The New Hampshire House held this week a hearing for one of three competing bills to legalize the use of marijuana by adults in the State.
House Commerce and Consumer Affairs Committee reviewed HB 186 on Thursday. It was introduced by Rep. Jared Sullivan. The bill allows adults aged 21 and over to possess two ounces or marijuana flower and ten grams of concentrate. They can also grow up six cannabis plants for their personal use.
The state would license a cannabis commercial market that allows consumers to purchase lab-tested, labeled products at storefronts regulated by the government.
The second of the two bills that Sullivan introduced in this legislative session is HB 198, which would legalize personal possession and home cultivation but not sales. HB 198 legalizes home cultivation but does not permit legal sale.
He told the committee that it was “ridiculous” to continue arresting people for cannabis possession in New Hampshire. “I think this needs to end.”
The measure considered during Thursday’s public hearing was largely based on one that the House Democrats nearly passed in last session, but were ultimately unable to do so because of concerns raised by some House Democrats about its state-run franchising model.
Sullivan said that one of the biggest differences is the fact that the bill would impose a lower tax rate using the room and meal tax instead of creating a tax specific to the industry. The bill also creates an independent cannabis council to oversee and promulgate new rules, whereas the last year’s legislation put New Hampshire Liquor Commission’s in charge.
The bill is intended to regulate and legalize at a certain level. However, he explained to colleagues that it would require a great deal of regulation to go into detail. This bill was not able to do this. The commission that is going to do this will be.
HB 186 was not acted upon by the committee after hearing public comments. Rep. John Hunt, the chair of the committee, announced that the measure would be sent to the liquor subcommittee.
Rep. Merryl Gibbs of the Democratic Party, who was a member on the committee, complimented this revised proposal.
She said that “I believe this bill is an upgrade from the previous bill of the last session, both in terms of the creation a Cannabis Commission and the taxation on cannabis based on rooms and meals.”
Heath Howard (D), co-sponsor and member of Congress, also spoke for the bill.
He said: “We have seen huge declines in revenue, and we are able to help climb out of this hole without adding new taxes on our people.” The tax gives the people greater freedom.”
Howard stated that he thinks it’s not just important for adults to be able to possess marijuana legally, but also to have a means to obtain products in a legal manner.
Joe Hannon (former Republican Rep.) and a physician who was on the state’s opioid task force also spoke in support of this bill. In his remarks, he noted that adults drive to neighboring state to buy legal marijuana and then bring it across the border into New Hampshire.
New Hampshire Association of Chiefs of Police, the only organization that spoke against the proposal of legalizing marijuana at Thursday’s hearing.
Last week lawmakers also heard from witnesses on two simpler plans for legalizing cannabis, along with a few other bills.
“Most people have accepted the use of cannabis for adults who are responsible, but in New Hampshire it is still illegal,” Sullivan stated in relation to his HB 198 bill. Sullivan said lawmakers had repeatedly hit a “stumbling stone” in regulating a commercial marijuana industry.
The goal is to “legalize” the substance and permit reasonable quantities to be possessed, said the legislator, who added that after the legislation becomes law the legislature may revisit the topic to determine how it will regulate any retail sales.
He pointed out that Vermont did the same. “They legalized it and came back a few more years with a regulatory structure.”
A Republican-sponsored alternative—HB 75, from Rep. Kevin Verville—also calls for a simple approach to legalization. This would reduce penalties associated with marijuana use and possession, but it would not set up a licensed market for the drug or any other regulatory system.
After the election in November, advocates’ hopes for full legalization have fallen dramatically. The state’s new governor, Kelly Ayotte (R)—a former U.S. senator and state attorney general—said repeatedly on the campaign trail that she would oppose efforts at adult-use legalization if elected.
Rep. Jason Osborne, the House majority leader who was a former sponsor of legislation legalizing cannabis, stated earlier in the month that it may be many years before New Hampshire makes another attempt at legalizing and regulating the plant.
Osborne told a local ABC affiliate that “we had an opportunity, with the former governor, to put this issue behind us and, frankly, it was blown.” “I don’t see us revisiting that issue for at least another decade.”
In a second email sent to MEDCAN24 the legislator clarified that, while lawmakers may not revisit cannabis legalization for “a decade”, it will be unlikely anytime soon.
“‘Decade’ was just what came out of my mouth in the moment,” Osborne said. What I meant was that the governor will continue to be in office and we won’t see marijuana taken more seriously.
Last session, New Hampshire legislators were close to passing legislation that would have legalized marijuana and regulated it for adults. The Republican-sponsored measure—one that Sununu said he’d support—had bipartisan support in both legislative chambers, but House Democrats narrowly voted to table it at the last minute, taking issue with the proposal’s state-controlled franchise model, which would have given the state unprecedented sway over retail stores and consumer prices.
A poll from last June found that almost two thirds (65 percent) of New Hampshire residents supported legalizing marijuana, while nearly as many (61 percent) said they supported the failed legalization bill, HB 1633.
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Side Pocket Images. Image courtesy Chris Wallis.