Following the national tide of public opinion favoring the legalization of marijuana, the Democrat-controlled New Hampshire house passed a bill - HB 492-FN-LOCAL - on Jan. 16 that would legalize marijuana for recreational use.
In passing the bill, the New Hampshire House made history by becoming the first legislative body to pass a bill that would legalize recreational marijuana.
There are currently only two states in the Union - Colorado and Washington - where recreational marijuana is legal, and both states' laws were passed through public referendum, as opposed to legislative action.
The bill aims to construct laws regarding marijuana consumption, possession, and distribution similar to the state's established alcohol laws, effectively treating marijuana as a controlled substance. The current draft of the bill breaks down its intentions into three laws: first, the bill states that only persons 21 and older have the legal right to the new law - persons under 21 are prohibited from engaging with marijuana; second, persons with the intention to wholesale, retail, cultivate or test marijuana must obtain proper licensing; third, that a tax on the sale of marijuana be levied at both wholesale, manufacturing and retail levels.
As Colorado and Washington garner more national attention - serving as a litmus test for future nationwide legalization - the local media spotlight will be on the New Hampshire Ways and Means Committee. The committee is scheduled to meet this Thursday to revise the Bill before it is sent back to the House, where it is likely to pass again, according to Laura McCrystal of the Concord Monitor. McCrystal is basing this prediction on sources in the Merrimack County.
Comment: Washington is creating the instability in the country so that they can keep their troops there and continue to harvest the opium and Afghanistan's natural resources:
Opium and the CIA: Can the U.S. triumph in the drug-addicted Afghanistan War?
War On Drugs Is A Hoax - US military Admits to Guarding, Assisting Lucrative Opium Trade in Afghanistan
"The war is worth waging": Afghanistan's vast reserves of minerals and natural gas
Afghan President: U.S. maintaining death squads and torture militias in Afghanistan