New Hampshire House committee this week held a listening to on one three competing proposals to legalize adult-use marijuana within the state following final 12 months’s failure by supporters to push comparable proposals previous the end line.

The House Commerce and Consumer Affairs Committee on Thursday thought-about HB 186, from Rep. Jared Sullivan (D), which might enable adults 21 and older to own as much as two ounces of marijuana flower and 10 grams of focus, in addition to develop as much as six hashish vegetation at residence for private use.

It would additionally license a business hashish market, permitting customers to purchase labeled, lab-tested merchandise from state-regulated storefronts.

The invoice is considered one of two legalization proposals Sullivan has launched for the present legislative session. The different, HB 198, would legalize private possession and residential cultivation of hashish however wouldn’t enable authorized gross sales.

“First and foremost, I think it’s ridiculous we continue to arrest people in New Hampshire for possession of cannabis,” he informed the committee, “and I think that needs to stop.”

The invoice thought-about at Thursday’s listening to relies largely on a measure that lawmakers got here near passing final session however was in the end tabled by House Democrats, a few of whom raised points with the proposal’s state-run franchise mannequin.

Among the principle variations, Sullivan defined, is that the brand new invoice would impose a decreased tax fee, utilizing the state’s room and meals tax reasonably than create a brand new industry-specific tax. It would additionally set up an impartial hashish fee to promulgate guidelines and oversee the brand new market, whereas final 12 months’s invoice would put New Hampshire’s Liquor Commission in cost.

“While it’s a bill to legalize and regulate at some level, there’s going to be a lot of rulemaking required to get into the nitty gritty that isn’t able to be done in this bill,” he informed colleagues. “And this commission will be the ones that do that.”

The committee heard public testimony however didn’t take motion on HB 186. Rep. John Hunt (R), chair of the panel, stated the measure will subsequent be referred to a liquor subcommittee.

One member of the committee, Rep. Merryl Gibbs (D), complimented the revised proposal.

“I think this bill is an improvement on the previous bill from the last session,” she stated, “both in the creation of a cannabis commission and in the way the bill bases the cannabis tax on the rooms and meals tax.”

Co-sponsor Rep. Heath Howard (D) additionally spoke in favor of the invoice.

“We’ve been seeing huge revenue declines, and this is a great way that we can help kind of climb out of that hole without introducing new tax burdens onto our public,” he stated. “It also gives people more liberties.”

Howard stated he believes it’s necessary not solely to permit adults authorized possession of marijuana but in addition present a approach to entry merchandise legally.

Also talking in favor of the invoice was former Republican Rep. Joe Hannon, a health care provider who served on a state opioid job drive. He identified that with no authorized approach to entry marijuana, adults are driving to neighboring states to buy authorized marijuana, then bringing it again throughout the border to New Hampshire.

The solely testimony in opposition to the legalization proposal at Thursday’s listening to got here from the New Hampshire Association of Chiefs of Police.

Last week, in the meantime, lawmakers heard testimony on two other, simpler legalization plans, as well as a handful of other cannabis-related bills.

“Many people in our society have grown to accept the consumption of cannabis by responsible adults, but it remains illegal in New Hampshire,” Sullivan stated of his invoice, HB 198. At the identical time, he stated, lawmakers within the state have repeatedly tripped over the “stumbling block” of the way to regulate a business hashish {industry}.

“The goal of this is simply to legalize this and allow for reasonable quantities of possession,” the lawmaker stated, including that if it turns into legislation, the legislature might later return to the problem to deal with the way to regulate potential retail gross sales.

“Vermont did the same thing,” he identified. “They actually legalized it, and a few years later, came back with a regulatory framework.”

A Republican-sponsored different—HB 75, from Rep. Kevin Verville—additionally requires a easy strategy to legalization. It would take away penalties across the use and possession of marijuana however wouldn’t set up a licensed business market or broader regulatory scheme.

As for full legalization, hope amongst advocates has fallen sharply following final November’s election. The state’s new governor, Kelly Ayotte (R)—a former U.S. senator and state lawyer basic—said repeatedly on the campaign trail that she would oppose efforts at adult-use legalization if elected.

Rep. Jason Osborne (R), the House majority chief and a previous sponsor of laws to legalize hashish, stated earlier this month that the scenario means it might be years earlier than New Hampshire has one other lifelike try and legalize and regulate the plant.

“We had an opportunity with the last governor to put that issue behind us, and frankly, we blew it,” Osborne stated in an interview with a neighborhood ABC affiliate. “So I don’t imagine us coming back to that for another decade, probably.”

In a later electronic mail to Marijuana Moment, the lawmaker clarified that it may not be “a decade” earlier than lawmakers once more take up hashish legalization, nevertheless it additionally gained’t be anytime quickly.

“‘Decade’ was just what came out of my mouth in the moment,” Osborne stated. “What I mean is that we will not see broad marijuana legalization taken seriously as long as the current governor is in office.”

New Hampshire lawmakers almost handed laws final session that may have legalized and controlled marijuana for adults. The Republican-sponsored measure—one which Sununu stated he’d help—had bipartisan help in each legislative chambers, however House Democrats narrowly voted to table it on the final minute, taking situation with the proposal’s state-controlled franchise mannequin, which might have given the state unprecedented sway over retail shops and client costs.

A ballot from final June discovered that almost two thirds (65 percent) of New Hampshire residents supported legalizing marijuana, whereas almost as many (61 %) stated they supported the failed legalization invoice, HB 1633.

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Photo courtesy of Chris Wallis // Side Pocket Images.

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