Sununu’s latest veto sends the Granite State back to the stone ages on marijuana front
The Old Man of the Mountain, a well-known stoner up until collapsing to the ground back in 2003, is once again rolling over in his cave. But he’s not rolling a legal joint. Nor will he be able to anytime in the foreseeable future.
It is at this point in any coverage of cannabis in New Hampshire that one must point out how the so-called Live Free or Die state remains a prohibitionist island in the heart of green New England. It’s like the North Korea of the northeast, as people still fear having to drive through it for even a few miles out of concern that some jackbooted crewcut with a jawbone the size of a car fender will pull their car over and cavity-search them for prerolls.
For actual New Hampshire residents, it’s much worse than just the decriminalized limit of up to three-quarters of an ounce, or even the potential nightmare of having some lunatic hillbilly fringe judge or prosecutor determine the chargeable weight of gummies or concentrates.
The state’s macro problem when it comes to marijuana access, of course, is that it’s nowhere close to having recreational sales. Those dreams died in June when state lawmakers killed a massively stupid proposal to license a total of 15 “state-supervised franchisees” to sell weed. Kind of like the way the flag and freedom state only allows you to buy booze at its outlets, but even dumber.
With no hope for imminent in-state adult-use access, New Hampshire advocates continue to fight for those who need cannabis most, patients, and this week they saw Sununu sign a bill that will “add generalized anxiety disorder to the list of qualifying conditions for therapeutic cannabis.” As the Eagle-Tribune reported:
The bill, which takes effect Sept. 10, will allow people with generalized anxiety disorder whose condition is certified by a medical professional to apply for a cannabis registry ID and purchase cannabis from one of the state’s nonprofit alternative treatment centers.
Supporters said it could help people with post-traumatic stress disorder, and could give others with anxiety an alternative to treatment with pharmaceutical drugs.
But in the traditional fashion of cannabis progress in New Hampshire, that step forward came with a significant step back, or at least a missed opportunity to warm the state up for legal dispensaries. From the Eagle-Tribune:
The governor vetoed House Bill 1581. The bill would have allowed the state’s alternative treatment centers to build greenhouses on their cultivation sites if approved by the Department of Health and Human Services.
Proponents said the bill would have allowed the state’s ATCs, which produce and sell marijuana products for therapeutic cannabis patients, to grow cannabis more efficiently, saving on energy costs. But in his veto message, Sununu countered that there were not enough safeguards built into the bill detailing how the greenhouses would be secured.
“The legislation provides scant detail regarding safety, security, and location requirements,” the governor wrote. “Those details are necessary to ensure appropriate controls on a regulated substance.”
His comments, like so many in the past, put the New Hampshire governor behind leaders of even much more conservative states on the cannabis tolerance continuum.
