The state's medical marijuana program has been up and running for nearly eight months, and now some lawmakers are looking to expand the program in 2017.

Eleven Legislative Service Requests (LSRs) for the upcoming session -- requests submitted by legislators to have bills drafted -- relate to therapeutic cannabis.

Rep. Renny Cushing, D-Hampton, is sponsoring a measure to allow patients to cultivate therapeutic cannabis for their own use.

The idea was a sticking point in the original debate about starting a program here. Gov. Maggie Hassan and the New Hampshire Association of Chiefs of Police opposed a grow-your-own provision, so the law was passed without it.

[continues 405 words]

To the good citizens of Pittsfield: Just got back from town meeting, and this is what I tried to say.

1) Oregon, Colorado, Washington, Alaska and Washington, D.C., have allowed marijuana use. Pittsfield will not be outdone.

2) No one is going to the emergency room over marijuana in Pittsfield.

3) 223,671 Granite Staters 21 percent of adults, according to the state use marijuana. There were 870,000 arrested for marijuana in this country, and last year 60 were serving life in prison. Makes me wanna puke. This is a civil rights issue.

4) The police have the power to lock us up. The people have to the power to protest.

I'm done with town meeting. The time has come to protest. See you on April 20.

Pittsfield

[end]

CONCORD, N.H. (AP) - As New Hampshire lawmakers decide whether to allow needle exchange programs, some of the biggest debate has been over how to handle the smallest amounts of drugs.

Under current law, hypodermic needles and syringes can be dispensed only by pharmacists, and possessing a syringe containing any amount of heroin or other controlled drug is a felony. But faced with the state's growing drug crisis, the Legislature is considering a bill that would both clear the way for programs that allow drug users to swap dirty syringes for clean ones and would decriminalize residual amounts of drugs in syringes. It passed the House on Wednesday and now heads to the Senate.

[continues 206 words]

CONCORD, N.H. (AP) - Gov. Maggie Hassan tapped New Hampshire's top drug prosecutor Monday to oversee the state's response to the ongoing opioid and heroin crisis.

James Vara is a senior assistant attorney general who has led the drug prosecution unit for three years. He primarily deals with felony drug prosecutions and drug-related death cases. He is expected to take on the role of Governor's Advisor on Addiction and Behavioral Health, sometimes informally known as the 'drug czar,' in early April. He also sits on the opioid task force of the Governor's Commission on Alcohol and Drug Abuse Prevention, Treatment and Recovery.

[continues 273 words]

HOOKSETT, N.H. - Republican presidential contender Jeb Bush called drug addiction one of America's "soft underbellies" and said the fight against it should be a "national calling."

His speech at a New Hampshire forum came on the same day he published an online essay detailing his daughter's struggle with prescription-medicine abuse.

Bush, a former Florida governor, favors expanding so-called drug courts rather than sentencing first offenders to jail. He said his daughter Noelle's graduation from one such programs was as much a milestone in her life as her community college commencement.

[continues 419 words]

2016 Candidates Asked to Address Drug Abuse Crisis

MANCHESTER, N.H. - Zach Brewster had a long history of addiction and was dealing drugs after flunking out of college.

One night he injected a cocktail of cocaine and heroin and stopped breathing. He was taken by ambulance to the emergency room of the suburban hospital that employed his parents, where they were told their son might not survive the night.

When he pulled through, his parents thought the scare might make him serious about recovery.

[continues 996 words]

Anguished Voters Tell of Drug Use in Their Families

MANCHESTER, N.H. - Zach Brewster had a long history of addiction and was dealing drugs after flunking out of college.

One night he injected a cocktail of cocaine and heroin and stopped breathing. He was taken by ambulance to the emergency room of the suburban hospital that employed his parents, where they were told their son might not survive the night.

When he pulled through, his parents thought the scare might make him serious about recovery.

[continues 1133 words]

Drug overdoses have become the second most common cause of death in New Hampshire and could move into the top spot soon, Gov. Maggie Hassan told lawmakers Tuesday as they began tackling the state's substance abuse crisis.

Hassan was the first speaker to address a task force that will spend the next six weeks studying the issue and developing bills the Legislature will consider when its new session starts in January. She urged members to consider several proposals, include strengthening the state's prescription monitoring program, reducing the over-prescription of powerful pain medication, providing additional support to law enforcement, and streamlining access to substance abuse treatment and recovery services.

[continues 375 words]

We can't solve a problem without knowing its origin. To solve America's drug problem, we have to know the history of the drug war.

The drug war did not start with Richard Nixon. It wasn't a Republican idea, or a traditional idea. The drug war was launched before the First World War by utopian Progressive Democrats.

Woodrow Wilson signed the first federal drug law in 1914, the Harrison Act. It was intended as a weapon against opiate-using "Orientals." Some doctors supported it because it granted them a prescription monopoly. At first, the Harrison Act only increased the cost of opiates to users. But soon the doctors fell victim as well, as the Harrison Act was used to imprison pain doctors and even those who ran opiate-addiction treatment clinics.

[continues 616 words]

NEWTON, N.H. - When Courtney Griffin was using heroin, she lied, disappeared and stole constantly from her parents to support her $400-a-day habit. Her family paid her debts, never filed a police report and kept her addiction secret - until she was found dead last year of an overdose. At Courtney's funeral, they decided to acknowledge the reality that redefined their lives: Their bright, beautiful daughter, only 20, who played the French horn in high school and dreamed of living in Hawaii, had been kicked out of the Marines over drugs. Eventually, she overdosed at her boyfriend's grandmother's house, where she died alone.

