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]
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]
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]
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]
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]
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]
Oregon and Alaska voters will decide whether to legalize marijuana this week under proposals to make them the third and fourth U.S. states to allow the drug's recreational use. The measures on the Tuesday ballots would permit those at least 21 years old to buy and possess marijuana for personal use, joining consumers in Colorado and Washington state. "Thousands of adults would no longer be punished for using a substance that is objectively less harmful than alcohol," said Mason Tvert, a spokesman for the Marijuana Policy Project, a Washington-based advocacy group. "If these measures pass, it will be two more states in which it's sold in legitimate businesses instead of the underground market." [continues 701 words]
Each year in October, the Elks honor the memory of slain DEA Special Agent Enrique S. Camerena with a Red Ribbon Campaign. Camerena was kidnapped, tortured and killed because he was successfully investigating one of the largest drug trafficking organizations in Mexico. The Elks Drug Awareness Program has launched a national campaign to ask our leaders in Washington to uphold our nation's drug laws and to remind everyone, especially our youth, of the dangers of using any illicit drug. The Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks of the United States of America has the largest all-volunteer drug awareness program in the country. [continues 96 words]
The regulation of marijuana is much in the news. Should it be legalized? Should the law allow medical marijuana? As a retired mental health and alcohol/ drug counselor I asked some colleagues for their thinking about marijuana. In every instance there was a lack of decisiveness and clarity. Marijuana is the most commonly used drug in the world, and it is the most dangerous because its use is on the rise with 12- to 18-year-olds, a time when the brain is still actively forming. [continues 201 words]
The New Hampshire House voted against legalizing marijuana 192-140 yesterday, marking a significant shift after passing the bill by eight votes in January. After that vote, the bill went to the Ways and Means Committee, which recommended killing it after studying regulation and taxing aspects of the bill. The Senate was nearly certain to block the bill, and Democratic Gov. Maggie Hassan had promised to veto any bill legalizing marijuana. Hassan signed a medical marijuana bill last year, and last month the House passed a bill to decriminalize possession of up to an ounce of marijuana. Opponents of legalization said the state should take small steps when it comes to marijuana. Hassan has already said she's unlikely to sign a decriminalization bill. [continues 436 words]
For the Monitor Re "Governors: Legalized pot buzz just smoke" (Monitor Nation & World section, Feb. 23): Colorado Gov. John Hickenlooper is correct: Tax revenue is the wrong reason for legalizing recreational marijuana. Legalize the plant for the correct reasons: While illegal, it causes underground markets, cartels, increased hard drug addiction rates, contempt for drug laws, eroded constitutional rights, loss of freedom, escalated prison populations, corrupt politicians, race discrimination, prohibition of free American farmers from growing hemp (even though communist Chinese farmers grow it), trillions of dollars in wasted taxes, deceiving citizens and the listing is growing faster than the plant itself. Just be sure to get the job done. Dillon, Colo. [end]
As House Bill 1622, permitting qualifying patients and registered caregivers to grow marijuana for therapeutic use, moves through the Legislature, I urge legislators to support this bill. Let's get help to the people of New Hampshire who need it. Gov. Maggie Hassan was misguided when she insisted on no grows by those eligible for therapeutic cannabis. I am heartened with the result of House votes on HB 492, which would tax and regulate cannabis. The enormous body of knowledge on cannabis shows this to be a much less harmful way to socialize. This natural herb has helped many alcoholics maintain their recoveries. I realize that this may ultimately be determined inexpedient to legislate, but I hope next year legislators will know more about the truth of this herb. [continues 144 words]
Re "Group: Recreational pot a 'nightmare' " (Monitor Local & State section, Jan. 31): Patrick Kennedy is out of touch with reality. He said, "I'm against legalization because I don't want to see a for-profit industry whose only motive is to get more customers." Well, Mr. Kennedy, exactly what is the liquor industry, the pharmaceutical industry, the tobacco industry or any other industry in it for? To help people? Do you think the people of New Hampshire are that stupid? [continues 210 words]
