The Republican governor of New Hampshire has signed a bill that will create a commission tasked with preparing legislation to legalize marijuana through a system of state-run stores—a novel regulatory model that he backed this year after concluding that legalization is “inevitable” in the state despite his broader concerns with the policy.
This comes about two months after bicameral and bipartisan lawmakers reached an agreement on the incremental commission legislation in a conference committee.
The bill that the conference committee took up initially only required a commission to study the novel state stores idea for cannabis, which Gov. Chris Sununu (R) only recently endorsed after historically opposing cannabis legalization.
But it was amended prior to final passage to include a mandate for the body to take its findings and draft a state-run legalization measure that legislators can consider when they reconvene for the second half of the two-year session in January. The commission’s work will be due December 1.
“New Hampshire has an opportunity to safely regulate the sale of marijuana with a model few others can provide,” Sununu said on Tuesday. “By establishing a commission to study state-controlled sales, this bill will bring stakeholders from across New Hampshire together to ensure
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