After failed bid last session, medical marijuana home grow option back up for debate in N.H.

By CASEY McDERMOTT

Monitor staff

Last modified: 2/12/2015 12:42:31 AM

An attempt to let people who qualify for New Hampshire’s medical marijuana law grow their own plants at home is getting another chance this session, after a similar push failed last year.



New Hampshire’s medical marijuana law originally included a home-grow provision, but the Senate removed it at the request of Gov. Maggie Hassan, who still favors limiting distribution to state-regulated dispensaries.



The reintroduced home-grow law, almost identical to one that passed in the House but stalled in the Senate last year, would allow home cultivation of medical marijuana for qualifying patients who live at least 30 miles away from the nearest state-licensed alternative treatment center. Rep. Ted Wright and Sen. John Reagan, both Republicans who sponsored last year’s home-cultivation bill, are the sponsors.



If approved as drafted, the home-grow law would require patients and qualifying caregivers to report their “cultivation location” with the state, and it would also require them to consent to “random inspections of the cultivation location at the discretion of local public health officials.”



New Hampshire’s therapeutic cannabis law went into effect in July 2013, but it requires qualifying patients and caregivers to go through state-regulated dispensaries to get the substance. The state is still working on reviewing prospective alternative treatment centers, and the state has told patients they will have to wait to use therapeutic cannabis lawfully until those are operational. It will likely be at least six months until the alternative treatment centers open.



That delay is part of the reason why some medical marijuana advocates are pushing to give people the ability to grow their own marijuana plants at home. Others who spoke in favor of the bill at a hearing yesterday morning said it would help patients who might not be able to afford the cost of substances offered at the state’s alternative treatment centers, and it would be more convenient for people who would otherwise have to travel long distances to reach the nearest center.



Chris Lopez, a Manchester resident who spoke at the hearing, said she became paralyzed a few years ago and now endures muscle spasms that frequently inhibit her ability to carry out everyday tasks. She’s found that smoking cannabis or eating cannabis-infused food alleviates her spasms “almost instantly.”



“So, you see, I need cannabis,” Lopez told lawmakers at yesterday’s hearing. “But for now and until these dispensaries are in place, I have to break the law to get the relief I need and stay productive.”



New Futures, a substance abuse prevention advocacy organization, is opposed to the measure, as are the Department of Safety and Gov. Maggie Hassan.



“Governor Hassan believes that allowing doctors to provide relief to patients through the use of appropriately regulated and dispensed medical marijuana is the compassionate and right policy for the State of New Hampshire, and the law we have put in place ensures that we approach this policy in the right way with measures to prevent abuse,” Hassan’s spokesman William Hinkle said in an email. “The Governor continues to share the concerns of law enforcement about the state’s ability to effectively regulate a home grow option and believes the dispensary approach is the right way to allow for the use of medical marijuana with oversight measures to prevent abuse.”







(Casey McDermott can be reached at 369-3306 or cmcdermott@cmonitor.com or on Twitter @caseymcdermott.)





