CONCORD — Senate President Jeb Bradley, R-Wolfeboro, said a proposed Senate plan to legalize recreational use of cannabis for adults falls short of preventing “Big Marijuana” firms from dominating the New Hampshire market.
A vocal opponent, Bradley presented multiple changes Thursday to the 35-page proposal of fellow Sen. Daryl Abbas, R-Salem, who said his proposed franchise store model is the only one that can win majority support in the state Senate.
Bradley told the Senate Judiciary Committee under no circumstances would he vote for the legislation, but said he feels an obligation to make suggestions to improve it.
Both sides should agree that any bill to pass the Senate must have proper oversight, public health and safety protections, should not make New Hampshire beholden to large national firms that sell marijuana and should not do more to invite the illegal black market into the state, he said.
“If it is going to pass, we need to make it the best possible version of legalization that we can,” Bradley said.
For nearly the past two decades, the New Hampshire House has consistently approved legalized marijuana bills only to have them die in the Senate.
The 39-page House-passed bill of 2024 (HB 1633) from Rep. Erica Layon, R-Derry, called for 15 establishments to sell cannabis as “agency stores,” licensed and under the operational control of the State Liquor Commission.
The rival plan Abbas offered that has the conceptual backing of Gov. Chris Sununu would have the State Liquor Commission act as state franchiser, granting franchise agreements to 15 firms.
Under the Abbas model, the state would have more control than the House plan would have over the pricing practices of these franchisees.
Layon said stores need to be responsive to market changes and that's not possible with the state liquor agency controlling prices to compete with legal pot sold outside of New Hampshire and illegal products sold on the street.
The Abbas amendment was not available online Thursday.
The Abbas plan is a significant improvement to what the House passed, Bradley said.
But he objected to one part that would permit a single company to have a “threshold financial interest” in up to three retail franchises or three of any number of cultivation, production and manufacturing plants that are licensed to be set up in the state.
“In allowing as many as three, we are basically inviting Big Marijuana into the state. I hope that there will be one entity, one,” Bradley said.
Bradley warned New Hampshire-based farmers or retailers that wanted to get licensed by the state to grow or to sell cannabis could be squeezed out.
The Abbas plan would eliminate the right for law enforcement to seek criminal forfeiture of marijuana being brought into the state.
“If a tractor-trailer of (illicit) marijuana comes into state, we should be able to seize it,” Bradley said.
He proposed setting up a Cannabis Control Commission that would approve its operating rules, be chaired by the State Liquor Commission chairman and have the attorney general sitting as a member.
The Abbas plan called for a cannabis advisory board with less authority and without the attorney general on the panel.
Bradley said the legislation should set an upper limit on the allowed potency of tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) in marijuana that could be legally smoked.
THC is the primary psychoactive agent in marijuana, hashish and other preparations derived from cannabis plants.
In both bills there is a limit on the potency of THC found in edibles that have cannabis in them.
Abbas said the state’s borders already suffer the ill effects from legal marijuana being sold in all other New England states without New Hampshire getting any financial benefit.
There are five retail stores in Massachusetts towns that border his district, Abbas said.
“We can’t control Maine, Massachusetts and Vermont. If there were stores in New Hampshire, you would at least have a hand on the wheel,” Abbas said.
Senate Deputy Democratic Leader Cindy Rosenwald of Nashua agreed to co-sponsor the Abbas proposal.
She said a key provision in this plan would be give $500,000 in startup money and 15% of future revenues to the existing Governor’ Commission on Alcohol and Drug Abuse Prevention, Treatment and Recovery.
Layon said the bill could die if the House is asked to accept the part of the Abbas plan that would give prosecutors the discretion to seek jail time for someone found guilty a second time of smoking marijuana in public within five years of the first offense.
The House bill could charge someone with a misdemeanor for a second offense, but it could not carry jail time.
“It is a delicate tightrope walk that can get it to become law without major changes,” Layon said of the House bill.
Abbas said jail time is a must have provision for his Senate coalition partners.
“They are willfully doing it, going out of their way to do it and to me that is unacceptable,” Abbas said.
