New Hampshire Cannabis: HB1633 Brings New Found Criminalization to Cannabis Consumers

This article was orginally posted by The Patient Perspective, and has allowed Beard Bros Pharms to share it with you.

There’s been some action regarding legal cannabis in New Hampshire since my last post where we covered the minimal good, bad, and ugly to HB1633.

Tuesday March 26th, 2024, the House Finance committee was slated to hear testimony on a new amendment to HB1633 proposed by Sen. Daryl Abbas and introduced by Rep. Dan McGuire.

So let’s talk about it!

The Re-Criminalization of Cannabis Consumers

When we last connected, we talked about how in HB1633, there was a three-strike system aimed to eliminate the impact of cannabis consumption in public.

In the original bill text, the three strikes were as follows.

• For the first offense, you will receive a violation and must forfeit all cannabis and cannabis products on your person.
• For the second offense, you will receive another violation, forfeit all cannabis and cannabis products, and then you will receive an additional $500 fine. 
• The third offense is where it all goes wrong. If you receive a three or more violations within 5 years, you will be found guilty of a misdemeanor which can lead up to a year in jail.

In the Abbas amendment to HB1633, they essentially eliminated one of the strikes – making it a two strike system.

• For the first offense, you will receive a violation and must forfeit all cannabis and cannabis products on your person.
• For the second offense, if you receive two or more violations within five years – you will be found guilty of a misdemeanor which can lead up to a year in jail and a fine of up to $1,200.

Why are public consumption penalties bad? 

We talked a bit about this in my last post.

As we’ve seen in neighboring states, some landlords take an aggressive approach to cannabis odor and smoking in general. This leads cannabis consumers to leave their property and smoke in public. 

Having these public consumption penalties would cause great harm to tenants who are looking to consume without risk of losing their place of living. 

In my opinion, if we’re not policing cigarette smokers we shouldn’t police cannabis consumers on public nuisance alone. 

NHCannaPatient, Let’s Catch Up – Legalization Edition

A fundamental aspect of cannabis legalization should be admitting history got it wrong, not finding new ways to criminalize cannabis consumers.

The Impact on ATCs

Granite Leaf Cannabis, one of New Hampshire’s medical cannabis dispensaries highlighted the details of the Abbas amendment on their blog.

Considering Granite Leaf is the states largest producer for the Therapeutic Cannabis Program, it’s no secret that they wants to be first in line to the Adult Use market.

While I personally don’t shop in New Hampshire for my medical cannabis, alienating existing ATCs (alternate treatment centers) would not be ideal for the number of patients that do shop in New Hampshire.

It’s no secret that once cannabis is legalized, there is a decline in patients participating in medical cannabis programs. By not including a pathway for the program to integrate into the adult use market, the fate of these treatment centers would be uncertain.

Granite Leaf has work to do in terms of quality, transparency, and affordability of their products, but patients have gotten familiar with their offerings. By not including existing ATCs into the adult-use market, it would have a massive negative impact on patients treatment plans that are built around specific products offered by these ATCs.

What Can You Do?

Submit Testimony!

The most important way we can make our voices heard is through testimony, whether public or online.

To submit written testimony online, you can follow these steps.

• Head to https://gencourt.state.nh.us
• Scroll all the way to the bottom and locate the “Meeting Resources” box and click into “House Sign-In Form and Online Testimony Submission”
• Fill in your information

• Select 3/26/2024 from the calendar
  • For committee select “House Finance”
    • Choose HB1633 at 11am
    • Unless you are a registered lobbyist, state agency official, etc select “A member of the public”
    • Indicate your position on the bill (I’m opposing)

Upload or type out your written testimony & Review and Submit

Don’t Forget to Sign up for the New Hampshire Cannabis Boycott

I’ve started a New Hampshire Cannabis Boycott. Which is just stating that unless some compromises are pro-consumer, members of the cannabis community will be boycotting the New Hampshire market. 

Currently we are sitting at 93% in support of the boycott.

Sign up by clicking here

Till next time,

NHCannaPatient

About The Patient Perspective

I started my cannabis journey after being assaulted in college. Suffering from post-concussion symptoms, typical over the counter remedies weren’t doing the trick for me. If it weren’t for my support group at the time, I would’ve never thought about trying cannabis to treat my symptoms.

When I initially started to consume cannabis, I was not prepared for the positive impacts it would bring me in my day to day life. 

I can attribute this to the anti-cannabis propaganda I was subjected to throughout my life. Along with treating my post-concussion symptoms, I started to feel relief from debilitating ADHD symptoms. Cannabis consumption has positively impacted my day-to-day life more than any prescription medication ever had.

I can contribute my cannabis consumption to the overall success I had as a student and throughout my adult life.

A few years ago I took the leap and decided to begin the process to obtain my New Hampshire medical cannabis card and I’ve been a registered patient in New Hampshire ever since.

Part of my mission is to try and push for positive changes throughout the New Hampshire medical program and to ensure we are not forgotten as the state navigates general legalization.