With just over a month left until the election to decide New Hampshire's next governor, candidates from the two major political parties are sharply divided over the issue of marijuana legalization. Democrat Joyce Craig expressed support for the reform, pointing to revenue that could fund housing and schools, while Republican Kelly Ayotte downplayed the plan.
“Joyce Craig can smoke her way to balance the budget, but I'm going to do it the old-fashioned way,” Ayotte, a former U.S. senator and state attorney general, said Monday. He said this in an interview broadcast on WMUR-TV. “We're going to live within our means.”
Craig, a former mayor of Manchester, is also campaigning for an end to cannabis prohibition.
“I said I support legalizing marijuana,” she said at a recent press conference, according to a WMUR report. “That's why we're going to work together on this bill, which will generate revenue that we can leverage to do better at affordable housing and education in New Hampshire.”
Ahead of last month's primary, Craig told legalization advocates as part of a series of candidate interviews that New Hampshire favors local, small businesses and that large or multi-state businesses have a weaker state market. He said he wants to establish a legal marijuana market that would prevent the United States from dominating the United States.
“She seems to have thought a lot about this,” Darryl Eames, founder of the New Hampshire Cannabis Association (NHCANN), which hosted the interview series, told Marijuana Moment at the time.
Eames said NHCANN contacted two leading Republican candidates for interviews, but neither Ayotte nor her primary challenger responded to the invitation.
In purple New Hampshire, legalization has largely been a bipartisan issue, with the exception of the current gubernatorial race. For example, this past session, a legalization bill led by Republicans but supported by many Democrats was introduced on a bipartisan vote, with some Democrats in the House supported the bill, arguing that the negotiated bill was too fundamentally flawed to be approved.
Unlike the Republicans seeking to replace him, outgoing Gov. Chris Sununu (R) has balked at supporting a legalization bill that would limit the number of adult-use cannabis retail stores to 15.
“I don't like the idea of legalizing marijuana here. I really don't,” he said in March. “But we know it's probably inevitable, so we have a responsibility to get the system right. In other states around us, that system is very wrong.”
Ayotte, by contrast, has made her opposition to legalization clear, telling a local reporter recently that “I don't think it's the right direction” for New Hampshire.
During a debate among Republican candidates earlier this year, Ayotte was asked why it was ok to conserve tax revenue by not legalizing marijuana.
She replied: “Any state that bases its budget on this is simply wrong. We must ask ourselves what is best for the quality of life of New Hampshire people.”
Ayotte said at the time that she met people in recovery who told her that legalization was not the right path, believing that “legalizing something sends a different message to young people.” He added that there is.
She also argued that legalizing marijuana would worsen the state's youth mental health crisis and increase traffic deaths due to impaired driving ability.
“People argue to me that we should do it because all our neighbors are doing it, but that's never an argument that I think is the right way for New Hampshire,” he said in a separate interview around the same time. she said. “We're different.”
Nearly two-thirds of Granite State residents appear to support legalizing marijuana. A poll released this summer showed that 61% of residents supported the legalization bill that was nearly passed this year, but this was a far cry from respondents in another poll who supported legalization in general. This was just a few points lower than the 65% who said yes.
He said the mismatch between what voters want and what Ayotte is proposing could ultimately hurt her at the polls, especially in the context of her recent flippant remarks. some supporters say.
“I don't think this kind of thing will resonate with independent voters,” said Matt Simon, director of communications and government relations for medical marijuana supplier Granite Leaf Cannabis. “Fifteen to 20 years ago, jokes like this might have worked for politicians, but it's 2024 and Granite State residents overwhelmingly support legalization. New Hampshire. The state is losing jobs and revenue from cannabis to neighboring states, and for many voters, that's no laughing matter.”
(Disclosure: Simon supports the work of Marijuana Moment through a monthly Patreon pledge.)
Karen O'Keefe, state policy director for the Marijuana Policy Project, similarly said Ayotte's derogatory comments could turn voters away.
“Mocking marijuana legalization is bad policy and bad politics,” she said. “Two-thirds of New Hampshire voters support legalization, and so do Ayotte's standard-bearers. Being on the wrong side of cannabis freedom in this tight gubernatorial race is a race for Ayotte.” This could result in a loss.”
O'Keefe said the revenue increases that legalization could bring, as Sen. Ayotte works to ensure the 'living free' state remains stuck in its prohibitionist past, states “We're leaving tens of millions of dollars on the table every year,” he added. ”
“Meanwhile, New Hampshire residents are struggling with high property tax bills that could be reduced if cannabis tax revenue is not sent across New Hampshire’s borders,” she added.
Since the end of this year's legislative session, Sununu has approved several smaller marijuana reforms passed by lawmakers. Perhaps most notably, he signed a major medical cannabis expansion bill that allows doctors to recommend cannabis for debilitating conditions they believe will improve it. Previously, patients had to be diagnosed with certain conditions to be eligible to legally use marijuana.
The bill's enactment follows the governor signing two other medical marijuana expansion bills, one adding generalized anxiety disorder as a qualifying condition and the other adding more medical marijuana. It would allow providers to certify patients for the state's medical marijuana program.
Separately, Sununu vetoed a bill passed by lawmakers that would have allowed medical marijuana operators to open second cultivation sites, including greenhouses. Current law requires ATCs in New Hampshire to grow marijuana in a safe indoor location. The use of semi-outdoor structures, including greenhouses, is prohibited.
The state Legislature is scheduled to briefly reconvene later this month to reconsider the vetoed bill. Although uncertain, there is a possibility that they will return to the cultivation policy or vote to reinstate the proposed legalization bill, HB 1633.
The Democratic-led move on HB 1633 late in the legislative session prompted accusations that some politicians were using the issue to win party votes at the polls in November. But most of those who voted against the bill said they opposed the plan on its merits, with many pointing to state-run schemes, limits on the number of retailers and other regulations they said were unacceptable. .
New Hampshire lawmakers tackled a wide range of marijuana reform issues a year ago, creating a multi-layered system that includes state-managed stores, dual licensing of existing medical marijuana dispensaries, and businesses privately licensed by the state to individuals. The aim was to find a compromise to achieve legalization through a system that would allow legalization. Agency. However, Congress ultimately stalled on the complex bill.
Bicameral lawmakers then convened a state commission last year tasked with considering legalization and recommending a path forward, but ultimately failed to reach an agreement or recommend a final bill. I couldn't even do it.
The Senate also rejected a more traditional legalization bill passed by the House last year, HB 639, despite bipartisan support.
Last May, the House of Representatives also rejected marijuana legalization language included in the Medicaid expansion bill. And the Senate introduced another bill the same month that would allow patients and their designated caregivers to grow up to three mature plants, three immature plants, and 12 seedlings for personal therapeutic purposes. did.
After the Senate rejected the reform bill in 2022, the House of Representatives included legalization language in another criminal justice law amendment, which was also defeated by the other chamber.
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Photo by Chris Wallis // Side pocket image.
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