The persistent push to legalize medical marijuana distribution in New Hampshire has flown mostly under the radar this session, as budget matters and issues like fighting federal health care reform have made most of the headlines. But the initiative has momentum, and today brings a vote that could hold the key to its fate.
Is the medical marijuana debate about health or law and order?
How lawmakers — and, more importantly, Gov. John Lynch — answer that question could determine the fate of the latest legislative attempt to legalize medical marijuana in New Hampshire.
The proposal passed its first hurdle last month when the House approved House Bill 442 by a veto-proof majority. The question in this legislative session, as in 2009, is whether the measure will have enough support to override another potential veto by Lynch.
Proposals to allow New Hampshire farmers to grow hemp and to establish a pharmaceutical buyback program are among the more the 30 bills that were scheduled for votes today, before the latest snowstorm canceled the session. Overall, 26 bills from nine House committees were rolled into the House Consent Calendar.
Here we highlight three proposals that were put on the regular calendar: Pharmaceutical take-back programs, industrial hemp production, and unrestricting sports agents. They will likely be moved to next Wednesday’s regular calendar.
The Senate will hold its session tomorrow (Feb. 3) at noon.
It was a landmark year for New Hampshire government in 2009—not only for the size of its budget deficit ($250 million) and the number of state layoffs it induced (200), but also for legislative action on some controversial social issues, like gay marriage, the death penalty and medical marijuana.
But these scores are far from settled, as evidenced in the new round of bills up for debate in Concord’s 2010 legislative session, which officially kicks off on Wednesday, Jan. 6
Gov. John Lynch has—for now, at least—snuffed out New Hampshire’s medical marijuana bill. Lynch had remained tight-lipped about his stance on the legislation’s latest version until Friday morning, when he vetoed House Bill 648 just hours after it landed on his desk. It will now go back to the House and Senate, where a two-thirds majority could override the veto.
Next week marks the midway point in the 2009 legislative session, and only bills that are still afloat by Friday will have a chance at becoming law. And there have been some surprises …
