This time, it wasn’t even close. The senate of New Hampshire finally did the right thing after years of debate and failed votes. Yesterday, they voted overwhelmingly, 17-6 to decriminalize possession of up to 3/4ths of an ounce of cannabis and up to five grams of hashish! That’s 74% of the NH senate voting in favor, after nearly 90% of the state house did the same.
The bill is certainly not perfect, as it still has civil fines for cannabis possession but it’s no longer an arrestable offense and is no longer going to be charged as a misdemeanor, unless the person is caught three times in three years. In that case, the fourth ticketing would be a class B misdemeanor, but the person still cannot be arrested. The first offense is fined at $100 and subsequent offenses within that three year period would be $300 each. The floor discussion today made it clear this bill was a compromise from both the law enforcement side and those who want to end prohibition.
Besides the continuing fines and the fact that law enforcement will continue to confiscate people’s weed, the worst part of the bill carves out an exemption where 18-21 year olds are treated more harshly than those 21 and up. Possession of cannabis-infused products remains a misdemeanor for those 18-21, sadly. Hopefully this will be rolled back in the future.
The bill is however a step in the right direction. That said, when will we have a state rep with the courage to put forward a total end to cannabis prohibition? New Hampshire needs to stop there and stop trying to do what other states have done and legalize with a regulatory and tax scheme. Let’s just try freedom and watch the cannabis industry boom in the Shire.
UPDATE: 5/12 6:20pm – possession of cannabis-infused products is still a misdemeanor for those 18-21, I misread the bill earlier when I reported wrongly that all possession for those ages is still a misdemeanor.
Here’s partial video of the senate floor hearing and vote:
Obviously as an anarchist, I believe that you can do whatever you want as long as it does not infringe on anyone else’s right to non-aggression, but it is a bad idea to burn or otherwise dispose of your concealed carry license (more…)
Q: Why would private police forces be better than a monopoly police force?
A: A private police force is better than a public police force because if it does a bad job, you can fire them tomorrow and hire another one, just as you can fire Brinks Home Security and hire Guardian Protective Services, tomorrow, without asking permission of anybody. Your neighbor’s don’t have to agree with you. They can continue to use whatever service they use now. But if you turn out to be happier with Guardian than with Brinks, you can also let your neighbors know that they provide a better value for the money.
A public police force always ends up doing things you don’t want done. They shoot unarmed people in the streets, especially minorities. They arrest more people for smoking weed in America than for all violent crimes combined. Including the government as a whole, they murder people abroad on flimsy pretexts to make money for Big Oil. These are services that no sane person wants. But because they are “public”, they are permitted to force you at gunpoint to buy their service, even if you want nothing in the world more than to be free of it. That makes it, not a Protective Service, but a Protection Racket. They promise to protect you if you buy their service. They promise to harm you themselves if you don’t buy their service. That’s exactly what the mafia does. Except that the Mafia doesn’t have little nannies who follow you around after they extort you telling you what to do. They are not that presumptuous.
Ferguson, MO, for example, might want to get the New Black Panthers or the Huey Newton Gun Club to patrol their streets, instead of their current racist, violent, murderous police force. It would probably be much safer to be black in Ferguson if they did so.
Bitcoin users in the New Hampshire seacoast delight in the coolest new local business to accept bitcoin, the independence-oriented currency of choice for many socially-concious and forward-thinking individuals.
Street in the west end of Portsmouth now takes bitcoin for everything on their menu, from Empanadas to Lamb Shawarma to Bibimbap and Singapore salad.
What a treat it is to spend free market money right in my home town and support local service people and entrepreneurs in creating such a fine dining experience.
New Hampshire is on the forefront of free market principles in money and currency, with thousands of smart people moving here to celebrate the freedom and prosperity that comes from a cultural dedication to liberty.
Throwing down his gauntlet, the wonderful man who made bitcoin happen at Street claims that their Sunday brunch is the best in all of Portsmouth. How about taking him up on that challenge and spend bitcoin too!
Want to support Steven in spreading bitcoin far and wide with your most generous contributions? Send him bitcoin! 13hcGfctHsyApBpPdwjeFLo4xhwVsfsT6N
The yoga studio in Portsmouth where I spend bitcoin for yoga classes has experienced some frustration with the mobile device I gave them, specifically that it doesn’t hold a charge.
Since they already use a desktop computer with monitor to sign students in and process credit card payments it makes sense that that use that same computer to accept mobile bitcoin payments as well.
I created a short video explaining how to accept Bitcoin in the browser in your place of business, watch it here!
Bitpay currently provides the mobile app and bitcoin currency exchange for the yoga studio, so all the owner has to do is switch to using the online browser-based bitcoin checkout tool to match their mobile app.
Thanks Bitpay for enabling me to spend bitcoin at my favorite yoga studio in a simple and seamless fashion 😀 Our next challenge with bitcoin at Bikram Yoga Portsmouth is now figuring out how to enable automated monthly payments with Bitcoin, an exciting problem faced by many businesses!
In all my experience, New Hampshire is the number one place for real-world cryptocurrency adoption, and is home to a large population of free, independent people. Do please consider living here to expand our markets and grow our freedom-loving culture.
steven with his bitcoin vending machine
Want to help me spread bitcoin around the New Hampshire seacoast and wherever my travels take me?
Send me bitcoin! 1HzWeJvB8VGLuLCwzd7yfo8vCv2JouxRqK
By BURGESS EVERETT 07/08/16 11:55 AM EDT
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Gary Johnson believes the tensions between police and minorities that led to two high-profile police shootings and the deaths of five Dallas police officers has a root cause: The long-running war on drugs.
The libertarian nominee for president did not directly tie the drug war to the shooting deaths in Minnesota and Louisiana by police or the sniper killings of five officers in Texas this week. But poor relations between police and African-Americans stems from the criminalization of drug use, he said.
“The root is the war on drugs, I believe. Police knocking down doors, shooting first,” Johnson said in an interview Friday in Washington. “If you are (black and) arrested in a drug-related crime, there is four times more likelihood of going to prison than if you are white. And shooting is part of the same phenomenon.”
“That’s the common thread. Shootings are occurring with black people, black people are dying,” he added. “This is an escalation.”
The former Republican governor of New Mexico is pitching a complete rewrite of the nation’s drug policy as part of his underdog run for the presidency alongside his running mate, former Massachusetts GOP Gov. Bill Weld. Johnson wants to legalize marijuana and find other ways to deal with harder drugs than long periods of incarceration.
He said that will soon happen, predicting that California will vote this fall to legalize marijuana and President Barack Obama will remove cannabis from its listing as a Class 1 drug. “I think Obama’s going to do that going out the door,” Johnson said.
“The focus on drugs needs to be as a health issue, not a criminal justice issue. It can be illegal but does it need to be criminal? Do you need to go to jail for drugs?” Johnson said. “I do believe that the root of the militarization, knocking on doors, is a drug war phenomenon.”
The laid-back libertarian, dressed in jeans and an open-collared button-down in a hotel dining room, declined to join Republicans in criticizing Obama for pointing to “powerful weapons” this week as a cause of violence between police officers and minorities. But Johnson said the focus on assault rifles is misguided.
“That is a category of rifle that contains 30 million rifles. If you ban those rifles tomorrow and said hand ‘em in,” only half of the weapons would actually be turned over, Johnson said. “And we’re going to have a whole new criminal class of people.”
Johnson said that as president he’d be open to proposals designed to keep guns out of the hands of terrorists and the mentally ill. But he said he’d seen no such workable proposals in Congress, despite unsuccessful attempts by both Democrats and Republicans.
