The New Hampshire Senate last week voted to scrap compromise legislation that would have lowered the state’s criminal penalty for first-time psilocybin possession while also creating mandatory minimum sentences around fentanyl.
A bicameral conference committee struck an agreement on the bill, SB 14, earlier this month, returning it to both chambers for sign-off on the deal. While the House initially rejected the proposal Thursday, representatives returned from their lunch break, took up the bill again and passed it on a 185–182 reconsideration vote.
On the Senate side, however, Sen. Bill Gannon (R)—who briefly sat on the conference committee before being replaced by Sen. Daryl Abbas (R)—moved on the chamber floor that the measure be tabled, effectively killing it. The motion passed on a voice vote without any discussion.
The bill’s psilocybin provisions were championed by Rep. Kevin Verville (R), who has said that while he wasn’t a fan of the mandatory minimums for fentanyl, he saw the bill as an acceptable compromise to reduce first-time psilocybin offenses from the current felony charge down to an unspecified misdemeanor.
In email to Marijuana Moment after the Senate’s tabling vote, Verville called the move “highly regrettable,” asserting that senators “chose to protect and
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