By Rick Green
THE KEENE SENTINEL
A last-gasp attempt to pass marijuana-legalization legislation this year in New Hampshire has died on a 15-9 vote in the N.H. Senate.
Senate Bill 299 would have allowed adults to possess and grow small amounts of cannabis. It would have removed the current $100 penalty for possessing less than three-quarters of an ounce of pot.
No new marijuana proposals are expected this year. The Legislature is nearing the end of its yearly session and is well beyond the deadline for introducing new bills.
An earlier, broader legalization attempt, which envisioned a distribution system run by the state, also failed this year.
Canada and the states surrounding New Hampshire have legalized the drug, but there is no reason for the Granite State to follow suit, Sen. Bob Giuda, R-Warren, said before Thursday’s vote.
Law-enforcement organizations as well as groups that advocate for children and for public health oppose legalization, he said.
There’s also been an increase in automobile accidents involving marijuana, Giuda said.
A study by the Boston University School of Public Health, utilizing a national database of traffic accidents on public roads, showed the percentage of crash deaths involving cannabis more than doubled from 9 percent in 2000 to 21.5 percent in 2018. However, the study noted that people can still test positive for the drug weeks after they have used it.
Giuda said promised public revenues from marijuana sales have not met expectations in states that have legalized marijuana.
He even brought up a workforce argument.
“A robust workforce is not a stoned workforce,” he said.
“I have no problem proudly proclaiming that our state is a clean state that is looking out for the benefit of its children, its adults, its workforce and its revenues,” Giuda said.
But Sen. Rebecca Whitley, D-Hopkinton, spoke about the wide public support for legalization.
“This bill gives us another opportunity to listen to the vast majority of our constituents,” she said in the Senate session before the vote. “This majority has spoken to us. Ignoring this issue is to our detriment.
“This is an issue young people care deeply about because they understand the nuance of it.”
A University of New Hampshire Survey Center poll released in February showed that more than two-thirds of Granite Staters supported a bill to legalize marijuana and allow it to be sold in state-run stores.
Whitley noted that the state already has a problem attracting young people to its workforce.
She also said existing marijuana laws are too harsh.
“Marijuana possession arrests continue to ruin lives,” she said. “They ensnare thousands of people in our criminal justice system every year. This is an unnecessary burden on these people and the judicial system.”
She argued that laws against marijuana possession simply do not make the public safer.
“The war on marijuana possession has wasted taxpayer dollars,” she said.
Eighteen states have legalized recreational use of marijuana.
Rep. Tim Egan, D-Sugar Hill, a strong backer of marijuana legalization, said the Senate vote on SB 299 shows senators are out of touch and are willing to ignore the preferences of their constituents.
“The Senate lives in the 1980s, the 1990s, with their head in the sand,” he said in a phone interview Friday.
He noted that in killing the bill, the Senate also rejected a second purpose of the legislation — increasing the circumstances in which the crime of escape from custody is charged as a felony.
Egan said marijuana-legalization bills will be filed for next year’s legislative session.
“Yep, I’ll be the first one to the table to work with my colleagues and make a better bill,” he said. “We’re on to next year.”
Rick Green can be reached at [email protected] or 603-355-8567.
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