New Hampshire Senate Committee Rejects Marijuana Legalization Bill That Passed House

New Hampshire’s Senate Judiciary Committee recommended killing a number of drug policy reform bills at a hearing on Tuesday, including measures to legalize simple marijuana possession by adults, increase medical cannabis possession limits and allow harm reduction organizations to legally use drug testing strips to check substances for contaminants.

Members of the panel voted 3–2 along party lines to designate all three proposals inexpedient to legislate, recommending that the full Senate reject them.

The committee also took testimony on three other drug-related bills—including measures that would decriminalize possession of psilocybin, allow greenhouse cultivation by existing medical marijuana businesses and lessen penalties for state-registered patients who illegally sell their marijuana—but did not act on those proposals.

All the drug bills heard at Tuesday’s hearing have already been passed by House lawmakers. And regardless of the Judiciary Committee’s recommendations, all the measures will eventually be considered by the full Senate.

One of the more ambitious bills rejected by the panel was HB 198, from Rep. Jared Sullivan (D). It would legalize noncommercial possession and use of marijuana among adults 21 and older, permitting adults to have up to two ounces of marijuana flower, 10 grams of concentrate and up to 2,000 milligrams of THC in other cannabis products.

“My goal here is to stop arresting people,” Sullivan told the committee. “It is 2025. This is something that has been legalized in nearly half the states in the country.”

The proposal would ban public smoking and vaping of marijuana, and driving under the influence of marijuana would remain illegal.

Sullivan said the proposal was based largely on a legalization measure lawmakers nearly passed last year but without that bill’s regulated commercial system—a controversial issue that ultimately derailed the earlier effort.

“A lot of the disagreements,” the sponsor said, “are generally on how to sell it. This bill doesn’t touch that.”

Opponents, however, including law enforcement, anti-drug groups and Republicans on the Senate committee, said the legislation would send the wrong message to children and fail to ensure product safety.

Sen. Daryl Abbas (R) complained that the bill’s supporters referred to the criminalization of simple marijuana possession “an injustice.”

“All I can hear people talk about is an injustice that I personally feel could have been resolved with prior legislation,” he told colleagues, ostensibly referring to last year’s legalization bill. “This is going to be just an open policy that just allows it to be everywhere.”

“When you hear testimony about an injustice,” he repeated, “that injustice could have been resolved.”

The committee’s chair, Sen. Bill Gannon (R) said of the legalization proposal: “For me, it’s always been about our youth. It’s the wrong message to send to kids.”

Gannon, who moved to designate HB 198 as inexpedient to legislate, also claimed drivers in the state are strategically combining drugs to avoid failing drug tests.

“A lot of people know they [can] have three drinks, and then you switch over and you start using marijuana,” he said.

Another bill the committee recommended abandoning—HB 190, from Rep. Heath Howard (D)—would increase the possession limit of medical marijuana by patients and caregivers, raising it to four ounces from the current two. Existing 10-day patient purchase limits would also increase from two ounces up to four.

“We have a very small number of dispensaries across the state,” Howard told the panel, noting that people in the northern half of New Hampshire have to drive hours to pick up medicine one of the state’s 10 licensed alternative treatment centers (ATCs).

“It’s just trying to make sure that people have access to the medicine they need, decreasing the total amount of trips that they need to take to the dispensary every month and providing an opportunity for them to get the actual amount of cannabis that they use,” said Howard, himself a state-registered medical marijuana patient.

Jerry Knirk, chair of the state Therapeutic Cannabis Medical Oversight Board, said long trips to pick up medical marijuana can be “particularly troubling” for older patients, people with severe back pain and those without regular access to a vehicle.

With other prescription medications, Knirk pointed out, Granite Staters are able to fill multiple months’ worth of refills in advance in order to limit trips from a more rural location to the nearest pharmacy.

Gannon, for his part, said he felt the whole regulatory system around weight limits was “broken” because it fails to account for potency and the total amount of THC in the product.

