Weed smokers wonder whether New Hampshire comes next in states allowing legal marijuana. 2023 lawmakers took the issue up in the Granite State. While 70 per cent of the New Hampshire House of Representatives voted to legalize, Senators crushed the idea with a 14 to 10 vote.
As the major NH newspaper put it “Legalized Marijuana Goes Up In Smoke”. That May 12, 2023 Manchester Union Leader headline announced yet another failure in repeated efforts to make recreational pot legal in New Hampshire. As the idea of legal recreational weed went up in smoke, so too did state lawmakers turn their backs on potentially millions in state revenue.
Legal Weed Money and Costs
A major argument held by lawmakers holds that New Hampshire would cash in on millions of state revenue. All surrounding states enjoy legalized recreational pot. In a previous study on legal weed, the focus of a previous blog article on this website, researchers estimated New Hampshire could cash in on $ Million in revenue each year.
Opponents feel that legalizing marijuana sends the wrong message to kids that weed is safe and can be used without harmful consequences. One senator warned that legalizing weed would encourage illegal drug dealers to flood the state with lower-cost marijuana including pot laced with more dangerous addictive drugs.
Weed Smokers and Accidents
Many in the Law enforcement community hold serious reservations about whether recreational marijuana brings any advancement to society. Here’s the deal: there is no standard for what level of THC – the active substance in marijuana – is safe in the human body. The so-called “experts” more or less agree that .08 is the dangerous level of alcohol in the body representing impairment. Most states now find drivers with a .08 or higher alcohol level “per se” impaired.
At the same time, different humans react differently to THC. One person may have an extreme tolerance to THC, able to conduct oneself fairly efficiently on a high level of THC. Another may well be mentally gone beyond all recognition on a relatively low THC level.
Add to the above variances that law enforcement has no recognized standard test, as they do for alcohol. Prior announcements that a test now exists have been followed by a buried headline essentially admitting “oops” never mind.
Is Weed the Fish that Got Away
Anyone in a border New Hampshire town knows the local retailers benefit from many state features. With no sales tax, the state sees Massachusetts and other out of state residents head to the stores in Salem, Seabrook, Portsmouth and elsewhere to buy big ticket items like TVs computers and other appliances.
Border towns also see high activity from people headed to New Hampshire to pick up less expensive booze, cigarettes, lottery and fireworks. Is it a good argument to add weed to that list? With no sales or income tax, lawmakers struggle each year to balance the budget. And balancing the budget is a constitutional requirement in New Hampshire.
The 2023 proposal would have divvied up the state’s revenue from recreational marijuana sales. Half would go to support education and the public schools in the state. Thirty per cent would have funded the now challenged state pension fund. The remaining twenty per cent would have gone to the Department of Health and Human Services to fund substance abuse and other programs.
New Hampshire cities and towns maintaining strong objections to selling legalized recreational marijuana could “opt out” of such sales within their boundaries. After legalized weed came into existence in Massachusetts, some towns did in fact follow this path and outlaw pot dispensaries within their boundaries.
Weed Prohibition
Efforts to ban alcohol in the U.S. brought abject failure. Illegal liquor producers – bootleggers – cropped up everywhere. The distribution system catapulted organized crime to big business. Law enforcement was largely unable to stop drinkers. With a wink and a nod drinkers entered “speak easies” to enjoy entertainment and liquid spirits.
The 18th amendment to the U.S. Constitution banned the manufacture, transportation and sale of alcoholic beverages. After the obvious failure of that national policy, the 21st Amendment repealed the mistake.
If anyone out there thinks that people are not smoking weed because stuffed shirts say no …. well please let us know down in the comments section.
My great grandfather was a Congressman and he – as well as many others – tell us you can not legislate human behavior. National lawmakers, in their wisdom, made alcohol illegal in the 1920. That did not stop many people from having a cold one.
More Studies than Weeds
Take any issue you want. You will find studies or “research” to support your position. Someone holding an opposing view will find “research” countering your viewpoint. So, too, do the “studies” on legalized weed contradict one another.
New Hampshire senators on both sides of the issue cited studies.
One Journal of American Medicine study concluded that frequent use of cannabis by young people could lead to an eight-point decline in IQ by mid adulthood.
Data from other sources was cited to conclude that drug use and crime have not increased in the 21 states that had legalized recreational marijuana at that time.
You, good readers will in fact be able to find studies, research and data to counter anything and everything in this article and the accompanying podcast. Feel free! Leave your conclusions in the comment section below.
About Weed, Cannabis, Pot, Marijuana, Mary Jane, Reefer, Jive, The Devil’s Lettuce, Joints, Doobies
The issue of legalization of cannabis arouses passions on all sides. The New Hampshire “legalization” commission lectured readers that marijuana and all of the other labels are simply slang. The proper manner in which to refer to the substance, commissioners indicated, is “Cannabis”.
OK. We leave the language to etymologists. That’s one who studies words and their origins and meanings. Followers of what happens in the New Hampshire Statehouse probably agree on one thing. The effort to legalize the stuff remains in the graveyard, for now. Those who gamble should place good money on the fact that the issue comes back at some point. But don’t put any money on the final result.
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