Re "Legalize pot? There's no need to rush" (Sunday Monitor editorial, Jan. 26): There is no reason to continue throwing good money after bad drug policy. If the goal of marijuana prohibition is to subsidize violent drug cartels, prohibition is a grand success. The drug war distorts supply and demand dynamics so that big money grows on little trees. If the goal is to deter use, marijuana prohibition is a catastrophic failure. The United States has almost double the rate of marijuana use as the Netherlands where marijuana is legal. [continues 89 words]
I hate to spoil anyone's buzz, but if you have ever smoked pot or been around a bunch of people who are stoned, you understand why they call it dope. Don't get me wrong: What an adult lights up in his home is his own business. It's what is going to happen on our roads and in our schools if pot is made legal - and easier to get - that concerns me. We have all had close calls while driving with jerks crossing the yellow line while yapping on their cells or texting. Add to that a half-smoked joint in the ashtray, and that is asking for trouble. [continues 66 words]
Re "Legalize Marijuana?" (Monitor Forum, Jan. 23): The first thing I read was a quote from the American Medical Association House of Delegates: "Cannabis is a dangerous drug and as such is treated as a public health concern." I am calling them out on this one. I would like them to actually prove that. And instead of repeating the same old stats about brain cells and memory loss, I would like them to tell me exactly how many lives were lost due to cannabis overdoses. [continues 111 words]
Should New Hampshire legalize marijuana for recreational use? Until now, the question has seemed like an idle one. But with a recent poll showing a majority of residents approve of the idea and with a vote this month by the New Hampshire House in favor of such a measure, the matter has seemingly gained new urgency. Our view is this: Why rush? In the past, the consequences of legalization, pro and con, were all hypothetical. Activists on both sides of the matter could predict with passion what legalization would mean for crime and incarceration rates, for public health, for children, for the economy or for state revenue, but they were really making just educated guesses. Today, with the advent of legalization in Colorado and Washington state, we have two real-life experiments from which to learn. [continues 507 words]
Re "Prison to alter mail rule" (Monitor front page, Dec. 11): The New Hampshire Department of Corrections has announced that it will begin restricting the First Amendment rights of inmates and their loved ones to communicate by banning correspondence via letters for maximum and close-custody inmates. For general population inmates, envelopes will be seized upon delivery. The reason given for this change is to prevent the introduction of contraband - specifically the drug suboxone - into the prison. Preventing drug use within a prison is certainly a noble goal. However, a peek behind the proverbial curtains reveals that this is yet another leap down the road of ineptitude when it comes to truly addressing drug abuse, the largest reason for recidivism. [continues 156 words]
Re "Poor arguments against legalizing pot" (Monitor letter, Nov. 30): Colorado legalized marijuana more than a year ago, and the sky isn't falling. Cannabis prohibition has been one of America's worst policy failures in history. Why would New Hampshire force the black market to continue regulating the God-given plant? A sane argument to cage responsible adults who choose to use cannabis doesn't exist. Dillon, Colo. [end]
Tricia Lucas's arguments against legalizing marijuana don't hold up ("A serious risk to public health," Monitor Forum, Nov. 20). Lucas says marijuana may be addictive. Can you define this? Does this mean a person who has ingested marijuana has done so once again that day, or possibly once again in their lifetime? There is no evidence that marijuana is physically addictive. She writes about the increased potency and TCH content of modern marijuana. But many varieties of marijuana are bred with the intent of decreased THC in order to provide the medical benefits of other compounds in marijuana, such as increased metabolism, increased cellular uptake of insulin and decreased seizure activity. [continues 199 words]
