The New Hampshire House of Representatives voted last week to approve a bill to legalize recreational marijuana, marking the second time the chamber has passed the legislation. Members of the House voted 239-136 on Thursday to pass the measure, House Bill 1633 (HB1633), which would legalize pot for adults and set the stage for tightly regulated cannabis sales.

Bills with financial elements must be passed twice under New Hampshire state law. The first time the marijuana legalization measure was up for a vote in February, the chamber advanced the bill by a vote of 239-14. The bill was then sent to the House Financial Committee so the panel could consider the financial elements of the proposal.

On April 2, the Financial Committee voted 19-6 to recommend passage of a revised version of the legislation. Democratic Representative Chuck Grassie wrote a statement in support of the bill.

“The legalization of cannabis will move production and sales from the underground, sometimes dangerous, illicit market to legal businesses, allowing for appropriate regulations and control,” he said at the time, the Concord Monitor reported.

Before the vote on Thursday, Republican state Representative Erica Layon, the sponsor of the measure, called on her colleagues in the House to pass the bill. She argued that many people in New Hampshire already have access to marijuana, either by growing their own, purchasing it in other states, or buying weed from the unregulated market. New Hampshire is an outlier in New England, being the only state in the region that has not yet legalized cannabis for adults.

“What this bill would change is that you could have regulated, tested products that are free of contaminants and are not mixed with other drugs,” Layon said, according to a separate report from the Concord Monitor.

Bill Permits 15 Pot Shops Statewide

If passed by the state Senate and signed into law by Republican Governor Chris Sununu, the bill would legalize marijuana for adults aged 21 and older, who would be permitted to possess up to four ounces of weed. The measure also legalizes the commercial production and sale of cannabis products under a tightly regulated model overseen by the New Hampshire Liquor Commission. The bill only allows for 15 retail cannabis dispensaries to operate statewide to serve a population of nearly 1.4 million people.

Opponents of the bill argued that marijuana legalization would harm young people, pose a safety risk on the state’s roadways and would not reduce unregulated sales of weed. Supporters of the arguments countered that such outcomes have not been documented in states that have legalized recreational weed.

Republican Representative Kenneth Weyler encouraged his fellow representatives to vote “no” on the bill, saying that other states that have legalized cannabis have had public safety issues after the reforms were enacted.

“We now have the examples of many other states that have legalized this substance over the past few years,” he said. “Have any of them bragged about how much money they made? Have any of them seen a reduction in petty crime?”

Bill Now Heads to State Senate

Following its passage in the House last week, HB 1633 now heads to the New Hampshire Senate for consideration by a legislative committee and the full body. If the Senate passes the bill, it will head to Sununu for consideration. 

After years of opposition to legalizing recreational weed, the governor said last year he would sign a bill that does so in a tightly controlled manner. However, the legislation does not fulfill the conditions he set at the time, including a proposal that would only allow cannabis sales at state-run dispensaries. If Sununu gets the bill, he will have the option of vetoing the legislation or signing it into law.

Cannabis policy advocates hailed the House’s passage of the recreational marijuana bill by lawmakers in the Granite State. Jen Flanagan, director of regulatory policy for cannabis and psychedelics law firm Vicente LLP, said she gives “the New Hampshire House of Representatives a lot of credit for their hard work in passing the adult-use cannabis legalization legislation.”

“As with every other state that has legalized cannabis, New Hampshire must work out the details that work for their state and I hope the Senate takes this opportunity to see that safe and legal products are best for the public health and public safety of communities,” Flanagan wrote in an email to High Times.

The New Hampshire House of Representatives last week approved a bill to legalize recreational marijuana as lawmakers revisit the issue of cannabis policy reform for the Granite State. The measure, House Bill 1633 (HB1633), was passed by the full House on Thursday by a vote of 239-14, although legislators who back cannabis legalization efforts offered only lukewarm support for the legislation.

Before being approved in the House, the bill was amended by the House Commerce and Consumer Affairs Committee. Republican state Representative Erica Layon, the sponsor of the bill, said that changes to the measure were made to satisfy the concerns of some lawmakers in the Senate.

“It’s a compromise,” Republican state Representative Erica Layon said in a statement to local media. “Every single person in a seat here can find a reason to vote against the amendment and vote against the bill. But the question is, do we have a net benefit to the state by passing this? I believe we do.”

If passed, the legislation would legalize cannabis for adults aged 21 and older, who would be permitted to possess up to four ounces of marijuana. The measure also legalizes the commercial production and sale of cannabis products under a tightly regulated model. The bill only allows for 15 retail cannabis dispensaries to operate in the state, which would be overseen by the New Hampshire Liquor Commission. 

