New Hampshire House Passes Marijuana Legalization Bill That’s Sponsored By Top Republican And Democratic Lawmakers
February 22, 2023By Tom Angell
The New Hampshire House of Representatives passed a bill to legalize marijuana on Wednesday.
The legislation, which is being sponsored by Majority Leader Jason Osborne (R) and Minority Leader Matthew Wilhelm (D), was approved in a 234-127 vote.
Rep. Anita Burroughs (D) said during Wednesday’s floor debate that the proposal is “good legislation that is the result of the goodwill and diligent work of both political parties.”
“We can now join other New England states that offer safe, regulated and a profitable cannabis industry to their citizens,” she said. The bill “allows us to do it the reasonable way, the responsible way, the innovative way and the bipartisan way.”
Speaking in opposition to the legislation, Rep. Lilli Walsh (R) argued that the bill “does not contribute to the common good” and “puts profits ahead of public health and safety.”
“Legalization of cannabis should not be a political issue. It’s a public health and safety issue,” she said.
Members of the House Commerce and Consumer Affairs Liquor Subcommittee had spent weeks working the proposal over a series of meetings, going back and forth about a variety of provisions and making amendments to the original measure.
A major change made to the legislation from its introduced form would put the state’s existing Liquor Commission in charge of regulating the marijuana market, rather than create a new independent commission to do so, as was proposed in the original version of HB 639. The body would also be renamed the Liquor and Cannabis Commission.
Rep. John Hunt (R), chairman of the Commerce and Consumer Affairs Committee, said on the floor that his panel worked to “try to create a balanced bill that will address the issues that we have heard over the years in terms of the legalization of marijuana.”
He said that the rationale behind how the bill proposes to regulate the market through the Liquor Commission was to “take a model that we are successful with here in New Hampshire [for alcohol] and repeat it.”
