Marijuana reforms in America did not end in 2016. We are yet to see much more coming to pass for a number of states, especially those who haven’t established any laws on marijuana and entirely operate under the federal government laws. Well, there are states that have made a lot of progress with the legalization of marijuana while others are warming up to them. The first step apparently is to seek the establishment of laws that govern the legal use of medical pot. Afterwards, states have then considered the use of weed for other reasons. Well, recreational marijuana may become lawful for adults in New Hampshire should the Senate Minority Leader consider having it in his way. Jeff Woodburn, a democratic legislator and the Minority Leader in the Senate has plans of introducing a new cannabis measure that would decriminalize the use of weed for recreational purposes among the adults. The initiative will take a similar measure as that taken up to control alcohol in the state. This is expected to happen after the congressional session starts again in 2017.
According to Woodburn, the passing of recreational cannabis laws in Maine and Massachusetts is a huge motivator for ending the prohibition of marijuana in the Granite State. Not to point out, a WMUR/Granite State poll that was published in May showing that over 60% of New Hampshire adults were in support of decriminalizing the cannabis plant. Woodburn believes that the steps taken by these states have forced them to reconsider their regulations and laws governing the cultivation, sale and use of marijuana. He further reiterated that they cannot control what is taking place all around them and that it would be impractical to hide their heads in the snow. Even though the governor of New Hampshire, Maggie Hassan opposed such a legislature in this tenure that is coming to an end, the incoming Governor-elect Chris Sununu is more certainly going to approve the proposal being made by Woodburn. Recently, Sununu said that he world see how the neighboring states dealt with their programs of marijuana prior to backing any initiatives on recreational marijuana. All the same, he also vowed to support actions seeking to legalize weed in New Hampshire and relax any stringent sentences for persons caught in possession of Marijuana.
New Hampshire State established medical marijuana laws in 2013. As a result, patients can now use marijuana for medical reasons under the guidance and supervision of a medical marijuana doctor. All the same, individuals caught with even less than an ounce of weed without proper documentation can face prison sentence of up to three years and a fine of $25,000. Even though there is interest from high-caliber politicians in the state of New Hampshire to make marijuana absolutely legal for the adults, the residents must not expect to light up in a manner which they please. First, it will take some time for them to do so and then, there will be rules and regulations that will govern the recreational marijuana business. While Woodburn had plans to introduce the recreational marijuana initiative in 2017, the proposal would not be effective until sometimes in 2019 or 2020. This is due to some reasons that Senator Woodburn did not explain. However, people can guess looking at what has happened in other states.
Other states like Colorado and Oregon have robust working marijuana laws and if that was anything to go buy, New Hampshire will be the next state to pass recreational marijuana laws. Marijuana reforms are quickly taking the United States by storm and no one wants to be left out in such developments.