GOP members voted to designate HB 190 as inexpedient to legislate over the protestations of the two Democrats on the panel.

“Why can’t we just make it easy for people to get what is a legal product here in the state?” Sen. Debra Altschiller (D) asked.

Another bill the committee voted to deem inexpedient to legislate was HB 226, from Rep. Jodi Newell (D). That measure would not affect state law around drugs themselves but would instead specify that certain drug testing equipment—strips that screen for the presence of individual substances—would not be considered illegal paraphernalia when used by authorized organizations for harm reduction purposes.

The change would allow groups to legally test drugs for contaminants such as fentanyl and other especially harmful substances, supporters said, in order, for example, to better understand dangerous additives circulating in the drug supply.

A law enforcement representative was critical of the proposal, however, noting that the change wouldn’t necessarily lead more people into drug treatment or recovery and could create confusion around the legal transportation of drug testing strips to harm reduction organizations themselves—an issue the legislation doesn’t cover.

Abbas also claimed that the change would have unintended consequences, for example allowing drug dealers to use drug-testing strips to better determine how much to dilute illegal products. He said the bill “also allows someone who’s illegally dealing drugs to know if they want to cut their product and make it, you know, less potent but expand what they have.”

“This helps facilitate that,” he said. “Right now, if you saw someone with that device, it would be a suggestion that they’re committing a criminal activity.”

Sen. Tara Reardon (D) pushed back against Abbas’s assertion, noting that drug-checking strips would only be legal for state-registered harm reduction organizations, but Abbas responded that there are simply “too many pitfalls” to the proposal.

The Judiciary Committee also took testimony but did not act on three other drug bills.

Regarding psilocybin, HB 528 from Rep. Kevin Verville (R) would decriminalize the psychedelic. Under the plan, a first psilocybin offense would be a violation, subject to a fine of $100 or less.

Second and third psilocybin offenses would be class B misdemeanors, carrying fines of up to $500 and $1,000, respectively, but with no risk of jail time. Fourth and subsequent offenses would remain classified as felonies. Sales and distribution of the substance would remain illegal.

As originally introduced, the legislation would have completely removed penalties around adults 18 and older obtaining, purchasing, transporting, possessing or using psilocybin, effectively legalizing it on a noncommercial basis. However a House committee amended the bill before unanimously advancing it last month.

Verville acknowledged that removing all penalties for simple possession—or around other psychedelic substances, such as mescaline or LSD—was “clearly a bridge too far” for state lawmakers, but he urged them to step down what’s now a felony offense around psilocybin.

“My pinch point is making somebody a felon for a first-time offense of psilocybin,” he said.

Law enforcement generally opposes HB 528.

“Psilocybin is a Schedule I drug. It’s a psychedelic,” said Bill Bright of the New Hampshire State Police. “The highs that people get from psychedelics and psilocybin are unpredictable, which we believe [make it] extremely dangerous to legalize.”

“Impaired driving will be an issue. Increased use by youth,” he said. “And who knows what else could be involved with that type of situation.”

As for the claim psilocybin is used therapeutically, he added, “this is not approved by the [Food and Drug Administration] or any other approved medical board that I’m aware of.”

Another medical marijuana bill heard but not acted upon at Tuesday’s hearing, HB 301, from Rep. Suzanne Vail (D), would allow medical marijuana operators to each establish a single additional cultivation location, including in a greenhouse. Currently all growing by ATCs must happen indoors, with greenhouse cultivation prohibited.

The state legislature passed a similar bill from Vail last year, but it was vetoed by then-Gov. Chris Sununu (R), and lawmakers failed to override the veto.

“Currently, cannabis cultivation occurs in enclosed grow houses, one for each ATC,” Vail explained at the hearing. “That relies on artificial lighting and climate control systems, which consume substantial electricity.”

A study published earlier this year found that a switch from indoor to outdoor grows would lower carbon emissions by as much as 76 percent. Separate research last year, meanwhile, concluded that marijuana grown outdoors can be 50 times less carbon-emitting than indoor-grown cannabis.

