[Tudo]

New Hampshire Poised to Legalize Medical Marijuana
By Scott Gacek June 19, 2013


" I encourage the full legislature to pass this compromise so I can sign this legislation into law," Gov. Hassan said Tuesday.

CONCORD, NH — New Hampshire is poised to become the final New England state to authorize the medical use of marijuana after a compromise was reached Tuesday between the Republican-controlled Senate and Democratic-controlled House on a bill already passed by both chambers.
Both chambers of the New Hampshire legislature have already voted to pass House Bill 573, but because of changes made by the Senate, a compromise between the two chambers needed to be reached by Thursday.
In the compromise reached Tuesday, the number of dispensaries allowed in the state was reduced from five to four, medical marijuana patients will not be permitted to grow their own marijuana, and post-traumatic stress disorder was removed from the list of qualifying conditions for the medical marijuana program.
House lawmakers, who approved a version of the medical marijuana bill that included home cultivation of up to three marijuana plants by patients with a veto-proof 286-64 vote in March, agreed to drop the home cultivation provision in exchange for having a medical marijuana oversight commission that will start work as soon as the bill is enacted.
Negotiators from the House gave in to the removal of home cultivation after Senators Nancy Stiles (R-Hampton) and John Reagan (R-Deerfield) said that the bill simply would not become law if it allowed patients to grow their own marijuana.
“We wanted a bill that was going to pass,” Sen. Stiles said. ”‘This is a first step, things can always be added later on.”
The full legislature will now need to vote on the compromise legislation before the bill is sent to the desk of Democratic Governor Maggie Hassan, but that vote is seen merely as a formality due to the Governor’s support of the bill and the overwhelming support the bill has among lawmakers.
Gov. Hassan, who voted in favor of medical marijuana legalization as a state senator in 2009, has said she will sign the amended bill into law now that some of her concerns about the original bill have been addressed.
“Allowing doctors to provide relief to patients through the use of appropriately regulated and dispensed medical marijuana is the compassionate and right policy for the State of New Hampshire,” Gov. Hassan said in a statement.
“I encourage the full legislature to pass this compromise so I can sign this legislation into law,” she added.
As the medical marijuana legislation was working through the state legislature this season, Gov. Hassan expressed that she shares some concerns of law enforcement officials who say that allowing patients to grow their own marijuana could result in diversion of marijuana to the recreational market and make law enforcement’s job more difficult, instead preferring a dispensary-only medical marijuana program in the state.
“The compromise legislation as agreed to by the committee of conference addresses the concerns that I have heard and expressed throughout this session, and provides the level of regulation needed for the use of medical marijuana,” Hassan said Tuesday.
Under the compromised bill, patients diagnosed with certain debilitating medical conditions will be allowed to possess up to 2 ounces of medical marijuana, which they must purchase from one of four licensed dispensaries that will open in the state.
Dispensaries will be allowed to grow a maximum of 80 mature marijuana plants, 160 seedlings, while maintaining inventory levels of up to 80 ounces of marijuana or 6 ounces per qualifying patient registered at their dispensaries.
To qualify for medical marijuana, a person must be a New Hampshire resident, would have to have been a patient of the prescribing doctor for at least 90 days, have tried other remedies, and have exhibited certain symptoms.
The compromised bill does not allow patients to grow their own marijuana during an anticipated 18-month to two-year rule-making and licensing process for the dispensaries, which will not open until 2015 at the earliest, and that worries the original bill’s primary sponsor, Representative Donna Schlachman (D-Exeter).
After the compromise was announced Tuesday, Rep. Schlachman said she was disappointed that the compromise bill did not include adequate protection for patients during the two years to establish the medical marijuana program.
“We have really opened this bill up so law enforcement in any town that is really against any form of the legalization of therapeutic cannabis is in a position to arrest people simply because they’ve applied for their card and it hasn’t come yet,’’ Rep Schlachman said Tuesday.
New Hampshire State Rep. Donald “Ted” Wright, one of the co-sponsors of House Bill 573, said that while immediate access to medical marijuana for patients, like his wife Cindy, who suffers from breast cancer, is critical, what is most important right now is passing a medical marijuana bill that will be signed by the Governor.
The New Hampshire legislature has twice passed medical marijuana bills, only to see them vetoed by former Governor John Lynch.
Rep. Wright, who was in favor of home cultivation to allow immediate access to medical marijuana for patients, says that without Tuesday’s compromise, lawmakers would be “back at square one, without anything to build from.”If the legislature failed to reach a compromise, it would likely be another two years before the legislature would revisit medical marijuana legalization in New Hampshire.
“We will most likely have a law that will allow the therapeutic use of cannabis, and that’s the bottom line for now,” Rep. Wright said prior to Tuesday’s compromise.
Meanwhile, Rep. Wright says he is working on legislation to be filed in the fall to address home cultivation, post-traumatic stress disorder, and other issues with the law as passed.
The bill will become law immediately upon Governor Hassan’s signature. The state Department of Health and Human Services must then licence at least two medical marijuana dispensaries within the first 18 months.
https://www.thedailychronic.net/2013/...cal-marijuana/

