Last night I went to Strange Brew Tavern in Manchester for their 200th bitcoin meetup. It is the longest running consecutive bitcoin meet up in the world — going for almost 4 years now.
People talked about mining ethereum and being dash masternodes — they talked about successful strategies for encouraging businesses and individuals to take cryptocurrencies as payment — and they talked about achieving more personal freedom in New Hampshire. I was impressed by the turnout. About 2 dozen or so people. A range of all types: gay and straight, techies, real estate people, media people, old, middle aged, and young mothers and their children. The group gets the whole back room in the tavern and received excellent service the whole night.
This year’s seventh annual Concord 420 celebration on the state house steps attracted approximately 100 hardcore attendees who faced possible misdemeanor charges for possession of cannabis as they smoked in defiance of prohibition on Wednesday April 20th at 4:20pm.
Here is a list of the scumbag senators who voted to continue the insane war on cannabis in NH and continue locking peaceful cannabis users in cages:
Republicans
Democrats
Sen. Regina Birdsell (r)
Sen. David Boutin (r)
Sen. Sharon Carson (r)
Sen. Sam Cataldo (r)
Sen. Gary Daniels (r)
Sen. Jeanie Forrester (r)
Sen. Gerald Little (r)
Sen. Chuck Morse (r)
Sen. Russell Prescott (r)
Sen. Nancy Stiles (r)
Sen. Lou D’Allesandro (d)
Sen. Andrew Hosmer (d)
Sen. Betty Laske (d)
Sen. Donna Soucy (d)
Here’s what one of the prohibitionists, Sen. Gary Daniels, a Milford Republican, said to 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.”
Hopefully these sociopaths will be ejected from their seats come this November when prohibitionist governor Maggie Hassan will also be replaced by someone hopefully better on this issue.
Stay tuned here to Free Keene for more media from the successful 420 event in Concord this week.
The torch, which looks like a big joint with real flame emanating from a gas tank it its tip, began its trip in Maine and will end in Miami. New Hampshire was its first symbolic passing, and as you’ll see from the hundreds of pictures linked below, everyone got a chance to take a symbolic toke!
Libertarian Presidential Candidate Darryl W Perry Takes a Rip
Though the time of the event was “high noon”, dozens came out to attend! That should be a good indicator for the attendance of next week’s seventh-annual 4/20 event at the state house in Concord, which should be even better attended as this event was put together in a hurry.
Join us to celebrate ending prohibition on Wednesday 4/20 at 4:20pm at the state house in Concord, NH! The following day on 4/21, please come to the NH senate chamber at the state house to see if they will approve cannabis decrim this year finally or once again kill it after the house of representatives overwhelmingly approved it.
Kudos to NH Hempfest‘s organizers Rick and Laurie as well as the Rebel Love Show for putting together such a successful event on short notice and good luck to the cannabis torch as it makes its way down the east coast to Miami.
What a great group!
Here are hundreds of photos from yesterday’s festivities:
Lots of big news from the State House in Concord where state representatives have passed cannabis decrim (again), a new jury nullification bill, used heroin needle decriminalization, civil asset forfeiture reform and more! Here’s a handy summary of what happened in March thanks to the New Hampshire Liberty Alliance‘s political director and liberty-oriented state rep Keith Ammon:
HB 1270 will require jurors in court cases to be clearly informed of their age-old right to vote according to their conscience and decide on the justness of a law as well as the facts in the case. This is known as “jury nullification.” The bill passed on a roll call vote with a significant margin.
HB 1420 would have allowed law enforcement to access patients’ private health care information without a warrant from a court. The Health and Human Services Committee recommended that the bill pass 11 to 6. The full House overturned the recommendation and overwhelmingly killed the bill on a roll call vote.
HB 1453 adds ulcerative colitis as an acceptable condition to receive medical cannabis. The HHS Committee recommendation was to kill the bill 9 to 6. The full House overturned the recommendation and passed the bill on a voice vote.
HB 1631 reduces penalties for possession of cannabis. The Criminal Justice Committee wanted the bill killed but the full House overturned the recommendation and the bill overwhelmingly passed on a voice vote, to the consternation of the some in House leadership. When the voice vote passed with near unanimous “Yeas,” the House erupted in cheers. The Speaker scolded House Members for “showing emotion.”
NH House Passes Used Needle Decrim!
The House had another session day on March 23rd. In that session the House voted to pass several education bills that protect student privacy and parental rights (HB 1229, HB 1231, HB 1338) and voted down a bill that would have required 100% of charter school teachers be credentialed by the state (HB 1120). A bill that would have legalized the possession and cultivation of marijuana for personal use (HB 1610) was “laid upon the table”, a motion which effectively kills the bill.
The House passed a bill that puts more reasonable restrictions on civil asset forfeiture laws (HB 636). Civil asset forfeiture is a practice where the state can charge a person’s property with a crime, and the accused would have to prove the property wasn’t engaged in crime, turning “innocent until proven guilty” on its head. Another bill (HB 1681) passed which removes the criminal penalty for possessing a needle with an unusable amount of heroin or another drug. This reduction in penalty paves the way for private organizations to set up needle exchanges, to help reduce some of the harmful costs of the heroin public health crisis. The sharing of needles contributes to the spread of diseases such as hepatitis and HIV aids.
There’s always something exciting going on at the New Hampshire State House. Come out and get involved. Show your support with time, energy, or financial resources. We can make a significant impact if we work at it together.
In another smear campaign against me, local haters have concocted yet another dishonest attack flyer and littered it all over downtown Keene. This unsigned, un-cited flyer accuses me of using my radio show to propagate the opinion that, “children as young or younger than six years old have the right and ability to consent to sexual acts with adults” and further claims that I have said that “children have the right to consent, and parents, the community and the state should not intervene”.
Those are the rumors, now here are the facts: In the video made by a local hater from clips of a discussion on my radio show from years ago, it is a caller who asks if I support sex with a six-year old. To which I say twice that sex with children is reprehensible, but that what people do is none of my business. Somehow that conversation gets spun as me supporting sex with children, which I do not, and never have. Here’s a much more detailed discussion about age of consent that explains why I don’t consider what people do in their homes any of my business.
Even if a child could somehow be mentally ready for sex, they are not physically ready for it, so it’s not okay in my book. So, no, I don’t support sex with children, but I don’t consider teens who decide they are ready for sex to be children. Some people do consider teenagers to be children, and I find that to be insulting to young people. It’s also a view that doesn’t hold up against history, where many people consented to sex and marriage at ages as young as 13. Nor does it hold up if you bother to actually read the definition of “child”, which is a person between birth and puberty.
So while I don’t believe people should have sex with children, I do support young people who are physically able to have sex being able to decide when they are mentally ready to be adults and take on responsibility for their actions, including sex.
Many people are very uncomfortable around the idea of sex in general, as they come from the belief that sex is bad and naughty. Rather than have honest conversations about age of consent, they jump to extremes, make up lies, and call names, because everyone must have as repressive of views as they do, so anyone who doesn’t must support sex with children.
I support young people being able to emancipate themselves, not sex with children. I support each individual being judged by their actions and words, not arbitrary ages. Government “statutory rape” laws have destroyed countless innocent lives and are an insult to real rape victims.
