Over the past four years, marijuana legalization has come to the United States at a relatively fast pace, thanks to overwhelming support for it among young adults. But up until now, change has mostly come from the voters - sometimes in spite of lawmakers' wishes. That balance could be shifting toward legislators, at least in one state: Vermont. In the next few weeks, Vermont could become the first state legislature to legalize marijuana. At Democratic Gov. Peter Shumlin's urging, a bill to make Vermont the fifth state to legalize recreational marijuana passed the state Senate in February and is being debated in the state House. [continues 1256 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]
As the state Legislature gets set to vote on medical marijuana today, local police chiefs say it's too soon to identify the enforcement challenges they may face. Lawmakers will vote today on whether to make New Hampshire the 19th state in the nation to legalize medical marijuana. If passed, House Bill 573 would make it legal for people with serious health conditions to possess up to 2 ounces of marijuana if approved by their doctor. Medical marijuana could be obtained at one of four proposed dispensaries throughout the state, but it would remain illegal to obtain elsewhere. [continues 476 words]
The N.H. Legislature overwhelmingly passed legislation Wednesday legalizing medical marijuana. But the vote did not fall entirely along party lines among Monadnock Region lawmakers. House Bill 573 sailed through the N.H. House, 284-66. The Senate also passed the bill on a voice vote. In the region, it passed by a 27-3 vote in the House. State Rep. William Butynski, D-Hinsdale, who voted against the bill in March, switched his vote on Wednesday. "The Senate changed the bill to incorporate changes recommended by the governor," he said. "And so, I'm not sure I felt good, but I felt OK voting for it." [continues 965 words]
In recent years, 18 states have authorized the use of marijuana for medical purposes, principally for palliative care for dreadfully painful conditions, and nine more are now considering such a move. New Hampshire is in this latter group with House Bill 573, a piece of legislation that is carefully drawn and deserving of support. The bill is similar in many ways to legislation that's become law in every other New England state: It calls for registration of patients and close monitoring of cultivation, requires that qualifying patients first try other forms of relief, and sets strict rules about the financial relationships between prescribing doctors and treatment centers. The language of the bill runs close to 30 pages, and is vastly more detailed than the first such legalization in the land, in California in 1996; the law there is so spare and open-ended that the number of medical marijuana users is unknown, but is believed to exceed half a million people. [continues 341 words]
A local law enforcement chief will spend next week talking drug policy on an international stage. Rick Van Wickler is no stranger to Washington, D.C., where he's lobbied legislators before, and he once addressed the Parliament of Canada. They're experiences that will no doubt serve him well when he travels to Vienna, Austria, today to attend an international drug policy conference next week hosted by the United Nations. Van Wickler, 52, superintendent of the Cheshire County Department of Corrections, will head up a four-person team representing a group known as Law Enforcement against Prohibition, or LEAP, which he has been associated with since 2007. He became a member of LEAP's board of directors three months ago. Joining Van Wickler in Vienna are James Gierach, a Chicago drug prosecutor, Maria Lucia Karem, a retired Brazilian judge, and Annie Machon, a retired British intelligence agent. [continues 148 words]
KEENE -- While St. Patrick's Day enthusiasts participated in the "wearing of the green" in downtown Keene Thursday afternoon, a small group of activists celebrated a different type of green at Central Square. Smoking pipes and rolled blunts, activists used marijuana as a way to express "self-ownership," according to one participant. This group of nearly 20 was the first of this year to hold a rally supporting marijuana legalization, but similar demonstrations have been a fixture in Central Square since 2009. [continues 348 words]
However one stands on the continued employment of the Keene elementary school teacher who was put on leave pending his prosecution and ultimate conviction for a marijuana-related misdemeanor, the school administration is handling the financial consequences of the matter in the right way. Against its own preferences, the administration was ordered by the school board to keep 3rd grade teacher Darrel L. Beymer on the Symonds School payroll. After complaints by some parents, however, he will return to school in a different job until September, and a substitute will be paid to handle his teaching responsibilities for the remainder of the year. [continues 256 words]
In support of Darryl Beymer: A great teacher is a precious asset. I don't know Darrel Beymer personally, and I've only recently become a resident of Keene. I've read the story, and I can only say this: Please do not persecute this man for growing marijuana for his personal use. We all know that marijuana has been widely accepted for medicinal uses. In fact, it is legal in many states and the personal use of pot poses no threat to anybody. [continues 186 words]
Marijuana is safer than alcohol. Let that little bit set in, and then let's open up discussion. Note: You may want to open a web browser to check these facts for yourself if you are reluctant to take my word. Alcohol claims 35,000 lives a year. Marijuana? Mary Jane is not a killer and has never claimed a single life. Ever. In history. If that minute tidbit isn't enough to wrangle up some support, than how about this: [continues 236 words]