Re "A serious risk to public health" (Monitor Forum, Nov. 20): Tricia Lucas argues that marijuana causes addiction. Sorry, but there is no such thing as marijuana addiction, unlike alcohol, tobacco or an opiate such as morphine or heroin. Addiction is characterized by a physical dependence, complete with a set of symptoms that accompany withdrawal. Marijuana can produce a psychological dependence, not addiction. One interesting fact is that opiate withdrawal, in and of itself, won't cause death. High-dose alcoholic withdrawal, on the other hand, has a very good chance of killing the person going through it without medical intervention, as seizures and other very lethal reactions can occur. I'm glad that stuff is legal, huh? [continues 125 words]
I was quite interested in the Monitor's editorial on drugs and particularly with respect to marijuana ("The right drug war, and the wrong one," Sept. 4). It took me back to the 1980s when a representative took a look at how so many young college students were getting their lives harmed or ruined by being convicted of a felony for possessing just one joint. He was sorry to see them suffer this fate for a simple mistake of experimenting with a drug that wasn't too much more harmful than alcohol, so he introduced a bill to decriminalize less than an ounce of marijuana and make it a misdemeanor. [continues 105 words]
Re "The right drug war, and the wrong one" (Monitor editorial, Sept. 4): The cause of your problems is not the solution to your problems. Prohibition is the cause of prohibitively high drug prices and profits. Prohibition is the means of giving billions of dollars in cash and unquantifiable sums of power to the drug cartels. Prohibition is the means of applying criminal sanctions to people with psychological addictions the least effective means of helping them but the most effective at turning them into unemployable repeat felons. [continues 175 words]
Hardy Macia speaks in a whisper, gentle like the hills and lake outside the hospital window, yet cruel in the illness it represents. He sits cross-legged in bed, his mouth and nose covered by an oxygen mask, signing paperwork handed to him by a friend, who's also an attorney. His family is everywhere: in Macia's room, where bags of liquid and twisting tubes hang beside his bed, and down the hall in the waiting area, near that window framing Vermont's serenity. [continues 974 words]
Before allowing patients to use medical marijuana, the state should seek a waiver from the federal Drug Enforcement Agency, opponents told a state Senate committee yesterday. With both legislative and gubernatorial support for authorizing therapeutic use of marijuana, the law enforcement and medical communities also proposed a tightly controlled, mandatory study of patients and a board of physicians to review every doctor recommendation of the drug before a patient could start using it. As approved by the House with more than 4-1 support last month, the proposed law would allow patients with specific diseases and specific symptoms to grow a limited amount of marijuana themselves or purchase it from a licensed dispensary. [continues 535 words]
Legislation to legalize marijuana in New Hampshire met a swift end yesterday, when the House voted to kill the bill without any debate. The House, where Democrats hold a majority, voted, 239-112, to kill the bill. The vote didn't fall along party lines. Some 135 Democrats and 104 Republicans voted to kill the bill, while 61 Democrats and 51 Republicans voted in support of it. If it had become law, the legislation would have removed references to marijuana from the state's drug control laws as of Jan. 1. [continues 212 words]
To alleviate the suffering of the seriously sick and terminally ill, New Hampshire, should join the rest of the New England states and decriminalize the controlled use of marijuana for medical purposes. The New Hampshire Medical Society, the state Department of Safety, the police chiefs association and attorney general all oppose legalizing the use of medical marijuana, but the concerns they cite aren't weighty enough to tip the scales against the passage of Exeter Democratic Rep. Donna Schlachman's bill. Eighteen states have legalized the use of medical marijuana, and legislation is pending in eight more, including New Hampshire. What experience elsewhere shows is that to work as intended, and not lead to the proliferation of marijuana users, strict controls are required. Those controls should extend to patients, caregivers, marijuana dispensaries and physicians. [continues 399 words]
For some of the patients, law enforcement officials and advocates who spoke during a nearly four-hour House committee hearing yesterday on medical marijuana, it wasn't their first time. Similar bills have passed the Legislature twice in the last four years, only to fall to gubernatorial vetoes. But there was a sense yesterday at the House Health, Human Services and Elderly Affairs Committee that this could be the year New Hampshire joins the rest of New England in allowing the medicinal use of marijuana, despite the fact it remains illegal under federal law. [continues 928 words]
