At a recent, well-attended and lengthy hearing held by the criminal justice committee at the state house regarding studying cannabis legalization, a state representative from Rockingham, Kyle Tasker, put his freedom on the line.
During his testimony in front of the committee, and in front of a state police officer, Tasker pulled out a bag of cookies, a vaporizer, and what appeared to be a bottle of cannabis tincture, which he claimed came from his “personal stash”.
The cop behind him didn’t seem to know what to do. After all, he likely wouldn’t hesitate to arrest Tasker for possessing cannabis in the streets. However, arresting him in front of the committee would only prove the point of the cannabis freedom activists – that people are arrested all the time for cannabis – something about which the police frequently mislead the legislators.
They like to claim that no one goes to jail for simple cannabis possession in New Hampshire, which is a lie. Even if it were true, people still get arrested and processed all the time, then forced into court and paying fines. It’s tyranny, over a plant, and everyone knows it.
While Tasker did admit that the cookies were actually purchased from the kitchen in the state house basement, and it appeared the vaporizer was for nicotine, he wasn’t so clear on what was in the tincture bottle, despite questions from the committee. Everyone, except the cop, seemed to be enjoying Tasker’s testimony, and multiple committee members took the opportunity to laugh and crack jokes.
Nearly everyone, including the multiple elderly members of the committee seem to be aware of the absurdity of cannabis prohibition, as well as its imminent demise.
I’ve attended a LOT of these hearings (on medical, decrim, legalization) over the years, and the committee members have become less-and-less hostile, to the point where the committee has become well-educated on the issue. In an exclusive interview with Free Keene, Tasker agreed, “Things have changed a lot since I took office in 2010. Edibles were something snickered about and jokes about brownies were the typical response, with less-enlightened reps bringing up issues like health consequences of smoking unfiltered joints…Before the legal marijuana industry was established no one had ever considered a personal vaporizer, or a drops placed under the tongue. It was not something that was taken seriously by a majority of the committee. Now that we are getting empirical data and the jokes have stopped its much easier to address the policy directly and analyze the pros and cons, the latter of which are few and far between.”
As the entertaining testimony and responses show, these days they’re downright friendly on it. All that stands in the way of meaningful cannabis reform in New Hampshire is the senate and governor. What will 2015 bring?
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