Bill Fails To Meet Governor’s Conditions

Although the bill represents a relatively tightly regulated model for cannabis legalization, the legislation does not meet the requirements set by Republican Governor Chris Sununu for a recreational weed bill. After years of opposition to marijuana policy reform, he said last year that would support a bill that legalized adult-use pot in a tightly controlled manner.

Among the conditions that are included in the legislation are a cap on marijuana retailers and a ban on cannabis advertising. But the bill does not include the governor’s call for state-run dispensaries and a ban on lobbying by cannabis businesses, provisions that Layon said would expose the state to legal liabilities.

The amended bill also does not satisfy some proponents of cannabis policy reform. Democratic Representative Jonah Wheeler, a lawmaker who supports broader marijuana legalization, urged his colleagues to vote against the amended measure.

“This amendment will satisfy the hunger that we all feel – many of us feel – for legalization,” said state Representative Jonah Wheeler. “But it is a bologna sandwich that will leave us satisfied, but in a few hours, we will be hungry again because there was no nutrition there.”

Democratic state Representative Heath Howard noted that HB1633 has stiffer penalties for public consumption of cannabis.

“This bill not only keeps the current misdemeanor charges for people smoking in public, but it also increases the second-violation fines,” said Democratic state Representative Heath Howard.

Despite the tight regulations, some conservative lawmakers believe that the legalization bill advanced by the New Hampshire House goes too far.

“This bill does not reach the level of guardrails that we were looking for,” said Republican state Representative Tim Cahill.

But proponents of the legislation say they have attempted to build consensus among groups that have previously opposed efforts to legalize marijuana in New Hampshire.

“What we have tried to do this time is include industry, government, law enforcement– basically folks that have been traditionally prohibitionists, and I think there has been more listening and more consensus-building than ever before,” Tim Egan of the New Hampshire Cannabis Trade Association said in a statement.

HB 1633 has been referred to the House Finance Committee for consideration. If the committee approves the legislation, it will head back to the floor for another vote by the full House before being sent to the New Hampshire state Senate.

A New Hampshire commission formed to create a cannabis legalization plan for the state held its final meeting this week but failed to produce any recommendations after months of deliberation. 

The 19-member commission convened this summer to consider a plan to legalize cannabis for adults under a program that would see retail sales of weed handled by state-run cannabis shops, similar to New Hampshire’s model for alcohol sales. But after months of discussions about a draft legislative proposal from Republican Senator Daryl Abbas, the commission ended its work on Monday without adopting the plan or issuing any recommendations.

Some members of the panel placed blame for the commission’s failure to reach a consensus on a proposal on Republican Governor John Sununu, who has opposed the legalization of recreational marijuana for years. Earlier this year, however, Sununu said he would consider a legalization plan that put the control of cannabis dispensaries in the hands of the state liquor commission, which would oversee shops run by franchisees selected by the state. The governor also threatened to reject any legislative plan that did not meet his specifications.

“The governor is open to discussing a franchisee-based system, but the success of such a model is in the details,” the governor’s office said in a written statement to local television news. “The governor has been clear that any system meets his outlined framework – or be met with a veto.”

Before the commission ended its work on Monday, Sununu added new conditions that he said would have to be met in order for him to approve a pot legalization plan. In addition to his previously stated requirements, the governor wanted a statewide limit of 15 cannabis retail shops and a ban on lobbying by and political contributions from the licensed cannabis industry.

Democratic Senator Becky Whitley, a member of the commission, criticized the governor for his demands, which came on the day of the panel’s final meeting.

“At the very last meeting, the last half-hour, now, all of the sudden, we’re considering things that flew in from the governor’s office last-minute?” said Whitley. “This is not how we legislate.”

Governor Faces Resistance On New Conditions

While discussing the governor’s new conditions, the commission heard testimony from Paul Morisette, a New Hampshire resident who is a partner in Maine-based East Coast Cannabis, who said that the requested cap on cannabis retailers is not enough shops for the state.

“You are not going to collect the tax you are projecting in fifteen stores,” Morrisette told the commission in testimony cited by New Hampshire Public Radio. “You are setting up the liquor commission to fail.”

But a representative from the governor’s office said that Sununu is set on the 15-store limit.

“I can tell you from the point of view of the governor’s office, we are adamant about that number,” said David Mara, Sununu’s advisor on addiction and behavioral health.

The commission also heard from Frank Knaack of the New Hampshire chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union, who told the panel’s members that the governor’s requested ban on cannabis industry lobbying and political contributions is likely illegal.

“It’s definitely something of concern, something we haven’t seen before in other aspects of New Hampshire law,” said Knaack.

After the committee wrapped up its proceedings on Monday, Whitley cited Sununu’s late demands as the cause of the commission’s inability to find consensus after months of meetings.

