Today, the New Hampshire House of Representatives voted 215 to 92 in favor of House Bill 1625. This legislation to significantly reduce marijuana penalties in New Hampshire.
Under present law, possession of any amount of marijuana is a criminal misdemeanor, punishable by up to 1 year of incarceration and a maximum fine of $2,000. Passage of this act would eliminate criminal penalties for possession of one ounce or less of marijuana and replace them with a civil fine of $100 — no arrest and no criminal record. It would lower the classification of cultivation of six marijuana plants or less to a Class A misdemeanor. You can read the full text of this measure here. House Bill 1625 now awaits action in the state Senate.
It actually enlightens my soul knowing that somewhere out there is a pot hating, narcissistic piece of Nazi law enforcement that can’t do any thing but write a ticket equivalent to jaywalking. It’s almost worth getting busted just to piss him off.
Sorry not good enough. Still suggests there is something wrong with adults smoking marijuana. In fact the way science is coming out on cannabis, it should almost be considered one’s moral duty to consume cannabis-with a vaporizer of course!
As politicians wake up and realize that cannabis legalization is a winning issue, the onus will be off the people to force them to change the laws through referendums. Legislators are starting to listen to the people, recognize the facts and do their job. Nationwide change is happening so quickly and profoundly that even the federal government may very soon do the right thing and unschedule marijuana.
The State of New Hampshire has a huge lump under the rug.
The state law called for the Commissioner of Health and Human Services to create and publish (in a newspaper) the State controlled drug schedule. This never happened. They changed the law in 2011 to try to hide their fuckup…but we know what they did.
What does this mean? Vague laws are void.
Can you say scandal? I know you can.
authoritarian govts prosecute weed…nonauthoritarian don’t….it really is that eay to understand
And for all those who think the country is going to pot (pun intended) we are freer from prohibitionist intolerancen than we have ever been in our history as a nation– even O’Reilly on FOX knows enough to be tolerant……..and for all you Bush haters, in 1999 he said…..Leave marijuana legalization up to each state’s peopleto decide…
The big money interests are the ones making this so difficult. The fact that hemp is still illegal is just unbelievably unbelievable it sickens me. So many wonderful products can be made from hemp that are far superior to todays versions with absolutely ZERO psychoactive effects!!! You can not get high from hemp, the only danger it causes is to the pockets of oil, plastics, cotton, paper and numerous other large industries. A completely renewable source of countless everyday products with close to zero carbon footprint, even the waste left behind from harvesting conditions the soil for next years crop without fertilizer. The world really be a better place when this nonsense is stop and we legalize this plant through and through. Give the power back to the people.
@ Fireweed says:
March 13, 2014 at 2:40 am
“…it should almost be considered one’s moral duty to consume cannabis-with a vaporizer of course!”
Something akin to the Bill Hicks’ concept of
“Mandatory Marijuana”
Except consumed in a smokeless form,
(as you mentioned),
such as w/ a vaporizer, or as tincture, edibles…
@Jimmy Potseed: Well, you know they’ll just beat the shit out of you, then arrest you for “assaulting a police officer” and “resisting arrest”, and no one will ever question it. In fact, I’m surprised they don’t make that the unspoken policy of each precinct, to brutalize MJ users then drag them in for assaulting a cop, then use those “statistics” to “prove” that MJ is extremely dangerous and totally does make people violent and crazy, Reefer Madness is finally vindicated!
Perhaps I shouldn’t give them any ideas…
@Don B.: It’s starting. The MPP blog says that the Democratic party in CA has put marijuana legalization officially on their platform. (Is that the first time it’s been the official part of a party agenda? I think it is, though some individual politicians have spoken in favor and a handful are campaigning on legalization.)
Of course, Gov. Brown is opposed and feeling very betrayed by his party’s decision, and is afraid that “potheads” won’t be “alert” enough to participate in society if we legalize. What is wrong with these people, that they don’t seem to realize that the “potheads” are ALREADY smoking pot, and aren’t likely to smoke it more just because they can’t get arrested for it. Pot doesn’t poof into existence when it becomes legal; it’s already here, ffs!
I am beginning to believe that a lot of these prohibitionists, maybe all of them, know the facts and know we’re right, and are just maintaining the stance in order to keep the Drug War profiteering checks coming as long as they can. There is no freaking way that someone can be so dense that they don’t realize that millions of people are already smoking pot and being active and productive members of their communities, and there is no way they are seriously suggesting that pot can make you less “alert” and so should be outlawed, but though alcohol can also make you less “alert” it should be totally legal–one rule for alcohol (and it’s billion-dollar industry that “tops off” his salary) and another rule for pot. I simply no longer believe that any of them are sincere anymore.
Way to go, New Hampshire! Sweet music to my ears. Very glad to hear the latest news in Alaska too.
I’m sure many of you have already heard, but the California Dem party put MJ legalization on their party platform. I believe that’s huge. Hopefully that will be the impetus to put legalization over the finish line in the country’s most populous state and largest single economy.
@Evening Bud: Beat you to it! 🙂
But I do wonder, is this the first time a party has put legalization on its platform? I know a lot of individual politicians have started to campaign on the issue, but I don’t think I’ve seen it on any party agendas, or at least not the two primary parties.
@Demonhype – You wrote: “I simply no longer believe that any of them are sincere anymore”
I think that the prohibitionists are very sincere! They sincerely want to screw over their fellow Americans! It’s all about hate…
Prohibitionists are programmed to do anything it takes to convince a skeptic public that their perspective is worthy of imitation. A seven decade lie is crumbling beneath science and an enlightened public concern for patient rights is taking hold within a corrupt medical care establishment.
