New Hampshire House Overrides Veto on Home Cultivation

[dropcap class=”kp-dropcap”]H[/dropcap]ouse of Representative members in New Hampshire have overridden the governor’s veto on a home medical cannabis cultivation bill.

According to The Boston Globe, House lawmakers agreed on Sept. 18 that it was in the state’s best interest to override Gov. Chris Sununu’s veto of a bill that would allow patients to grow their own medical cannabis at home. The bill is set to return to the Senate, who backed it with a 14-10 vote. It will not become an automatic override because the Senate didn’t vote with a two-thirds majority.

Gov. Sununu originally vetoed the bill in early August, and stated that he thought that the bill would “bypass those public health and safety guardrails and make the job of law enforcement significantly more difficult” and undermine current protections to keep the black market from thriving.

New Hampshire legalized medical cannabis in 2013, and as of last year, there were over 7,000 people enrolled in the program. Right now, there are only four dispensaries in the state, and the lack of access to dispensaries is discouraging people from seeking out medical help with cannabis. Patients believe that having a home cultivation option would help include more needy patients in the program.

This isn’t the first time the governor has vetoed a cannabis bill in New Jersey. While he signed a bill this summer that would expunge past cannabis charges, he vetoed a bill lessen restrictions on medical cannabis providers. He also vetoed a bill this summer that would have allowed for the state to open for-profit cannabis businesses. It seems that Gov. Sununu is concerned with regulation, or lack thereof, and it will be tricky to get him to pass cannabis legislation that pushes existing boundaries.