Last-minute tinkering from New Hampshire’s Republican governor has disrupted lawmakers’ plans to legalize adult-use marijuana in the state.
Though Gov. Chris Sununu instructed the Legislature earlier this year to craft a consensus plan for how to set up regulated and taxed marijuana sales, he issued some 11th-hour mandates before a state commission ended its work Monday with no consensus recommendation, according to Manchester TV station WMUR.
Sununu’s office said the governor would veto any plan that did not:
- Limit retail sales to 15 franchised outlets statewide.
- Ban any lobbying or political contributions from state licensees.
“The governor has been clear that any system meets his outlined framework – or be met with a veto,” the governor’s office said in a statement to the TV station.
The lawmakers were “taken back” by the governor’s late directions, WMUR reported, but Sununu was firm.
Sununu, who has said he generally opposes adult use but also conceded that legal marijuana is “inevitable,” previously called for sales to be limited to state-run retail stores.
That’s how the state currently regulates liquor sales, but such a setup would be the first and only example of state-run marijuana sales in the United States.
Instead of a concrete bipartisan recommendation with a good opportunity to become law, the state commission will issue a report mulling the state-run sales model, New Hampshire Public Radio reported.