State lawmakers filed bills promoting a wide range of marijuana legalization this session, bills that have received widely varying reactions. At one end, a bill with broad support would allow people with certain chronic illnesses to use marijuana. At the other, a bill treats the cannabis plant like any cultivated vegetable or herb. Gov. Maggie Hassan supports allowing regulated access to medical marijuana "with controlled and limited dispensing," but does not support legalization or decriminalization, according to her spokesman, Marc Goldberg. [continues 839 words]
Drug tests for welfare is something I've been waiting for. Many job applications require you to take and pass a drug test. If someone has to pass a drug test to go to work every day to earn a living, shouldn't it be the same for someone getting assistance from the welfare system? I believe, though, that the cost needs to be covered by the program because $45 when you have nothing is a lot. As part of the application process, applicants take the test right then and there. The state then could have the samples collected and tested for a lot less, probably. Yes, it would be spending money in an already tight budget, but the overall outcome will be worth it. When reapplying each year, applicants should also be randomly tested. The point is to not keep people from getting the help they need but to make sure that help is being used for its intended purpose. Also this prepares them for the real world where drug tests are often required. Hopkinton [end]
I have no issue using my tax dollars to temporarily assist people who need immediate cash assistance. I do have an issue using my tax dollars for any welfare assistance without implementing drug testing as part of eligibility. Opponents argue that children will be further burdened. Not true. The people receiving benefits through Temporary Aid for Needy Families use the cash for Dunkin Donuts, McDonald's, cat and dog food. They purchase alcohol and cigarettes and, yes, some purchase drugs. Anyone receiving welfare assistance should be required to pass a drug test to assure taxpayers that our dollars aren't being abused. [continues 72 words]
For the Monitor Monday, January 6, 2014 In the 1980s, a simple statement from Nancy Reagan became popular among American culture: "Just say no." I believe America needs to change its view on how we handle drugs (incarceration versus rehabilitation), and one drug in particular: marijuana. This month the New Hampshire House will vote on legalizing and taxing marijuana, similar to the new system in Colorado. Why is this beneficial? Here are just a couple reasons: More violence is attributed to alcohol and prescription drug abuse in the United States than marijuana. Marijuana prohibition costs our country more than $20 billion a year. Studies have shown the U.S. can save more than $8 billion a year, while generating more than $8 billion in tax revenue, from legalizing marijuana. There is no academically accepted evidence that marijuana is a gateway drug. If legalized, people would know what they're buying and where it's coming from, reducing the risk of laced marijuana. Worried about minors? They seem get alcohol rather easily - yet that's legal. [continues 61 words]
Re "Legalize the medical use of marijuana" (Monitor editorial, May 23): While there have been studies showing that marijuana can shrink cancerous tumors, medical marijuana is essentially a palliative drug. If a doctor recommends marijuana to cancer patients undergoing chemotherapy and it helps them feel better, then it's working. In the end, medical marijuana is a quality-of-life decision best left to patients and their doctors. Drug warriors waging war on non-corporate drugs contend that organic marijuana is not an effective health intervention. Their prescribed intervention for medical marijuana patients is handcuffs, jail cells and criminal records. This heavy-handed approach suggests that drug warriors should not be dictating health-care decisions. It's long past time to let doctors decide what is right for their patients; sick patients should not be jailed for daring to seek relief from marijuana. Arlington, Va. (The writer is a policy analyst with Common Sense for Drug Policy.) [end]
Writing in The New York Times last week, Gustin Reichbach, 62, made a passionate plea to legalize the medical use of the marijuana that allows him to sleep and combat the nausea caused by chemotherapy for pancreatic cancer. Reichbach's story was similar to those heard by New Hampshire lawmakers, who will soon vote on Senate Bill 409, legislation that would make New Hampshire the 17th state to legalize medical marijuana. The difference is, Reichbach is a sitting justice on the New York state Supreme Court. [continues 588 words]
