Archive
Subscribe Place Ad Buy Trib Photos Readers' Choice Contests
Jobs Homes Autos Classifieds
Trib Total Media Contact Us
ShareThis Page
New Hampshire House votes for legal marijuana | TribLIVE.com
Health

New Hampshire House votes for legal marijuana

Ben Schmitt
Ben Schmitt | Tuesday, January 9, 2018 11:51 a.m
AlaskaMarijuana23114jpg326f3
Associated Press
A leaf of marijuana

Members of the New Hampshire House of Representatives voted to legalize recreational marijuana use Tuesday, despite a new federal crackdown against pot use.

The House voted, 207-139, for a bill that would legalize possession of up to three-quarters of an ounce of marijuana, and the cultivation of up to three plants by adults, The Cannabist reported . The legislation does not legalize marijuana commerce.

The Senate must now vote on the bill.

New Hampshire’s neighbors Massachusetts and Maine have already legalized recreational marijuana use.

Advocates, including state Rep. Frank Sapareto of Derry, said the “war on pot” should be over, according to New Hampshire Public Radio . Others pointed to New Hampshire’s “Live Free Or Die” motto, with the state possibly being “an island of prohibition” among neighboring states that have legalized pot for adults.

Last week, U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions said he will let federal prosecutors where marijuana is legal decide how aggressively to enforce long-standing federal law prohibiting it. Under federal law, marijuana remains a Schedule 1 controlled substance, similar to heroin.

Recently appointed U.S. Attorney for the Western District of Pennsylvania, Scott Brady, said Thursday that he plans to “vigorously enforce the laws of the United States,” even though the state has legalized medical marijuana.

Ben Schmitt is a Tribune-Review staff writer. Reach him at 412-320-7991, bschmitt@tribweb.com or via Twitter at @Bencschmitt.

Ben Schmitt is a Tribune-Review assistant news editor. You can contact Ben at 412-320-7991, bschmitt@tribweb.com or via Twitter .

Categories: Health Now
TribLIVE commenting policy

You are solely responsible for your comments and by using TribLive.com you agree to our Terms of Service.

We moderate comments. Our goal is to provide substantive commentary for a general readership. By screening submissions, we provide a space where readers can share intelligent and informed commentary that enhances the quality of our news and information.

While most comments will be posted if they are on-topic and not abusive, moderating decisions are subjective. We will make them as carefully and consistently as we can. Because of the volume of reader comments, we cannot review individual moderation decisions with readers.

We value thoughtful comments representing a range of views that make their point quickly and politely. We make an effort to protect discussions from repeated comments either by the same reader or different readers

We follow the same standards for taste as the daily newspaper. A few things we won't tolerate: personal attacks, obscenity, vulgarity, profanity (including expletives and letters followed by dashes), commercial promotion, impersonations, incoherence, proselytizing and SHOUTING. Don't include URLs to Web sites.

We do not edit comments. They are either approved or deleted. We reserve the right to edit a comment that is quoted or excerpted in an article. In this case, we may fix spelling and punctuation.

We welcome strong opinions and criticism of our work, but we don't want comments to become bogged down with discussions of our policies and we will moderate accordingly.

We appreciate it when readers and people quoted in articles or blog posts point out errors of fact or emphasis and will investigate all assertions. But these suggestions should be sent via e-mail. To avoid distracting other readers, we won't publish comments that suggest a correction. Instead, corrections will be made in a blog post or in an article.