@ Demonhype,
Lol, I noticed that too. It’s funny that you wondered if this was the first time that one of the big political parties put legalized MJ on its platform, because I also wondered that.
All I know is that this should give the Dem party a big edge in the upcoming elections in CA, given the polls in favor of legalization in that state. I’m frankly surprised the GOP hasn’t caught on yet. As for Jerry Brown, seems he can’t get past his old misconceptions and prejudices.
I’m hoping beyond hope for legalization in CA, as I believe it will give our cause a major boost. If they’d made so much money in taxes on pot in CO, imagine what they’d make in CA.
@Evening Bud: Great minds think alike! 🙂
The thing with the Republicans is that, though both parties are to some extent beholden to moneyed interests, the Republicans are much more beholden than Democrats, and the Dems these days tend to win more when they move away from the right and not towards it, just as larger voter turnout tends to favor Dems (which is why Repubs are so hell-bent on keeping likely Dems from having voting rights by any means necessary). I think some of them are starting to get it, though, that they lose when they pretend to be Republicans and that they win when they are as not-Republican as possible. I hope this trend continues.
@ Demonhype,
I agree with every one of your points. (Even the great minds, lol.)
I live in NM, a Dem-controlled state, but one with a GOP (read tea party) Governor, Suzanna Martinez. She threatened to repeal MMJ in this state the day she got sworn in, several years ago, but was rebuffed by the Dems, so she backed off. Then, just last month, when the Dem state legislators tried to put recreational MJ to a vote, and just failed, thanks to one of those turncoat Dems you just talked about, Su-sah-nah promised that she’d veto it, if it ever passed. So much for libertarian rhetoric about freedom from govt intrusion, etc etc.
@Evening Bud: I’ve found that most libertarians only believe in freedom for the rich to exploit the poor, and for privacy to be a privilege of wealth. They have no problem with big government when it’s used as a stick to keep the hoi polloi in line, nor do they have a problem with absolute authoritatianism when corporations are the ones in control (as in, no Drug War, but employers should be “free” to drug test any time or way they want, no restrictions, and if the workers don’t like it, they’re “free” to work somewhere else–except when one employer gets away with violating their workers, they all start doing it, so at some point, the only freedom the hoi polloi have is the “freedom” to decide whose hand holds the cat o’ nine tails over their backs.)
Of course, I always respond to that lovely “private company they can do what they want” with “only when they stop getting tax writeoffs, plus tax breaks, plus tax subsidies for their drug testing programs–when I am no longer paying for the subcontracting of violations of Fourth Amendment rights to the private sector, THEN you can tell me it’s a “private” company decision. Only problem is that once the juicy taxpayer-funded breaks and subsidies dry up, one of the only two real reasons employers drug test will be dried up with it–the other reason being “public relations points” which is already drying up as we speak.
@Evening Bud: I’ve found that most libertarians only believe in freedom for the rich to exploit the poor, and for privacy to be a privilege of wealth. They have no problem with big government when it’s used as a stick to keep the hoi polloi in line, nor do they have a problem with absolute authoritatianism when corporations are the ones in control (as in, no Drug War, but employers should be “free” to drug test any time or way they want, no restrictions, and if the workers don’t like it, they’re “free” to work somewhere else–except when one employer gets away with violating their workers, they all start doing it, so at some point, the only freedom the hoi polloi have is the “freedom” to decide whose hand holds the cat o’ nine tails over their backs.)
Of course, I always respond to that lovely “private company they can do what they want” with “only when they stop getting tax writeoffs, plus tax breaks, plus tax subsidies for their drug testing programs–when I am no longer paying for the subcontracting of violations of Fourth Amendment rights to the private sector, THEN you can tell me it’s a “private” company decision. Only problem is that once the juicy taxpayer-funded breaks and subsidies dry up, one of the only two real reasons employers drug test will be dried up with it–the other reason being “public relations points” which is already drying up as we speak.
Personally, I wish all those Blue Dog Dems would just leave our side and go to the ones they truly love.
@ Demonhype,
Very good points all.
I never understood people who are quick to condemn government tyranny, but just as quick to defend tyranny by corporations. It’s not the government that is polluting those rivers in NC and W Va but which is instead enabling those corporations to do so. Both entities are at fault, but libertarians only want to blame the one. The corporations’ attitude: “Hey, we paid good money for our government stooge; hell yes we should be allowed to dump pollutants wherever we want (the public be damned).”
I almost can’t bear to watch CO and WA have so much fun. John Hanger will not save Pennsylvania this year, he ran out of money and dropped out.Some say the rest of field has taken on legalization of marijuana so maybe 5 years instead of 3 years till be get retail pot stores. John H. said by 2017 spring we should have stores up and running. I will be the first person to buy permits and open up a legal cannibus medical and/or recreational. I will be buying a greenhouse to make some serous green, and i love doing it can Heaven get here soon enough?
So as a cancer patient, they passed a useless law, just to say they are in with the other states. We can’t grow, no cards, no dispensaries till 2015. I have bad cancer and need it now. Hospital bills ate up everything, and allowing at least the medical patients to grow even a handful of plants would help us to not have to think about choosing excrutiating pain today or food, and no I am not exagerating. Its a disgrace.
@ Jane,
I’m so sorry to hear about your situation. With some people, unless they experience it themselves, they don’t understand (or care) about the pain and suffering others are being forced to endure. I sincerely wish you could afford to move to some (nearby?) state with already established MMJ.
Jane, grow your own. Stop letting people that do not have the right to stop you from caring from youself. The government keeps arguing they have a right to abuse people for using marijuana–and their argument makes no sense and no one should follow this law, it is immoral to pass, follow or enforce.