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zetterbeauty t1_j38eh21 wrote

Listen, I’m as left leaning as it gets, but NH Democrats are no different as it relates to weed. For reasons I’m less and less understanding of as I get older, we’ve had governors across the political spectrum veto it for all 30-some-odd years of my life.

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ctdrever t1_j38mhh6 wrote

The reason is that they want to treat it like booze, only for sale in state liquor stores.

The problem with that plan is that we can't have state employees sell something that is illegal federally.

Bongs to the left of me, tokers to the right, here I am stuck in the middle with booze.

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kearsargeII t1_j394cuc wrote

This comes up every time, and I find it extremely dubious. I like the idea of the state selling, I just really, really doubt it is the reason it is not recreationally legal here. It is not legal here as Sununu and Hassan personally vetoed recreational legalization legislation every time it came across their desks. To hear Sununu talk, weed is a gateway drug given that he will bring up the opioid crisis every time this comes up. There is zero sign that he is waiting on federal legalization so it can be sold in state liquor stores.

Legalization has never had a veto proof majority, because our State House heavily favors out of touch retirees. I give it zero chance that the people regularly voting against recreational legalization are secretly waiting for it to become legal federally. Instead I think the 40~ish percent of the state legislatures that are against it are against it for far less forward-looking reasons, probably more knee-jerk anti-drug votes

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Kekwexpress t1_j39gm5t wrote

Completely disagree.

I don’t believe it’s a secret at all. I think it’s completely obvious. You surely can’t expect them to flat out say this.

I think it’s a pretty reasonable inference to conclude that they need/want to be able to treat it like state liquor so the state can get the benefits of all of the money instead of just taxes.

But I guess it could be as you say. It just seems so much more clear to me the other way.

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1WantT0Bel1eve t1_j39kv4f wrote

And I'm not buying weed from the liquor store. That experience is already shitty, I don't need to add a weed buying experience akin to visiting the DMV to my daily frustration. Gage in Ayer and Nature's remedy are plenty fine...

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RoadAdventures t1_j3rgpq5 wrote

> The reason is that they want to treat it like booze, only for sale in state liquor stores.

The measure most likely to pass the house this year would allow private stores and tax it at the meals and rooms tax rate, so we would be able to buy it for less than in the neighboring states.

Of course, the trick is in getting it by the Senate and Governor.

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AuthorSnow t1_j38mqgc wrote

Nice to see sense. This isn’t a gop/dem issue. This is a state that is waiting for the feds so they can monopolize the industry. They already have the infrastructure

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Umbert360 t1_j394ci4 wrote

Wow that makes a lot of sense, I never thought of it that way before. At first I was like “good, sell it at the liquor stores!” But you’re absolutely right, even though the feds don’t enforce it normally, they can’t be having state government employees knowingly breaking a federal law

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widget_fucker t1_j397s2w wrote

To be fair, 30 years ago it was “crazy” fringe to be for legalization. And 20 years ago it was still fringe. Even 10 years ago a solid majority opposed legal weed- it was just not a policy position worth sticking one’s neck out for.

Then Colorado changed everything.

But yeah, nh has had a solid 10 years to get their shit together.

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