The New Hampshire Home of Representatives handed a invoice to legalize marijuana on Wednesday.
The laws, which is being sponsored by Majority Chief Jason Osborne (R) and Minority Chief Matthew Wilhelm (D), was accepted in a 234-127 vote.
Rep. Anita Burroughs (D) stated throughout Wednesday’s ground debate that the proposal is “good laws that’s the results of the goodwill and diligent work of each political events.”
“We are able to now be part of different New England states that provide protected, regulated and a worthwhile hashish business to their residents,” she stated. The invoice “permits us to do it the affordable approach, the accountable approach, the revolutionary approach and the bipartisan approach.”
Talking in opposition to the laws, Rep. Lilli Walsh (R) argued that the invoice “doesn’t contribute to the widespread good” and “places earnings forward of public well being and security.”
“Legalization of hashish shouldn’t be a political concern. It’s a public well being and security concern,” she stated.
I solid my vote on hashish legalization from seat 4-20!
#NHPolitics pic.twitter.com/YibN5MAAmF
— Δmanda Bouldin (@BouldinAmanda) February 22, 2023
Members of the Home Commerce and Shopper Affairs Liquor Subcommittee had spent weeks working the proposal over a sequence of conferences, going forwards and backwards about quite a lot of provisions and making amendments to the unique measure.
A serious change made to the laws from its launched kind would put the state’s current Liquor Fee in command of regulating the marijuana market, relatively than create a brand new unbiased fee to take action, as was proposed within the unique model of HB 639. The physique would even be renamed the Liquor and Hashish Fee.
Rep. John Hunt (R), chairman of the Commerce and Shopper Affairs Committee, stated on the ground that his panel labored to “attempt to create a balanced invoice that can deal with the problems that we’ve got heard over time by way of the legalization of marijuana.”
He stated that the rationale behind how the invoice proposes to control the market by means of the Liquor Fee was to “take a mannequin that we’re profitable with right here in New Hampshire [for alcohol] and repeat it.”
Advocates are upset that provisions permitting residence develop and to annul prior hashish convictions have been faraway from the invoice as filed, however it was considered as a essential compromise for the laws to have an opportunity of being enacted this session.
“The advantage of this laws is to make sure the security of hashish in New Hampshire with out forcing New Hampshire residents to journey to our neighboring states and to create the chance for brand spanking new enterprise to be created in New Hampshire who pays Enterprise Revenue Tax,” a committee majority report on the measure says.
The invoice will subsequent head to the Home Methods & Means Committee, earlier than heading again to the ground after which doubtlessly going to the Senate for consideration.
Right here’s what HB 639 as amended would accomplish:
Adults 21 and older would be capable to buy, possess and reward as much as 4 ounces of hashish.
The newly renamed Liquor and Hashish Fee can be accountable for regulating the marijuana market and issuing enterprise licenses.
There wouldn’t be any statewide cap on the variety of marijuana companies that may very well be licensed.
Inside 18 months of enactment, the state Division of Well being and Human Companies (DHHS) and fee would wish to develop rules permitting current medical hashish dispensaries to use for twin licenses to begin serving grownup shoppers.
Hashish cultivators can be taxed at 15 p.c of their month-to-month gross income.
Eighty p.c of tax income would help an schooling belief fund, 10 p.c will fund substance misuse remedy packages, 5 p.c would go to localities which have a minimum of one operational retailer and 5 p.c (as much as $1 million) would help public companies like police and fireplace departments.
Localities may restrict or ban marijuana companies from working of their space.
There can be employment protections for state or native authorities employees who use marijuana off the job. Skilled and occupational licenses couldn’t be denied or withdrawn as a result of an individual makes use of hashish.
Marijuana firms may deduct enterprise bills from their taxes on the state stage.
There are not any provisions to permit residence cultivation or annul prior hashish convictions.
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A separate legalization that’s nonetheless being thought-about, HB 544, sponsored by Rep. Daniel Eaton (D), would create a system the place the leisure marijuana market would include government-run shops, with the Liquor Fee tasked with regulating and administering the “cultivation, manufacture, testing, and retail sale of hashish statewide.”
In the meantime, a number of different legalization payments have additionally been filed this session, together with barebones proposals to take away hashish from the state’s managed substances checklist and permit non-commercial residence cultivation for adults.
A restricted residence cultivation proposal targeted on medical hashish sufferers from Rep. Wendy Thomas (D) was scheduled to obtain a vote within the Home Well being, Human Companies and Aged Affairs Committee final week, however the panel delayed motion till subsequent month.
Whereas there’s optimism concerning the prospects of legalization lastly shifting within the Granite State this yr, advocates nonetheless have work reduce out for them.
Republicans held on to the each the Home and Senate after final yr’s election, and the latter chamber is the place marijuana reform has confronted its hardest obstacles in previous classes even because the Home has repeatedly accepted legalization payments. The Senate rejected two Home-passed reform payments final yr, together with one that may have created a non-commercial hashish program and one other offering for commerce below a state-run mannequin.
Within the Senate, there have been some shifts that favor reform, nonetheless. For instance, a Democratic senator who opposed legalization efforts was changed by a Republican who voted in favor of ending prohibition throughout his time as a Home member.
Gov. Chris Sununu (R), who was reelected final yr, stays against legalization—however his more moderen feedback on the problem appear to indicate a softening of his place. He stated throughout a debate final yr that reform “may very well be inevitable,” however he added that states must “be affected person about the way you do it.”
After the Senate rejected two reform payments final yr, the Home included legalization language as an modification to separate prison justice-related laws—however that was additionally struck down within the reverse chamber.
The non-commercial legalization measure that was defeated had beforehand handed the Home below Democratic management in 2020 however was defeated within the Senate on the committee stage.
Lawmakers additionally filed separate payments to put marijuana legalization on the state’s 2022 poll, however the Home rejected them.
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