New Hampshire took a step backwards this week as law makers nixed recreational marijuana sales.
The state’s Republican-controlled House of Representatives narrowly rejected a bill to legalize recreational marijuana sales.
But “legalization is very much still alive in New Hampshire (in 2022),” Karen O’Keefe, state policies director for Washington DC-based Marijuana Policy Project (MPP), assured to MJBizDaily.
According to O’Keefe, New Hampshire House lawmakers defeated HB 237, which had called for a regulated recreational marijuana market without license caps, by only a 170-163 margin. Another 67 members were absent or did not vote.
In an e-mail to MJBizDaily, O’Keefe noted that six other adult-use legalization bills are in play in New Hampshire this year, “three to outright legalize and three to kick the question to voters” in the fall.
This week New Hampshire House lawmakers did pass HB 629 by an overwhelming vote of 241-113, which would legalize home grow. The bill now goes to the state Senate.
MPP believes the public sentiment is very much in favor of adult-use marijuana legalization.
The advocacy group cites a survey published in May 2021 by the University of New Hampshire that found 75% of state residents supported legalization.
House Minority Leader Renny Cushing, a Democrat, is one of several who have proposed that lawmakers refer adult-use marijuana legalization to voters as a constitutional amendment. This would require 60% approval by both the state House and Senate.
