West Lebanon
Such a system could generate as much as $57.8 million in annual revenue, according to the lengthy report from the Commission to Study the Legalization, Regulation, and Taxation of Marijuana, which provided an in-depth look at what a legal cannabis system in the state could look like.
The commission, made up of 17 people from diverse backgrounds, didn’t take a formal stance on whether the Legislature should legalize marijuana, instead focusing solely on gathering facts and talking to other states about their experiences, said the chairman of the panel, state Rep. Patrick Abrami, R-Stratham.
“I said, ‘We have to keep our personal biases behind and come up with facts for the Legislature and the citizens of New Hampshire to hopefully make a more informed decision whether to legalize or not,’ ” Abrami said on Friday. “If we took a position, we felt it would diminish our recommendations.”
The commission summarized its 246-page report into a list of 54 recommendations to the Legislature, which covered just about all avenues of a legal pot market, including regulation of personal use and possession, home growing and a commercial market.
The recommendations included the amount of marijuana any one person can possess, the state agency that should oversee a legal market and a prospective taxation rate.
For people 21 and older, the commission suggested limiting marijuana possession to 1 ounce and six plants — three of which can be mature. They recommended placing a 5-gram limit on marijuana concentrate and making it so no household can have more than 12 marijuana plants, six of them being mature.
Any legislation to legalize and commercialize marijuana should incorporate a wholesale tax rate between $23 and $56 per ounce, or if a sales tax was preferred, that tax rate should be between 7 percent and 15 percent, the report suggests. But the study also notes that constitutional questions could arise in levying a higher sales tax rate on a marijuana cookie versus more conventional ones.
The commission estimated that the state could see tax revenue ranging from $15.3 million to $57.8 million, though it also said regulating and licensing legal marijuana, along with substance misuse prevention and treatment programs, could cost between $9.9 million and $13.3 million annually.
A Cannabis Commission, much like the state’s liquor commission, should oversee licensing, enforce regulations and coordinate research and data collection for a marijuana market, the study commission suggested. The Cannabis Commission could issue four types of licenses: cultivation, manufacturing, retail and testing.
Any legislation should include a “pathway” for Alternative Treatment Centers, or medical marijuana facilities, to transition from nonprofits to for-profit entities. The New Hampshire Legislature approved marijuana for medical use in 2013 and decriminalized small possession amounts in 2017.
The study commission also focused on education and youth.
No marijuana business should be located within 1,000 feet of a school, the commission suggested, and marijuana packaging should be tamper- and child-proof.
Youth education and keeping marijuana out of the hands of children are topics on Lebanon Police Chief Richard Mello’s mind. Mello was a member of the study commission. He also is a member of the New Hampshire Association of Chiefs of Police, a body that is staunchly opposed to legalizing marijuana.
The study commission held video conferences or sat down with officials from all of the states where a legal market is in place. Law enforcement officials in those states have seen problems with youth use, Mello said.
Impaired driving also is problematic, he said, adding that officers in New Hampshire don’t have a scientific tool that tests for marijuana impairment, or even a threshold level for what constitutes marijuana impairment.
“It makes it hard to enforce,” Mello said on Friday. “(Legalizing marijuana) is something that is not being pushed for the right reasons. It is going to have a detrimental effect on the state.”
Despite his opposition, he applauded the state for being “forward-thinking” in comparison to all of the other states — with the exception of Vermont — that legalized marijuana through a referendum.
By putting the cart before the horse, those states are now having to address issues as they arise, he said.
Vermont was the first state to approve recreational marijuana legislatively. Earlier this year, the Vermont Legislature approved recreational marijuana, meaning users 21 and older can posses up to an ounce of pot as well as six plants, with two mature and four immature.
Some hurdles the New Hampshire study commission pointed to are the fact that marijuana is still illegal on a federal level, that New Hampshire banks may not want to have relationships with marijuana businesses and that a legal market could lead to workplace issues.
The commission recommended having some local control and said towns and cities should have an “opt-in” option, much like the game keno. That way, residents can vote on whether they want to allow cultivation, manufacturing or retail stores in their towns or cities.
Matt Simon, New England political director for the Marijuana Policy Project, commended the study commission’s work. The Marijuana Policy Project is an organization that pushes for marijuana reform.
“Overall, the recommendations appear to be quite reasonable. I applaud Chairman Abrami and the other commission members for their diligence in gathering testimony and putting together a useful report for the next legislature,” he said in an email.
He continued: “That being said, I believe this year’s election results are likely to have a much greater impact on the future of cannabis policy than anything that is or isn’t in the commission’s report. The next step, after the election, will be for the House and Senate to develop and pass legislation based on the findings of this commission.”
Abrami said he is under the impression that the commission’s report will become a House bill this winter.
Republican Gov. Chris Sununu has opposed legalizing marijuana. His challenger, Democrat Molly Kelly, has said she supports a taxed system.
Abrami himself said he likely would vote against marijuana legalization, he said.
He liked the fact that a legal market would provide a consistent product for users, he said. But today’s marijuana — even in a legal market — is “not your grandfather’s weed” in Abrami’s view. He said some THC concentrations are out of control and provide an “instantaneous high.” THC is the active chemical in cannabis that is responsible for providing a high.
“With that, I am still leaning as a no vote if this comes to the floor,” Abrami said. “I am still not convinced that legalization will make society a better place.”
Jordan Cuddemi can be reached at jcuddemi@vnews.com or 603-727-3248.