Jerry Knirk, chair of the state Therapeutic Cannabis Medical Oversight Board, also told lawmakers it’s reasonable to expect the change would bring medical marijuana costs down by allowing ATCs to produce more marijuana at a lower price.

Abbas was skeptical, however, repeatedly pressing speakers for more data analysis or economic modeling on how the change would affect patient prices.

The committee also considered a second bill from Vail, HB 380, which would adjust penalties around sales of medical cannabis to people who are not qualifying patients or caregivers.

“It eliminates the additional felony that carries a potential $300,000 fine and seven-year prison sentence for a patient who diverts their supply to someone who’s not another patient or caregiver,” the sponsor explained.

Knirk of the state Therapeutic Cannabis Medical Oversight Board said the current penalties are redundant. Even without the felony charge, a patients could still lose their state registration and face criminal charges for illegally selling marijuana.

“The point is that if you do sell cannabis and you’re a therapeutic cannabis patient, you would still lose your certification,” he said, “and you would be subject to the exact same penalties as a non-patient.”

Supporters said the restriction made more sense when New Hampshire first legalized medical marijuana and policymakers were concerned about diverting cannabis into the illicit recreational market. But today, residents can legally obtain cannabis merely by visiting a neighboring state.

“Somebody would have to have their head examined to go out and buy expensive therapeutic cannabis,” Knirk said, “and then sell it to somebody recreationally when [that person] could buy it for a whole lot less.”

A representative from the drug prohibition group Smart Approaches to Marijuana (SAM) opposed all six reform measures at Tuesday’s hearing, claiming at one point that “all of the arguments that people use to legalize usually are not based in facts, and they’re not based in the data.”

Gannon indicated the panel may return to take action on the remaining bills next week.

Earlier this month, the same Senate committee voted to recommend killing three other cannabis-related measures, including a Republican-led legalization proposal and a plan to let state-registered medical marijuana patients grow plants at home.

Members also rejected another bill that would have allowed ATCs to buy nonintoxicating hemp cannabinoid products from commercial producers and, after lab testing, use them in their own products.

All the bills will nevertheless move to the Senate floor, at which point the full body will have the option to approve them despite the committee’s recommendations. Some advocates are still hopeful the Senate will move forward on at least the hemp cannabinoids bill, HB 51, once it reaches the chamber floor.

—
Marijuana Moment is tracking hundreds of cannabis, psychedelics and drug policy bills in state legislatures and Congress this year. Patreon supporters pledging at least $25/month get access to our interactive maps, charts and hearing calendar so they don’t miss any developments.

Learn more about our marijuana bill tracker and become a supporter on Patreon to get access.
—

Days before the earlier hearing, Gov. Kelly Ayotte (R) reiterated her opposition to legalization in the Granite State.

“I’ve been very clear on this,” Ayotte told reporters. “I ran on this issue, and the people of New Hampshire know where I stand on it. I don’t support it.”

A former U.S. senator and state attorney general, Ayotte said repeatedly on the campaign trail last year that she would oppose efforts at adult-use legalization.

Despite Ayotte’s recent comments flatly opposing legalization, she left the door open to more modest cannabis reforms. She told reporters she planned review every bill that comes to her desk.

Last legislative session, New Hampshire lawmakers nearly passed a bill that would have legalized and regulated marijuana for adults—a proposal that then-Gov. Chris Sununu (R) had indicated he’d support. But infighting over how the market would be set up ultimately scuttled that measure. 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. Nearly that same share of residents (61 percent) said at the time that they also supported last session’s failed legalization bill, HB 1633.

Bill Maher Insists He ‘Wasn’t High’ When He Had Dinner With Trump At The White House, Calling It A ‘Missed Opportunity’

Image element courtesy of Kristie Gianopulos.

The post New Hampshire Senate Committee Rejects Marijuana Legalization Bill That Passed House appeared first on Marijuana Moment.