I spent most of an hour with Rich Girard on his morning show, “Girard at Large” at WLMW-FM in Manchester, bright-and-early at 6:20am on Friday. It was my first time on his show and we had a good discussion about secession, the state and religion, drug prohibition, the death penalty, and abortion. Thanks to Rich and his crew for the opportunity! Here are the show segments:
Your rights mean nothing to the state.
shall issue a license to such applicant authorizing the applicant to carry a loaded pistol or revolver in this state for not less than 4 years from the date of issue, if it appears that the applicant has good reason to fear injury to the applicant’s person or property or has any proper purpose, and that the applicant is a suitable person to be licensed.
The “suitable person” loophole appears to allow police to deny someone a concealed license for anything they want and so far the NH supreme court is backing them up. In 2014 Derrick J was denied a concealed license by Keene Police for basically not being obedient to police, as they later explained in court. Keene’s district court judge Edward J Burke agreed that despite Derrick J being completely peaceful, the Keene Police’s decision to deny him was legal.
Hiring the supposedly best gun rights attorney didn’t help him, nor did their appeal to the NH supreme court, where Burke’s decision was affirmed.
The latest development in the ridiculous concealed carry denial saga is my recent rejection by Keene Police (PDF). This time their rationale for denying my supposed right is not because of what I’ve done in the past, but merely because there’s a “current drug investigation” involving me.
So, now all the police in New Hampshire have to do to deny you the right to defend yourself via concealed carry is open an investigation into you. When do they have to close said investigation? Apparently there’s no specific timeframe.
Liberty-minded state reps have been working to end the concealed license requirement entirely, but thus far it has been stopped by the governor, Maggie Hassan. Another bill attempted to remove the “suitable” loophole from the statute. Perhaps the next election will shake things up a bit more in favor of liberty. Stay tuned here to Free Keene for more on the 2016 election.
Meanwhile, I’m still considering re-applying for the concealed license, likely being denied again, and then taking the mandatory appeal to the district court just for fun.
Cross-posted to the NH Liberty Party website, as I’m currently running for Governor as a democrat with ending the war on drugs as a major campaign platform component.
Patients have died while waiting for the state bureaucrats to finally allow the four legally-authorized medical cannabis dispensaries to open. Despite medical cannabis passing in 2012, bureaucrats dragged their feet on implementation until now, four years later the dispensaries are finally opening. So far there are locations in Plymouth, Dover, and Lebanon. Until the ultra-restrictive medical cannabis statutes are changed, the fourth facility still-to-open in Manchester will be the final one for the whole state.
Worse, apparently patients are assigned to a specific dispensary and can’t buy at the other three locations. All of these restrictions are continued, desperate attempts by the state to control a plant they’ve never been able to control. One patient, speaking anonymously, told me that he would no longer be buying from the dispensary as the quality of cannabis he can find on the black market is better.
Cannabis needs to be legal to possess, grow, transport, and sell with no government involvement whatsoever. Without true market competition, the government-approved, artificially-limited number of dispensaries will never be able to reach their full potential.
This is going to be a big election year with many prohibitionist senators leaving office as well as the governor, who has long stood in the way of any meaningful decriminalization. Cannabis freedom activists have pledged to make sure legalization is a major issue this election season.
Meanwhile, the state’s medical cannabis program continues to slowly move ahead. WMUR got to take a look inside one of the few legal growing operations in New Hampshire – here’s the video:
Ian Freeman Launches 2nd Campaign for NH Governor
Once again, I’m throwing my hat into the ring for the office of governor for New Hampshire in the democratic race. The first time I did so was in 2014 where I garnered second place and received more than 4% of the vote against then-incumbent Maggie Hassan in a campaign where I accepted no campaign contributions and spent approximately $2.50 on postage to reply to various candidate questionnaires.
My goal was to spread the ideas of liberty and NH declaring independence from the federal government. That continues to be my goal. It’s unlikely I will defeat the establishment candidates who will be well-funded by the powers-that-be. However, I will do the best I can to spread the ideas of liberty and NH independence with virtually no campaign budget.
NH Liberty Party
In 2014 I had the opportunity to address the republican debate held at Franklin Pierce University, since the other two candidates in the democratic primary refused to debate. What will happen this time? Stay tuned here to the NH Liberty Party blog for campaign updates. Or, just sign up for emailed updates via the signup box in the right-hand column of NHLiberty.info. Hopefully we’ll be announcing other NH Liberty Party candidates for other state races as the filing period runs from today through June 10th.
Here’s a page with details about my campaign and my prime issues which include ending prohibition, declaring independence from the federal government, and ballot access fairness. Thank you for your interest!
Rich Paul Now Facing New Cannabis Charge
According to Rich, the police seemed disappointed they didn’t bust any heroin and would have been willing to issue them summonses and release them on the scene, but Rich’s passenger did not have ID on him, so they were taken back to the police station for booking. Ultimately they were released on PR bail and issued court dates. Both have been charged with Class A misdemeanors for possession, which means they could take this to a jury trial, unless the state reduces the charges to Class B.
If it does go in front of a jury, it will be the first time an NH liberty activist has gone to jury trial for simple possession. Rich is looking forward to his chance at a jury trial, especially since he is a minister of the Church of the Invisible Hand and considers cannabis to be a sacrament.
One big, and as-yet-unanswered question is whether the state will motion the court to impose Rich’s suspended sentence from his previous conviction for selling cannabis. Stay tuned here for the latest.
This April 20th, about a hundred people from all over the New Hampshire area gathered at the Concord State House for the 7th annual rally to end Prohibition. I was there with my camera to capture the event. People smoked pot. They played music. They wrote messages with chalk. They gave speeches and live-streamed interviews. They even gave away pornographic calendars sponsored by local businesses. Happy people living in peace.
Supposedly armed bureaucrats are “just following orders” when they kidnap and cage these peaceful people for having the wrong plant in their pockets, but when these same people gather together in large numbers, the evil law enforcers leave them alone. It’s a simple numbers game. An individual is an easy target. By outnumbering the bad guys, good guys can prevent and negate potential conflicts.
That is the lesson of the 420 Rally in Concord, and it is the strategy employed by the people moving to New Hampshire as part of the Free State Project. People who believe in liberty are coming together in one geographic location to live free and achieve liberty in our lifetime. The more of us there are, the less likely a potential conflict.
The day after this rally, people calling themselves the NH Senate voted to continue the war on peaceful cannabis consumers. Here’s what one of the so-called “Senators” told the Concord Monitor: “We are in a war…The last thing we need is to tell our citizens that it’s okay to use a little marijuana or any other illegal substance.”
I’ve got news for you, dude. It *is* okay to use marijuana. It’s NOT okay to be threatening peaceful pot smokers. We’re past the point where we have to defend marijuana. We’re at the point where the bureaucrats have to defend being against it. With each passing day, people are gaining more courage to live free as bureaucrats are becoming more impotent. These guys are criminals wearing badges, we smoked pot right in front of them, and their hired henchmen didn’t lift a finger to stop us. So they can either write some more words on paper for us to ignore, or they can put down the badges and join humanity.
Watch the full event video here:
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