Letter: Pass The Medical Marijuana Bill Now
Suzanne Hudson
April 7, 2009
Foster's Daily Democrat (NH)
To the editor: I am writing in response to the Daily Democrat's unfortunate characterization of HB 648 as a "hasty remedy to a bad law."
Maine passed its medical marijuana law in 1999, and Vermont followed suit in 2004, so it's clear there is nothing "hasty" about this bill. Over the last two years, this bill has been carefully rewritten and revised by the House Health, Human Services, and Elderly Affairs Committee, which approved it in a 13-7 vote.
Federal law is irrelevant to the question of whether or not New Hampshire should continue to criminalize seriously ill patients. Even under the Bush administration, the federal government did nothing to interfere with these laws in our two neighbor states. If we don't want state and local police to arrest cancer and MS patients who use marijuana, the only solution is to change state law. Fortunately, the House agreed in a 234-138 landslide. They must have understood that some New Hampshire patients simply can't wait another year.
The New Hampshire Senate needs to pass HB 648 now, not sometime down the road.
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