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I spent the day in Concord yesterday - attending 2 hearings. First, the hearing on HB648, the medical marijuana bill, and then HB556, the hearing on the repeal of the death penalty.
What an incredible week! Concord was rockin' as the winds of change blew through the capitol.
No matter which side of the political aisle you call home, or if your place of comfort is to straddle the aisle, this most recent session of the New Hampshire House of Representatives - the people's legislature - should have left you exhilarated.
Granted, no one is totally satisfied with the legislation passed. Count me as displeased with several outcomes. But I can live with that. And so can you.
John DiStaso's March 18 "Granite Status" column at the Union-Leader carried the following "Quick Hit" regarding HB 648:
GOP chair Sununu says that passage yesterday of a medical marijuana bill by the House Health, Human Services and Elderly Affairs Committee on a 13-7 vote "confirmed the Democratic agenda is coming out of San Francisco." He said Lynch "has to stand up and say he will veto this one or else lose all credibility as a rational centrist." But Matt Simon, executive director of New Hampshire Common Sense Marijuana Policy, called it "a good day for democracy."
Simon deconstructed Sununu's archaic analysis of the issue in his blog at NHInsider.com, which concludes with the following paragraph:
Fortunately, most New Hampshire policymakers from both parties realize this isn't 1989, when Sununu left the Governor's office, or even 1998, when Sununu left his position as co-host of CNN's Crossfire. Times have changed. If Sununu truly believes in the "Live Free or Die" motto he claims to cherish, he will eventually recognize that medical decisions should be made by doctors and patients in New Hampshire, not by unaccountable bureaucrats in Washington, DC.
The House will vote this week on whether New Hampshire should become the 14th state to protect seriously ill patients from arrest when they use marijuana with a physician's recommendation. More information is available at NHCompassion.org
(I'm a well known prude about legal and illegal drugs, but when ideology trumps relief for the suffering, it's infuriating. Has AG Ayotte ever spent time inside a chemo ward? - promoted by Dean Barker)
Yet again, Ms. Ayotte has proven that she is more interested in making certain of her right-wing bona fides than in representing New Hampshire's citizens.
Anti-choice? Check...
Against marriage equality? Check...
Extra-extra pro-death penalty? Check...
and, as of yesterday...
Anti-medical marijuana!
She's practically Sarah Palin without the trendy eyewear.
Medical Marijuana Story in the Concord Monitor: http://www.cmonitor.com/apps/p...
I published this article in the Huffington Post today, and I really hope New Hampshire Democrats will take a minute to read Clayton Holton's story.
Clayton suffers from a rare form of muscular dystrophy. At 22, he is the youngest person ever admitted into a retirement home in New Hampshire. Elizabeth Kucinich wanted to hear his story, and I hope you will, too.
The experience of writing this article leaves me with one thought: if NH Democrats can't unite in favor of medical marijuana when it is reintroduced in 2009, I will eat my hat.
On July 6 at the public library in Candia, I finally got my chance to thank New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson for supporting the rights of seriously ill patients to access marijuana with a doctor's recommendation. Not only did the governor support his state's medical marijuana bill with public statements and sign the bill in March, he used his personal influence to lobby state legislators in the days before the vote.
So I thanked the governor for his efforts, and asked him why he'd thought medical marijuana was an important reform for his state. His answer was authentic, reasonable, and humane.
He told me and the crowd of 30 Candia democrats about the ten (or so) cancer patients who had apprehended him at a town hall meeting in New Mexico. He said they told him, "We want medical marijuana to ease our pain."
Richardson, whose support in New Hampshire has risen into double-digits, said he told the patients he'd see what he could do to get them medical marijuana. After consulting with his health department, he said they found a responsible way to implement the measure, and he then began advocating for medical marijuana legislation.
"I got all the sheriffs in the United States mad at me," he added half-jokingly, "but I believe the War on Drugs is not working. I'm tough on crime -- I'm not going to let somebody out that commits a violent crime, and I know we've got problems in our prisons, but I'd have more treatment of our incarcerated people, more rehabilitation, more educational programs."
Click here for the video of Richardson's full 3 minute answer.
