New Hampshire Gov. Chris Sununu (R) says he will now look toward making recreational cannabis legal for Granite Staters, according to a report in The Hill.
“In the past, I said now is not the time to legalize marijuana in New Hampshire,” the governor said last Friday after a legalization bill failed again to move forward in the Senate. Senator Bill Gannon (R), had just finished saying the same exact thing only hours before.
But Sununu now seems to be signaling that if a legalization bill were to go forward—one taking into the consideration the reasons why the last one just failed—he would no longer be adverse to signing it.
As was reported in Global Cannabis Times last week, even with some 70% of residents in support of cannabis legalization, the “Live Free, or Die” State remains the only piece of New England that hasn’t yet done so.
“To ignore this reality would be shortsighted and harmful,” the governor now says. “That is why, with the right policy and framework in place, I stand ready to sign a legalization bill that puts the State of NH in the driver’s seat, focusing on harm reduction — not profits.”
The idea would center on using the State run liquor stores to control the sale of cannabis. There would no tax to keep prices low enough to compete with the black market.
As the retail points would already be largely set, New Hampshire could avoid “marijuana miles”, or densely concentrated marijuana shops within one city or town. Any city or town that wants to ban shops should be free to do so. The state should also control “all messaging, avoiding billboards, commercials, and digital ads that bombard kids on a daily basis.” Sununu added.