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Lynch at center of medical marijuana fight
7/1/09|UnionLeader| by Tom Fahey



With the battle over a state budget now over, activists are fighting over whether Gov. John Lynch should sign a medical marijuana bill into law.

Conservatives are urging Lynch to veto HB 648, while those who favor more liberal marijuana policies are urging him to pass it.

The bill calls for three-nonprofit "compassion centers" that would be licensed to grow and distribute marijuana to critically and terminally ill patients, who must be certified by the state and their own doctor.

Lynch said yesterday he is reviewing a copy of the 20-page bill that Senate and House members negotiated over the past month, but said he has reached no decision.

The Secretary of State's office has still not received the finished bill from legislative lawyers. The bill needs the signatures of Speaker of the House Terie Norelli and Senate President Sylvia Larsen before it goes to Lynch. If he signs the bill, New Hampshire would join 13 other states that enacted laws allowing medicinal use of marijuana.

The final version of the bill passed by more than a two-thirds margin in the House, 232-108, and by a party-line, 14-10 vote in the Senate.

Republicans who voted against the bill argued that it will put police in a tough spot. They are sworn to uphold all state and federal laws, yet state marijuana law will require them to allow certified patients to violate federal law.

The conservative Cornerstone Policy Research group is calling on Lynch to veto the bill on fiscal concerns, saying it will cost the state too much money at a time when budget dollars are already stretched too thinly.

A legislative fiscal note said the bill will cost $250,000. However, the bill states that the program must be self-funded, using license and permit fees to cover all its costs.

Matt Simon of the N.H. Coalition for Common Sense Marijuana Policy said Cornerstone did not follow the bill through the process, and missed important changes that eliminated the bill's impact on the budget.

He said the bill was carefully crafted to meet all Lynch's concerns, especially his demand that dispensation and distribution of marijuana be a secure process.

"We feel we've done a good job and we hope Gov. Lynch will do the right thing," Simon said.

NH Common Sense has launched a TV ad campaign, its second of the year, calling on Lynch to sign the bill. It features cancer survivor Dennis Acton of Fremont, recounting how the use of marijuana alleviated nausea he suffered during chemotherapy.

Acton says in the 30-second ad, "I hope Gov. Lynch will have the courage to step forward and sign this bill into law."