On Thursday, the New Hampshire House passed HB 360, "an act legalizing cannabis for persons 21 years of age or older."
The bill had gone through the Criminal Justice and Public Safety Committee, which had deemed it Inexpedient to Legislate by a margin of 11-9. However, as these things still get voted on by the full House, Rep. Jodi Newell (D-Keene) was designated to speak for the Committee's minority in favor of the bill.
Jodi's speech was a banger, you can watch it here:
Here is what she said:
We have multiple bills attempting to legalize cannabis. We have been at this for years & are still struggling to get it done.
The people of NH favor legalization. So far, we have failed them.
Many of my colleagues are resting their hopes on the passage of the bipartisan legalization bill, HB 639, & I am in support of that one as well.
So why am I asking you to support this one? Let’s get into it.
In my opinion, and that of many, many others, cannabis should never have been criminalized in the first place. As a matter of fact, criminalization began with a tax, the marijuana tax act of 1937. This was in fact the very beginning of the war on drugs, or I should say a war on people.
No matter the stated enemy, its time to recognize that this war has been an abject failure. Many of our neighbors have been lost to this war. My children & I are collateral damage in this war. Their father died of a heroin overdose when he had the threat of a 15 year mandatory minimum prison sentence hanging over his head. We feel that loss every day.
New Hampshire’s approach to this issue needs to change. While I wholeheartedly believe that this change needs to be implemented rationally, strategically & carefully, cannabis is not heroin. It’s not fentanyl. Cannabis simply does not carry the same risk for harm or overdose as other substances.
And yet, great harm is done when members of our community are stopped, searched & detained, left with criminal records simply for cultivating & consuming a plant.
Cannabis can be grown safely & discreetly in our backyard gardens & consumed in the comfort of our own homes. This bill provides for that.
A few years ago I also lost my brother. His drug of choice was alcohol & it ultimately took his life. Alcohol poisoned his body. Yet alcohol is legal.
We accept that some people will misuse some substances & allow individuals to moderate themselves. I would argue that cannabis carries far lower risks than alcohol, a substance which is legal.
But as we vet & debate these other cannabis bills, the harm of criminalization continues.
That said, I will vote in favor of any effort to legalize cannabis with a strong preference for those which do not impose a barrier between myself & my garden, or place a tax on something I can easily grow in it.
As Jodi noted, this is one of several cannabis legalization bills that are currently under consideration by the legislature. This one had been considered unlikely to pass. However, the motion to shoot it down failed by a vote of 210 to 160, and then the bill resoundingly passed on a voice vote.
That suggests there is even more widespread support for cannabis legalization and drug policy reform than previously recognized. When is this going to finally get done?