Nashuatelegraph.com: Future looks bleak for marijuana bill
By most accounts, a bill that would decriminalize possession of a small amount of marijuana in the state isn’t going any further this session, despite the surprise vote of support in the House of Representatives last week.Gov. John Lynch already has come out on record against the legislation, and Senate Majority Leader Joseph Foster, a Nashua Democrat, has said publicly that the measure (HB 1623) has virtually no chance to make it through his chamber.
Still, Nashua’s two young sponsors of the bill – freshman Democratic Reps. Jeffrey Fontas and Andrew Edwards – can take some solace in the fact that their bill actually got as far as it did this session.
Three years ago, a bill to decriminalize marijuana possession was handily rejected by the House 295-60, while last year a similar bill never made it out of committee. So last week’s surprise 193-141 vote by the House represents quite the turnaround.
Opponents generally argued that marijuana use can lead to more serious drugs and that the bill was the first step toward making marijuana legal in New Hampshire. Others argued that it would send the wrong message to teens.That was exactly the point made by Colin Manning, the governor’s press secretary, right after the House vote.
“This sends absolutely the wrong message to New Hampshire’s young people about the very real dangers of drug use . . . If the bill were to reach the governor’s desk, which seems very unlikely, the governor would veto it.”
To be fair, there is some merit to that argument. In theory, at least, a lesser punishment could embolden some teens to experiment with marijuana who might not otherwise do so.
But in reality, states that have decriminalized marijuana have found no increase in the teen use of marijuana. We’ve even seen a decrease in the teen use of marijuana in the states that have accepted legal medical marijuana. What a surprise, it seems that the less forbidden the herb is, the less rebellious teens want to use it.
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