CONCORD, N.H.— A shift by Gov. Chris Sununu’s to help marijuana legalization has impressed a last-minute push for brand new laws.
Though a number of bipartisan payments in help of legalizing leisure marijuana have cleared the House in recent times, Sununu opposed them they usually in the end failed within the Senate. But after the most recent defeat earlier this month, Sununu introduced that he would again legalization if lawmakers took a special method.
The House Commerce Committee voted Tuesday to amend an unrelated invoice as a car for a brand new plan the place the state regulates marijuana the identical method it controls the sale of wine and liquor, according to what the Republican governor and potential presidential candidate outlined.
The invoice that was defeated within the Senate would have included a 12.5% tax levied on the cultivation degree. The newest measure is much like a plan lawmakers thought-about final 12 months that may put the New Hampshire Liquor Commission accountable for regulating and promoting hashish.
But not like that failed measure, it could enable the state’s medical marijuana dispensaries to promote each medical and leisure hashish.
Former state Rep. Susan Homola spoke in opposition to the invoice, saying lawmakers who proceed to push for it have ignored knowledge on the dangerous results of legalization. Homola, a Republican, additionally accused supporters of enjoying politics with the difficulty.
“Through the governor’s flip-flop on recreational marijuana in the ninth hour of the legislative session to this committee’s willingness to jam in this bill that’s already been shot down in the Senate … it’s clear that this isn’t way to legislate,” she mentioned.
Nearly half the states, together with the remainder of New England, enable leisure use of marijuana.
Source: www.bostonherald.com”