O P I N I O N

THE SOAPBOX

Stand Up. Speak Up. It’s Your Turn.

We’ve always been a ‘One Off’ state. No insurance required, no helmet law, we don’t have ‘meaningful’ gun safety laws. Why then, all the fluff (and it is fluff – a pissing contest in our state house) over marijuana laws or lack of them?

We were more than happy to take over liquor sales in 1934. We started the push to take over gambling in 1964, the first state to do so, with ‘The New Hampshire Sweepstakes.” So clearly our wooded state has no compunction about grabbing up what was once, let’s face it, mob controlled enterprises.

Okay, let’s go all in here. We have a population that swells every summer for people on vacation. The tourist dollars are how many of us make it through some severe winters and pay that damn oil bill three times per year. Frankly, I don’t mind it a bit when a trooper is giving Miss New York a speeding ticket. But when local police and DAs are out to convict the same tourists for horticulture of marijuana in a garden plot, well…

The point of contention? It’s legal in their state. It has been for some time. For all of our “It’s Summertime”! and “Live Free or Die” slogans, we are, at the end of the day, hypocrites. I know of more than one case, when their court appearance was over, these nice people were never coming back. The court ‘won’ a fine. We lost tens of thousands in business.

So what are we doing, New Hampshire? Can we set aside the ’60s view of pot? Legalizing, free and clear with state run dispensaries provides a massive tax base. How about over five billion the first year. Of course not close to the toll roads or liquor sales, but not bad either.

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