CONCORD, N.H. — Gov. Chris Sununu’s current shift to help marijuana legalization has impressed a last-minute push for brand spanking new laws.
Though a number of bipartisan payments in help of legalizing leisure marijuana have cleared the House lately, Sununu opposed them and so they in the end failed within the Senate. But after the most recent defeat earlier this month, Sununu introduced that he would again legalization if lawmakers took a distinct method.
The House Commerce Committee voted Tuesday to amend an unrelated invoice as a automobile for a brand new plan the place the state regulates marijuana the identical means it controls the sale of wine and liquor, consistent with what the Republican governor and potential presidential candidate outlined.
The invoice that was defeated within the Senate would have included a 12.5% tax levied on the cultivation stage. The newest measure is just like a plan lawmakers thought of final yr that will put the New Hampshire Liquor Commission in command of regulating and promoting hashish. But not like that failed measure, it will enable the state’s medical marijuana dispensaries to promote each medical and leisure hashish.
Michael Holt, an administrator with the state’s therapeutic hashish program, stated with out that provision, the medical marijuana program can be severely threatened.
“Maintaining the ability of the (alternative treatment centers) to enter this market is critical,” stated Holt.
Former state Rep. Susan Homola spoke towards the invoice, saying lawmakers who proceed to push for it have ignored knowledge on the dangerous results of legalization. Homola, a Republican, additionally accused supporters of enjoying politics with the problem.
“Through the governor’s flip-flop on recreational marijuana in the ninth hour of the legislative session to this committee’s willingness to jam in this bill that’s already been shot down in the Senate … it’s clear that this isn’t way to legislate,” she stated.
Nearly half the states, together with the remainder of New England, enable leisure use of marijuana. Minnesota is poised to change into the twenty third state to legalize it after senators voted Saturday to ship a invoice to Democratic Gov. Tim Walz, who has pledged to signal it into legislation.
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