John SchroyerNew Hampshire Gov. Chris Sununu on Friday signed into law a bill adding generalized anxiety disorder to the state’s list of qualified conditions for cannabis, but he vetoed a second bill that would have let licensed marijuana grows open a second location to increase output.
The addition of anxiety to the list could bolster the state’s medical marijuana registered patients roll, which stood at just over 13,000 as of 2022, the last time the state published data about the program.
The list of medical conditions allows patients with the ailments to purchase medical marijuana in New Hampshire, and includes such conditions as chronic pain, post-traumatic stress disorder, cancer, and epilepsy.
In a veto statement about the cannabis cultivation expansion bill, which would have allowed medical cannabis growers to set up greenhouses, Sununu said the measure “provides scant detail regarding safety, security, and location requirements. These details are necessary to ensure appropriate controls on a regulated substance.”
The governor has remained a firm political obstacle to the expansion of the cannabis industry in New England, and New Hampshire is now the only state in the northeast to not have legalized recreational marijuana. Although Sununu gave his tentative support to a proposal for state-run recreational marijuana shops earlier this year, a pair of bills to legalize adult-use ultimately died before reaching his desk.
Still, it’s possible that the New Hampshire medical marijuana market could grow even further later this year, if the legislature gives the thumbs up to House Bill 1278 before it adjourns. That bill would allow physicians to recommend cannabis for any ailment they think would be helped, instead of having to abide by the state’s current list of qualifying medical conditions.