[Arthritis_sucks]

Hmmmm away patients right to grow.......sounds like what they just did in Nevada

[HidingInTheHaze]

That is a piece of crap, patients should be able to grow their own and not have to rely on a dispensary. NH residents should wait for a better bill.

I like the idea of home cultivation or private care giver services, I view dispensaries as a blood sucking leach on the system. I think care givers can offer more personalized compassionate care for better prices.

Word^^whata joke...they take the right to grow away from the people who will then have to buy sub-par overpiced meds from a dispensary who's biz is from out of state.

[Tudo]

NH lawmakers voting on budget, medical marijuana

New Hampshire lawmakers voting on budget, medical marijuana before heading home for summer

By Norma Love, Associated Press | Associated Press – Mon, Jun 24, 2013
CONCORD, N.H. (AP) -- A $10.7 billion, two-year budget is expected to sail through New Hampshire's Republican Senate and Democratic House on Wednesday, thanks to bipartisan agreements on spending and taxes.
The agreements increase funding for services for the disabled on a wait list and for the mentally ill, but the Republican-led Senate budget team refused to authorize expanding Medicaid starting Jan. 1 to an estimated 58,000 poor adults.
The budget package calls for six lawmakers to remain in Concord over the summer working on whether to expand Medicaid, a key component of the federal health care overhaul. Each state gets to decide on expansion. The six lawmakers will join three members of the public on a commission tasked with studying the impact of expansion and exploring alternatives, such as providing some coverage through private insurance.
The commission's members have not been named ahead of Wednesday's vote. Democratic leaders hold a 5-4 edge over Republicans on appointments to the commission. The panel is to hold its first meeting within seven days of the budget taking effect and issue a report Oct. 15.
Gov. Maggie Hassan, a Democrat, lobbied hard for negotiators to include authorization to implement Medicaid expansion in the budget, but Senate President Peter Bragdon insisted on a study first. Hassan said a special legislative session might be needed this fall to vote to authorize expansion.
Leaders from both parties in both chambers praised the budget overall.
The Democratic-led House team is pointing to the Republican team agreeing to move up the Medicaid study report due date more than a year to Oct. 15 as a sign of bipartisan compromise.
Republicans point to the House team agreeing to drop a proposed 20-cent cigarette tax increase and a delay in implementing tax breaks for businesses. The House team also agreed to drop an increase in the gas and diesel tax to pay for highway improvements. The House had killed a Senate casino bill that earmarked some revenue to road work.
Neither negotiating team was happy they could not find a way to avoid requiring the Department of Health and Human Services — the state's largest agency — to cut $7 million out of its budget. Lawmakers are worried about the impact that might have on programs. Democrats also left the bargaining table unhappy about a $10 million cut Hassan must make in state worker staff and benefits. The state employees' union said that will result in an unknown number of layoffs.
The budget contains money for a pay raise for workers, but the deal negotiated with the largest union is in jeopardy after union leaders voted not to recommend a ratification vote largely over a new health care deductible and sent negotiators back to the table.
Lawmakers also will vote Wednesday on compromise legislation legalizing medical marijuana and allowing student photo identification to continue to be accepted at the polls.
Hassan said she will sign the medical marijuana legislation to make New Hampshire the 19th state to allow seriously ill people to possess and use the drug for medical reasons. Currently, 18 states and the District of Columbia allow the medical use of marijuana.
Hassan withdrew her objections when House and Senate negotiators last week agreed on a compromise the eliminated an option for patients to grow marijuana at home, which Hassan said would make it difficult to regulate. Instead, patients will obtain the drug at one of four dispensaries to be established.
The voter ID compromise modifies a law adopted last session by Republicans that ended recognition of student identification this Sept. 1.
Under the compromise, valid student identification will be allowed if the card is issued by a college or career school in New Hampshire or a high school in the state. Student IDs can be expired but the expiration date must have been within five years.
The bill postpones until 2015 a requirement for people who sign an affidavit instead of presenting an acceptable ID to have their picture taken at the polls. Moderators also can verify a person's identity or allow IDs not specified by law though the decisions can be challenged and appealed to the secretary of state.

[MarshalHaze]

Seems as though they're trying to turn a tidy profit off the plant