New Hampshire could be three Senate votes away from legalizing marijuana for medicinal use, but the state's law enforcement community is putting up a barrier that could prevent the effort from becoming law. Last week, the bill won a veto-proof majority in the House, but medical marijuana proponents need three more Senate votes to overcome a veto from Gov. John Lynch, whose opposition to the bill puts him in line with police and law enforcement officials. The Democratic governor has traditionally backed positions supported by the law enforcement community, opposing expanded gambling, a broadening of the right to use deadly force and the ability to carry concealed weapons without a permit. [continues 1165 words]
Members of Law Enforcement Against Prohibition, an international organization that supports the legalization of pot, will be spreading their message today at the Grappone Conference Center. Like most of the GOP primary field, Jon Huntsman, scheduled to appear at 9 a.m., will be a tough sell. The group is made up of former and current police officers and government agents. Richard Van Wickler, the superintendent of the Cheshire County Department of Corrections, will represent the group during a question-and-answer segment. [continues 165 words]
Last week I sent Ron Paul $25. I'm an Independent who wants to see the best Republican run against the best Democrat. I like President Obama. I like Paul. Now that would be the election of a lifetime. How about the feds threatening to arrest medicinal marijuana shop owners in California? It's a $1 billion-a-year business, with tax revenue $100 million. I liked the Monitor's Oct. 6 editorial on Ken Burns's Prohibition. You wrote about the parallels between Prohibition and the war on drugs. I agree with Paul: Legalize all drugs. Use the tax revenue for public schools and drug and alcohol treatment centers. Relieve the state from this burden. Don't people see there is a shortage of affordable free treatment centers? Yet no shortage of drugs. Give me $50 to $100 and two hours, and even I could round up prescription drugs, cocaine or heroin. Drugs are often easier to find than work. [continues 84 words]
If the definition of hypocrisy is saying one thing while doing another, than the state Senate showed the epitome of hypocrisy when it tabled House Bill 442, the medical marijuana bill. With a super-majority of Republicans (19 out of 24 members), the Senate should have had plenty of power to override a veto by Gov. John Lynch. The Republican Party has repeatedly stated that President Obama's health care package is unacceptable because it puts the government between the doctor and the patient. This week, the Senate chose to keep the government between the doctor and the patient, by dropping the ball on the medical bill that would allow the doctors to decide what medicine works best for their patients. [continues 76 words]
The New Hampshire House has decided to legalize marijuana for cancer patients. HB 422 allows people with certain qualifying conditions, and with their doctor's recommendation, to use marijuana as a treatment. The bill was introduced by Lancaster Rep. Evalyn Merrick, a cancer survivor, and is sponsored in the Senate by Strafford Sen. Jim Forsythe. It would establish state-licensed alternative treatment centers to provide safe access to medical marijuana. The bill includes strict rules regarding public use, impairment, and driving under the influence. [continues 76 words]
Marijuana makes for strange bedfellows. Liberal Democrats and libertarian-leaning Republicans are finding common cause in supporting a House bill that would legalize medical marijuana. "This is a bill whose message has been heard loud and clear," said bill sponsor Rep. Evalyn Merrick, a Lancaster Democrat. "I sense we'll have a good deal of support on both sides of the aisle." The Democratic-controlled Legislature passed a bill allowing medical marijuana in 2009, but Democratic Gov. John Lynch vetoed it. The House overrode the veto, but the Senate came up two votes short. [continues 1097 words]
The New Hampshire Legislature is once again trying to help patients have access to medical marijuana. It is under deliberation by the Health and Human Services and Elderly Affairs Committee, until March 10. Marijuana has been proven to safely and effectively alleviate side effects of cancer-fighting medicines. It has been proven a safe and effective treatment for many ailments, including but definitely not limited to cancer, AIDS, fibromyalgia, glaucoma, anxiety, depression, alcohol addiction, irritable bowel syndrome, multiple sclerosis and muscle spasms. It is cruel to deny any person a safe and effective means of treating an ailment - and beyond words to make them criminals to do so. It is a huge waste of our time, energy, resources and especially tax dollars to arrest, prosecute and penalize sick people. I urge you all to have a heart and contact your legislators. Tell them to vote Yes on HB 442. Wilmot [end]
