ARTICLE: Republican-led New Hampshire Senate passes medical marijuana bill!

by Matt Simon
March 28, 2012

Exciting news! In a 13-11 vote, the New Hampshire Senate voted today to approve New Hampshire’s medical marijuana bill, SB 409. This is a huge victory for New Hampshire patients and their families.

With this vote, New Hampshire’s Senate became the first Republican-led state senate in the nation to pass an effective medical marijuana bill. Eight Republicans voted in favor, joined by all five Senate Democrats.

Last year, the House passed a similar bill in a 229-96 vote, with more than half of Republicans voting in favor.

Unfortunately, Governor Lynch (a Democrat) has vetoed medical marijuana legislation in the past. His press secretary has already indicated that he will veto the bill despite the strong, bipartisan support it enjoys in both chambers of the legislature.

Several senators who voted “no” today are not certain in their opposition, and advocates are still optimistic about gaining support from additional senators (those who did not have the luxury of being present for the bill’s public hearing) as the bill continues moving through the process.

The bill will next be referred to the House Health and Human Services Committee for a hearing in April or May, and the process will continue from there.

Share/Bookmark
2 comments
1Richard Feldman { 03.28.12 at 6:35 pm }
Congrats to the citizens of New Hampshire and their elected representatives. The role of government is to protect us from others, not to protect us from ourselves! Republicans should be more supportive of this than Democrats.
“Live Free or Die – there are worse things than death”!

2pmp { 03.28.12 at 7:39 pm }
Gov. Lynch almost lost his last bid for election in 2010.

Given how popular medical marijuana is–70%+ approval– Gov. Lynch should think twice before condemning sick people to suffer unnecessarily before they die in misery.

Governor Lynch: Turn away from cruelty. Practice compassion. Medical cannabis alleviates suffering. Approving this law is the humane thing to do.

Leave a Comment

Note: MPP respects freedom of expression, but any posts deemed inappropriate will be removed. This includes advocating violence or explicit criminal acts, or any statements deemed derogatory or offensive based on race, ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation, or religion. Please be respectful to others.

Name
E-mail
Website