Medical Marijuana Goes to the NH Senate

Testimony on HB648: 'relative to the use of marijuana for medicinal purposes,' before the NH Senate Health and Human Services Committee, 4/14/2009. The Forces of Darkness just get more strained and more twisted and more bizarre each time we do this little dance. There's some real unintended comedy here.

Part 1



Part 2



And here, the isolated testimony of Rep Steve Vaillancourt and NHCLU Executive Director Claire Ebel.




Last month, following the the House Committee hearing, I sent the following to my Representatives and Senator:

Compassion isn't a character flaw, pain relief shouldn't be criminal

Seriously ill patients in a free and compassionate society should be "allowed" to use medical marijuana if their certified medical doctor (as opposed to their politician) believes it will help ease their suffering. Actively denying and prosecuting medical marijuana patients, besides being cruel and inhumane -- downright barbaric, in fact -- wastes taxpayer dollars and preoccupies law enforcement officials when they could be arresting real criminals threatening life, liberty or property.

And the national government being the expressly created servant of the states, themselves, federal laws -- even if they WERE Constitutional -- are the feds' problem to enforce, not ours. And the current President has apparently finally begun to concede the folly and hubris of the expensive, immoral and unauthorized war on legitimate state laws (on THIS topic, at least -- hey, it's a start...), and will no longer be prosecuting what should have been non-"crimes" in the eyes of state legislatures all along.

Those of us who needn't walk a mile in these patients' painful shoes should simply count our blessings and sit on our hands. It's long past time we recognized the suffering that these seriously ill patients endure, and require that our state government get off its high authoritarian horse and get out of their arduous way. Government has no justification for arbitrarily making peaceful lives more difficult. None. Ever.

Please uphold the House Health, Human Services and Elderly Affairs Committee's recommendation of 'OTP' on HB648: "relative to the use of marijuana for medicinal purposes." It's the compassionate thing to do.