Legal substance mimics marijuana Officials in Franklin are trying to ban the sale of a K2, a legal synthetic marijuana product that has popped up in gas stations and head shops across the country. The city's efforts coincide with an announcement by the Drug Enforcement Administration that the substance will be banned for a year beginning this month while the agency investigates its use. K2, along with other brands such as Spice, is a mixture of herbs and spices that is sprayed with a drug that mimics the effects of tetrahydrocannabinol, or THC, the active ingredient in marijuana, according to the DEA. While the drug in K2, JWH-018, binds to the same receptors in the brain as THC, its chemical composition is different from that of synthetic THC. [continues 374 words]
Police Steer Clear of Smoking Crowd About 50 people - one carrying an 11-day-old baby - gathered outside the State House yesterday, some smoking marijuana, to advocate the drug's legalization. It was a typical "420" event, except no one left in handcuffs. And that meant no arrest footage for YouTube with headlines like one out of a recent Nashua rally: "Police Attack Freedom Celebration." That was intentional. On Monday, Concord police Chief Robert Barry said his department would treat the rally as "business as usual." If the station received a complaint about noise or drug use while the rally participants were on city property, officers would respond, he said. [continues 608 words]
U.S. Senate candidate Kelly Ayotte recently sent a mass mailer to select New Hampshire voters declaring that "doctors and patients should be making decisions on health care, not bureaucrats." Perhaps this means she has changed her position on HB 648, the medical marijuana bill which she opposed so strenuously earlier this year when she was attorney general? The bill, which faces its final vote Oct. 28, would have faced few hurdles if Ayotte and her office had not opposed it so vociferously. [continues 151 words]
I suggest strongly that marijuana be made legal. As long as it isn't, a few people are making the big money. It should be taxed the same way that cigarettes are. And the price should be the same as cigarettes. Please understand, I am not suggesting that people should smoke. I did. I had no problem stopping - I just waited too long! Now I shall be on oxygen for the rest of my life. The rules for marijuana should be the same as for cigarettes: only allowed for people of certain ages and in certain places. The tax revenue could be used for green projects - solar power, wind power, cars that run on electricity. Think about it! Marilyn Winney Hillsboro [end]
Gov. John Lynch closed the door on the legal use of medical marijuana this month when he vetoed a bill that would have made New Hampshire the 14th state to legalize its use - but he didn't lock it. His veto message ended with regret that he couldn't sign the bill into law. The governor claims that the bill, despite monumental efforts by lawmakers to revise it to meet his concerns, still contains too many flaws. Since the law would be the toughest of any state that sanctions the use of medical marijuana, those concerns are almost certainly overblown. [continues 479 words]
Sponsor 'Hesitant To Get Too Excited' Legislators voted yesterday to legalize marijuana for some seriously ill patients, sending Gov. John Lynch a bill he said he has yet to study. If passed into law, New Hampshire would become the 14th state to allow medicinal marijuana use for severely sick patients. In a move geared to winning the governor's approval, senators and representatives passed a bill that - unlike versions passed in March and April - would not allow patients to grow marijuana at home. [continues 482 words]
Attorney General, Supporters Face Off State Attorney General Kelly Ayotte and county prosecutors have aggressively pushed back against a bill that would legalize marijuana for some seriously ill patients, sending lawmakers a letter calling marijuana an addictive drug and claiming that reclassifying marijuana as medicine could undermine efforts to keep youths from trying drugs. The bill's supporters decry the letter as "misleading" and have circulated a seven-page rebuttal of the two-page letter. The bill easily passed the House in March and the Senate last month, but its future remains in doubt. Gov. John Lynch has stopped short of vowing to veto it, saying he has "serious concerns" and calling the Senate version of the bill "unacceptable." In the House, supporters put the brakes on the bill last week, voting not to accept the Senate's amendments to the bill and instead calling for a conference committee to hammer out a final bill - with an eye toward crafting something Lynch will accept. [continues 1532 words]