“Disappointed but not surprised,” Whitley wrote on X, formerly Twitter. “@GovChrisSununu yet again interferes with legalization in NH. Setting up a responsible, regulated adult-use market for cannabis will recapture $$$ currently going to our neighboring states AND it’s what Granite Staters want.”

The failure of the commission to develop a cannabis legalization plan for New Hampshire, the only state in New England that has not ended the prohibition on weed, leaves the prospect for reform in the near future unclear. But even before Monday’s meeting, Republican Senator Tim Lang noted that any proposals adopted by the commission would be subject to further discussion in the legislature.

“This isn’t the end,” said Lang. “We are just getting to the beginning.”

A New Hampshire cannabis panel, officially called the “Commission to Study With the Purpose of Proposing Legalization, State Controlled Sales of Cannabis and Cannabis Products,” held its most recent meeting after it was created this summer with the intention of presenting draft bill recommendations by Dec. 1, 2023. Legislators will discuss the recommendations next year during the 2024 legislative session.

New Hampshire Gov. Chris Sununu signed House Bill 611 to establish the commission in August, stating that it will allow experts to discuss the best course of action. “New Hampshire has an opportunity to safely regulate the sale of marijuana with a model few others can provide,” said Sununu. “By establishing a commission to study state-controlled sales, this bill will bring stakeholders from across New Hampshire together to ensure that preventing negative impacts upon kids remains our number one priority.”

Since its creation, the commission has held five meetings on Sept. 8, Sept. 18, Oct. 5, Oct. 19, Oct. 24, with the next meeting set for Nov. 3. According to N.H. Rev. Stat. § 176:16-b, the goal of the commission is “to study with the purpose of proposing legislation, state-controlled sales of cannabis and cannabis products.”

Sen. Timothy Lang kicked off the most recent meeting to clarify the commission’s goals. “We’re not here to discuss legalization, we’re here to discuss how to put a bill forward that would do legalization, but do it in the matter that is most protective of our citizens and our regulations,” said Lang. “The charge of the commission is to put the best bill forward possible if legalization were to happen in a state-controlled model.” He added that their goal is to determine what should be added to the bill to address their various concerns, and also what would make New Hampshire’s legalization “better than Colorado.”

The first half of the meeting consisted of hearing from three individuals. First up was Dr. Omar Shaw (an adult and child psychiatrist and addiction medicine specialist, as well as faculty at Boston Children’s Hospital and instructor at Harvard Medical School) stated that he doesn’t see benefits of cannabis outside of FDA-approved seizure medicine. “Once you get away from these conditions, it’s very hard to see the benefits overall compared to the potential side effects it has,” Shaw stated. When asked about what he would add to legislation to address his concerns, he suggested a minimum age of 25 for consumption because that’s when brain growth begins to slow. However, he also added that if it were up to him, he would ban alcohol and nicotine too.

Amy Turncliff was the second speaker, who explained that she has a pHD in neurobiology with postdoctoral training at Harvard Medical School, with expertise in mental health and substance abuse disorders, as well as cannabis use and policy. She advised it would be best to create a legalization bill that “would mitigate those negative impacts” of both youth and adult consumers who could be at risk of psychotic disorders. But then she added that she doesn’t think that can be mitigated. “Those of us who are public health advocates do believe that there will be a reckoning down the road…Maybe a decade or more from now, all of this is going to come tumbling out,” Turncliff said.

The third speaker was Scott Gagnon, a certified prevention specialist and anti-cannabis advocate from Maine who led the coalition against cannabis in that state in 2016. He began by explaining that progress was undone by legislators who didn’t take the impacts of cannabis seriously. “You can put forward the best legislation that’s ever happened in this country when it comes to cannabis legalization, but the work after it is going to be just as important to protect what to protect what you put in there,” Gagnon said.

The floor was open to public comment following Gagnon’s speaking time, leading with USDA licensed hemp cultivator, Jim Riddle. He brought up a recent New Hampshire farmer survey which showed that 87% were supportive of legalization “in general”, and 78% have “expressed interest” in growing cannabis. Riddle also added that a more restrictive legalization bill will lead to more issues with an illegal industry. “The more barriers to being a legal player, the more you’re favoring the illegal market,” Riddle said.

After a brief break, the panel returned to discuss the current draft of the 37-page bill, but only proceeded to review a few pages before concluding for the day.

At a previous meeting on Sept. 18, the panel considered a state-run model for legalization, according to New Hampshire Liquor Commission chairman Joseph Mollica. “The model that we are looking to put into place, that we feel would be feasible, is that the Liquor Commission would be the franchisor and the franchisee would be the retailer,” Mollica said. Essentially, the liquor commission would control all “safety aspects of selling the product.”

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