But Afternoon Rally Stays Trouble-Free People again lit up for marijuana legalization in Keene's Central Square Friday in a protest that's given new meaning to the word "grassroots." Drivers honked. A sign proclaimed pot safer than prison. Even the soldier statue in Central Square got into the act with a sign that read "4:20 Everyday." During the ganja-happy gathering that's recently become a daily event downtown, people congregate to smoke at 4:20 p.m., a number identified with the marijuana subculture. [continues 703 words]
I am a cancer survivor and medical marijuana activist - and a Republican. I am being featured in a 30 second ad on WMUR telling about my experience when I was fighting cancer. Doing this ad has been pretty traumatic. The last thing I wanted to do is become a poster boy for this movement, especially as a Republican. My wife is horrified, my friends are asking what the heck I am doing, and the true impact of going on TV and admitting drug use has yet to play out. [continues 629 words]
On Tuesday, February 2, state Representative Steven Lindsey of Keene was in Concord testifying at a hearing on his bill to decriminalize possession of up to an ounce of marijuana. At the same time, in Cancun, Mexico, former brigadier general Mauro Enrique Tello Quinones was taking his last breath, having been kidnapped the night before and tortured by narcotics traffickers. Just one week earlier, Tello had started a new job as the city's drug czar. The mayor of the beautiful Caribbean community explained that his city is awash in marijuana and cocaine, most of it destined for customers in the United States. [continues 328 words]
In a gun battle this week, NATO troops killed 12 Taliban fighters in southern Afghanistan -- and stopped a would-be suicide bomber. The fight got little attention because, sadly, in Afghanistan this is more or less routine. The Afghan conflict now takes more lives each month than the war in Iraq, and the incoming Obama administration plans to dispatch at least 20,000 additional troops to tackle the growing violence. Sending more troops, it's patently clear, is a waste of time, money -- and lives. In fact, sending more troops to Afghanistan will be about as effective as bailing out a boat without plugging the leak. [continues 672 words]
Secretary of Defense Robert Gates warned European leaders early this week that unless they stepped up their support for Afghanistan, they would likely face more terrorist attacks at home. His remarks, in Munich, were the most strident in a weeklong succession of warnings from Washington that Afghanistan would fall deeper into chaos unless Europe assigns more troops to the NATO force there. While the warnings and retorts flew across the Atlantic, the United Nations put out a major report that got little notice but could have a more direct effect on the security problem than troop deployments or counter-terrorism strategies. The U.N. drug-control office found that Afghanistan's opium-poppy crop, in the words of the agency's executive director, was once again "shockingly high." Neither Gates nor other officials involved in last week's public debate over Afghanistan's future ever mentioned the opium-poppy problem -- except once, in answer to a question. They seem preoccupied with putting more boots on the ground. [continues 489 words]
Eight out of 20 Keene State College athletes recently tested positive for marijuana under a pilot drug-testing program run by the National Collegiate Athletic Association at some Division III institutions. Keene State Athletic Director John Ratliff described the large number of positive tests as "alarming" and "eye-opening." Twenty student-athletes from three Keene State teams were tested as part of the pilot program - about 5 percent of the total athletes at the college. The college did not disclose which three teams were tested. [continues 477 words]
FPU Dorm Locked While Search Warrant Obtained RINDGE - The handcuffs that circled Robert Braverman's wrists made him more victim than villain in the eyes of the nearly 30 students who rallied in support Wednesday as police escorted him from his home at Franklin Pierce University. "You're the bravest one of us, Rob," supporters shouted to Braverman, one of four students displaced from their on-campus house this week after Rindge police allegedly found marijuana paraphernalia. "Stay strong. You'll be out soon," they said. [continues 1036 words]
Every summer, this community gets romantic about the Keene Swamp Bats, a fixture in a New England college-age league. The way the game is played at Alumni Field is nostalgic and pure, what with the crack of the wooden bat, the playfulness in the stands, the mid-game entertainment outside the basepaths, and so on. The sweet innocence of the game there sustains us through the rest of the year, when baseball — particularly as it's performed by major leaguers - - is everything but sweet, pure and innocent. [continues 263 words]
We were reminded last week of the story about a man who wandered around his New England community banging on a large pot. "Why are you making such a racket?" his neighbor asked. "To keep the elephants away," the man explained. "But there aren't any elephants within thousands of miles of here," the neighbor said. To which the man replied, "See? It's working!" Everyone agrees that the Tecumseh, Oklahoma, middle and high schools had no drug problem in 1998, when the school board started requiring all students involved in competitive extracurricular activities to take random drug tests. Four years later, only a handful of drug-using students have been found. So the policy has proven either very effective or ridiculously unnecessary. [continues 545 words]
JAFFREY -- A U.S. Supreme Court ruling last week gave public schools wider latitude to test some students for drugs. Granite State schools will likely proceed with caution on such tests, fearful of a high-profile ruckus similar to the one at Conant High School in Jaffrey during the mid-1990s. Conant High officials began randomly testing athletes for some drugs starting in the spring of 1996. By the end of the following school year, in the face of voter opposition, the policy had been scrapped and the Jaffrey-Rindge Cooperative School District superintendent, who had supported the testing, had submitted his resignation. [continues 1051 words]
