Live free or high: New Hampshire becomes 19th state to allow medical marijuana

[Keith and stuff]

Live free or high: New Hampshire becomes 19th state to allow medical marijuana
By David Knowles / NEW YORK DAILY NEWS
Tuesday, July 23, 2013, 5:37 PM
http://www.nydailynews.com/news/national/new-hampshire-legalizes-medical-marijuana-article-1.1406982

1st let me say. This bill is not very good. There was a pretty decent bill written. However, Democratic Governor Maggie Hassan threaten to veto it if it wasn't made worse. The main thing she had the Senate do was remove the ability for patients to grow their own medicine. That said, I'm sure the law will eventually be greatly improved. At least she finally signed the bill! So I guess this is some progress.

Now, medical marijuana has been legalized in 19 states, including all 6 New England states.

https://fbcdn-sphotos-b-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-prn2/1069169_583429608366956_2106924266_n.jpg


New England is going green.

New Hampshire Gov. Maggie Hassan signed a new medical marijuana bill into law on Tuesday making her state the 19th in the nation, and the last remaining one in New England, to permit doctors to prescribe pot to treat a host of illnesses.

‘‘Allowing doctors to provide relief to patients through the use of appropriately regulated and dispensed medical marijuana is the compassionate and right policy for the state of New Hampshire, and this legislation ensures that we approach this policy in the right way with measures to prevent abuse,’’ Hassan said in a statement.


"This legislation is long overdue and comes as a relief to the many seriously ill patients throughout New Hampshire who will benefit from safe access to medical marijuana," Matt Simon, a New Hampshire-based legislative analyst for the Marijuana Policy Project, said in a statement. "Those suffering from debilitating conditions like cancer and multiple sclerosis deserve legal, safe, and reliable access to medical marijuana."

Hassan successfully removed a provision that was in the initial bill that would have allowed patients to grow their own marijuana at home.

"The vast majority of Americans recognize the medical benefits of marijuana and believe people with serious illnesses should have safe and legal access to it," Simon said. "We applaud our elected officials for enacting a law to protect patients, and we hope legislators in other states will follow suit."

Pennsylvania, New York, Illinois, Ohio and Minnesota are all considering similar legislation to legalize medical marijuana.

[GregSarnowski]

Any chance of a decrim bill passing there anytime soon?

[Keith and stuff]

Any chance of a decrim bill passing there anytime soon?
Passed the House yet again. The House always seems to support it. The Senate decided that trying to get medical marijuana passed was enough. The governor would certainly veto it. There is still a lot of work to do in NH, but we will make sure it happens. Right now, the lead guy for the Marijuana Policy Project in New England (he helped pass this bill and the decrim bill in VT, for example) and the head of the marijuana reform group in NH are both free staters. The more movers, the easier it is to bring about reform. The voters support full legalization but...

However, MA has an excellent decrim law that the voters there passed. In most cases, if it is just a small amount, people aren't even fined. VT just passed a decent decrim law. ME has had an OK decrim law. RI, while not a border state, is very close to NH and it also has an OK decrim law that just took effect this year. In NH, typically it is a fine of about $500 if you get caught with a small amount, the first time. 3 counties have drug courts.

New England has the least enforcement of victimless crimes of any region in the US. So, in general, police spend less effort trying to enforce marijuana laws around here. The largest marijuana freedom rally in the East (as far as I know) happens in MA in September. http://masscann.org/rally

[Sola_Fide]

The state wants a monopoly on drug dispensing.

[GregSarnowski]

Thanks for the info. Yes, it seems like state's with voter initiatives are more likely to be better on this issue, as usual the people are far ahead of the politicians.

Here in CT the legislature passed a decent bill a few years back. Maybe the NH activists can try and replicate that.

Even if it is just a fine now as I'm sure you're aware the real issue is misdemeanor charges get people into the system, and once many people are into the system they have a hard time getting out.

NH does have the distinction as far as I know of having the only case where an individual caught growing got off thanks to jury nullification, as a free stater was on the jury and convinced her peers it was the right thing to do. Of course when I mentioned this to my progtard brother he played the race card like liberal idiots tend to do, inferring that ignoring fascist laws is tantamount to supporting KKK lynchings.

[enhanced_deficit]

So you have to get sick to get highin the land of the free?

No such freedom constraints in Afghanistan, they have unlimited gun rights and in fact almost eveyone owns a gun/AK47 and can get high whenever they chose to do so.

Which is the real "land of the free", I ask?