The N.H. House of Representatives has voted to legalize cannabis three times since 2019. Sadly, the Senate has killed every attempt so far. Tomorrow, the House will vote on legalization once again, but this time there’s a twist. The bill is sponsored by Rep. Daryl Abbas (R), an opponent of previous legalization bills, and it includes a poison pill: state-run stores.

The New Hampshire House of Representatives kicked off the new year by narrowly voting down a 2021 bill to legalize cannabis and create a regulated market (HB 237) and then overwhelmingly approving a different bill (HB 629) legalizing home possession and cultivation. HB 629 now heads to the far more challenging Senate.

This morning, New Hampshire’s GOP-controlled House of Representatives voted to legalize possession and home cultivation of cannabis ­— advancing HB 629 in a lopsided 241-113 vote. Unfortunately, it rejected a more comprehensive legalization bill that included sales — HB 237 — in a 163-170 vote last night.

New Hampshire’s legislature convened its 2022 legislative session today, starting another year where the “Live Free or Die” State is an island of prohibition, surrounded by states and a country where cannabis is legal.

On Tuesday, Gov. Chris Sununu signed HB 605 into law, adding opiate use disorder to New Hampshire’s medical cannabis program and allowing visiting patients to purchase cannabis while in the state.

It has been another frustrating legislative session for cannabis policy reforms in New Hampshire, but we did manage to make some progress. Several bills impacting the medical cannabis program have passed the House and Senate, and most of them are clear improvements. Some of these bills have already been signed by Gov. Chris Sununu, while others are either on his desk or on their way to his desk.

Last week, Gov. Chris Sununu signed HB 89, a bill adding autism spectrum disorder as a qualifying condition for the therapeutic cannabis program and adding moderate to severe insomnia as a qualifying symptom. This is welcome news, but most New Hampshire residents believe the state should go much further and legalize cannabis for adults’ use. A new poll published by the University of New Hampshire Survey Center indicates that three out of four Granite Staters support legalizing cannabis. This includes…

Yesterday, the New Hampshire Senate ignored the needs of patients, voting 15-9 to “table” the medical cannabis home cultivation bill. This means HB 350 will not be considered unless the Senate votes to remove it from the table (which is extremely unlikely). As a result, home cultivation will remain a felony in New Hampshire, with no exception for registered patients and caregivers.

Yesterday, all three of New Hampshire’s alternative treatment centers (ATCs) testified in favor of HB 350, a bill that would legalize home cultivation for qualifying patients and designated caregivers, in the Senate Health and Human Services Committee. This was a remarkable turnaround from 2019, when a nearly identical bill received no support from ATCs at a hearing in this same committee.

The New Hampshire House has been voting to pass medical cannabis home cultivation bills since 2009, but unfortunately, these bills have failed to become law. In 2019, the Senate joined the House in passing a home grow bill, but it was vetoed by Gov. Chris Sununu, and the veto override effort fell three votes short in the Senate. As a result, home cultivation remains a felony in New Hampshire, and there is no exception for registered patients and caregivers. But lawmakers are trying again in 2021.