[continues 905 words]

NEWTON, N.H. - When Courtney Griffin was using heroin, she lied, disappeared, and stole from her parents to support her $400-a-day habit. Her family paid her debts, never filed a police report and kept her addiction secret - until she was found dead last year of an overdose.

At Courtney's funeral, they decided to acknowledge the reality that redefined their lives: Their bright, beautiful daughter, just 20, who played the French horn in high school and dreamed of living in Hawaii, had been kicked out of the Marines for drugs. Eventually, she overdosed at her boyfriend's grandmother's house, where she died alone.

[continues 2542 words]

Plymouth has been chosen by the state as one of four communities to host the new medical marijuana dispensaries.

The residents of Plymouth had no input into this decision. Sanctuary ATC, the Alternative Treatment Center chosen by our state Department of Health and Human Services, approached our town government with a complete proposal for this facility. Our town government had received no prior indication that Plymouth was even being considered. The state and the ATC did their research, anticipated the many objections that would be raised, chose a specific site, and, with the help of their local attorney, slipped under the radar and into our community. It was only then that the town had the ability to hold a public hearing, which was a farce.

[continues 131 words]

KEENE, N.H. - When Hillary Rodham Clinton and Jeb Bush made their inaugural visits to New Hampshire this year as presidential candidates, the first question they were asked wasn't about their last names, the economy - or even about an e-mail server.

It was about the state's opioid epidemic.

One by one, as the candidates march through New Hampshire, they are forced to confront the state's drug crisis through sorrowful, first-hand testimonies of addiction. A recent poll showed the drug crisis ranked second as the biggest issue facing the state - ahead of health care, education, and an unresolved state budget.

[continues 929 words]

Seriously, the best reason Hamilton County Prosecutor Joe Deters can give for legalizing marijuana is that the bad guys are making all the money? ("Legal pot is going to happen, Deters says" June 12). I guess we should thank him for being honest. It's obvious this is all about the money.

Maybe Deters should check what's happening out in Colorado. According to Forbes magazine: "Using data from the federal government's Fatality Analysis Reporting System, pharmacologist Stacy Salomonsen-Sautel and her co-authors found that the proportion of fatal crashes involving "marijuana-positive drivers was 4.5 percent in the first six months of 1994, 5.9 percent in the first six months of 2009, and 10 percent at the end of 2011. The upward trend accelerated after Colorado regulators rejected restrictions on medical marijuana in July 2009, and there was no similar increase in the 34 states that at the time did not have medical marijuana laws. Meanwhile, the proportion of fatal accidents in which drivers tested positive for alcohol remained about the same."

But to Deters it seems to be all about getting his cut of the money. Prostitution is legal in Nevada. Why shouldn't the state get into that business?

Michael Schneider, Anderson Township

[end]

As the Senate takes up the latest attempt to decriminalize marijuana in New Hampshire, proponents brought in a new ally to lend a voice to their cause: the head of a national coalition of law enforcement officials advocating for drug policy reform.

"Decriminalizing marijuana possession by passing HB 618 is a necessary step in the right direction," Neill Franklin, executive director of Law Enforcement Against Prohibition, wrote in a recent letter to the Senate Judiciary Committee. "The less time that we as law enforcement spend arresting and prosecuting marijuana users, the more time we can spend keeping our streets safe from violent crime. LEAP strongly supports decriminalizing marijuana to free up limited police resources to deal with more serious crimes."

[continues 438 words]

Supply and demand is one of the most fundamental concepts of economics and it is the backbone of a market economy. Demand refers to how much (quantity) of a product or service is desired by buyers. Supply represents how much the market can offer. This basic economic concept is in full play in NH's current illegal drug epidemic. As long as the demand for illegal drugs such as heroin is high, the supply will continue to flow into our state.

[continues 664 words]

Supply and demand is one of the most fundamental concepts of economics and it is the backbone of a market economy. Demand refers to how much (quantity) of a product or service is desired by buyers. Supply represents how much the market can offer. This basic economic concept is in full play in New Hampshire's current illegal drug epidemic. As long as the demand for illegal drugs such as heroin is high, the supply will continue to flow into our state.

[continues 682 words]

State Rep. Amanda Bouldin is sponsoring HB 270, a bill that will prevent expensive, preventable, and tragic deaths from drug and alcohol overdoses.

In the heat of any emergency, people make poor decisions. But every passing second increases the risk of death. Right or wrong, someone else and their families will suffer the deadly consequences of fear and indecision. But it doesn't have to be that way. The solution is simple. And it doesn't cost the taxpayers a penny.

[continues 178 words]

As one Newton mother found out, a big part of battling addiction is finding help.

Deaths tied to heroin and opiate use are on the rise in New Hampshire, but treatment options are limited.

In 2014, at least 213 New Hampshire deaths were drug-related, according to Kim Fallon, the chief medical investigator for the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner.

A number of cases are still pending, she said, so that number could rise.

Of those 213 deaths, 53 were from the pain medication fentanyl, 33 were from heroin, 20 involved both heroin and fentanyl, 102 had fentanyl as a contributing drug and 82 had heroin as a contributing factor, Fallon said.

[continues 1501 words]

How ridiculous. I just cannot believe that anyone would consider having a marijuana dispensary in Franklin and hype it in the news media.

What kind of message does that send to young people?

I grew up in the early 1970s. Let me let you in on a little secret: Marijuana is a mind-altering drug. If there is a medical use for marijuana, let the few people in and around Franklin who would benefit go somewhere else and get it.

Have you ever known an adolescent who abuses marijuana? Have you checked the dropout rate at the high school lately? When is the last time you have heard of a drug bust on the news that involves heroin or methamphetamine where there isn't also marijuana?

[continues 64 words]