New Hampshire Lawmakers Advance Psilocybin Penalty Reform But Reject Medical Marijuana Homegrow

As lawmakers in New Hampshire work to reconcile different versions of bills
passed by the House and Senate this session, one conference committee on
Wednesday agreed to move forward with a plan to reduce penalties for
psilocybin possession while a separate panel rejected a proposal to allow
medical marijuana patients to grow cannabis at home.

Both proposals had support from House lawmakers, but—with the exception of
the newly advancing psilocybin provision—the Senate has broadly stood in
the way of drug reform measures.

Regarding psilocybin, members of a bicameral conference committee voted to
advance a compromise version of SB 14, which contains both mandatory
minimum sentences around fentanyl as well as the lower penalty for
possessing the psychedelic.

As passed by the Senate, the bill would have established mandatory minimum
sentences for certain fentanyl offenses. But a House committee last month
added language to reduce the penalty for psilocybin, making it a
misdemeanor rather than a felony to possess up to 3/4 of an ounce of the
psychedelic—at least on the first offense.

One member of the conference committee, Sen. Daryl Abbas (R), emphasized
that the reform would apply to first psilocybin possession offenses only.

“Any subsequent offense after the first would still be a felony offense,”
he said at Wednesday’s hearing.

Abbas added that the first possession penalty would be an unclassified
misdemeanor, meaning prosecutors would have discretion to charge the
conduct as either a Class A or Class B misdemeanor, the latter of which
does not include jail time.

The measure does not go as far as a separate standalone psilocybin
decriminalization bill—HB 528, from Rep. Kevin Verville (R), which would
have made a first offense a $100 violation—but it would still end the
state’s felony law against simple possession.

The Senate earlier this session rejected Verville’s broader psilocybin
decriminalization proposal after passage by the House, but he and others
have held out hope for more moderate reform in SB 14.

“We’re not decriminalizing anything,” Verville said Wednesday at the
conference committee hearing. “On the psilocybin side, all we are doing is
some penalty reform for a first offense.”

He called psilocybin “essentially non-toxic,” saying the average person
would need to eat more than 20 pounds of psilocybin mushrooms to risk a
lethal dose. “The other thing is, psilocybin is not habit forming. It is
not addictive.”

Verville said after House passage of the revised bill earlier this month
that while he isn’t a fan of mandatory minimum sentences, SB 14’s proposed
penalties around fentanyl “are fairly short sentences for felony crimes,”
describing the overall bill as “an excellent trade that is for the greater
benefit of the citizens of New Hampshire.”

The proposed fentanyl penalties would affect manufacturing, selling,
transporting or possession with the intent to sell. Those activities
involving 20 or more grams would carry a 3 1/2 year mandatory minimum
prison sentence, while 50 or more grams would mean at least seven years
behind bars.

Earlier this week, it briefly appeared the conference committee had given
up on the fentanyl and psilocybin bill. Members on Monday declined to move
forward with the compromise.

“Unfortunately, the Senate position on psilocybin was clear earlier this
year, and we are not going to agree to that part of the bill,” committee
member Sen. Bill Gannon (R) told lawmakers on the House side, “which I
think kills it for you guys.”

“Hate to waste your time here,” Gannon added at the time, noting that he
appreciated the work Rep. Terry Roy (R) had put into the legislation
regarding mandatory minimums on fentanyl.

“You know what? That’s OK,” Roy replied. “We’ll be back in the fall and we
can look at it again.”

Since that hearing, however, legislative leaders replaced some members of
the panel, which appears to have sped a resolution.

The revised SB 14 now proceeds to both legislative chambers for approval
before potentially heading to Gov. Kelly Ayotte (R).

As for home cultivation of medical marijuana by patients and caregivers, a
separate conference committee that heard SB 118—which primarily deals with
nursing homes in the state—voted earlier Wednesday to move forward with a
version of the bill that does not contain the cannabis provision added by
the House.

“The House conferees have discussed this, and at least three out of the
four of us have decided to accede to the Senate position and support the
removal of the cannabis [provision] from SB 118 and leave the rest of the
bill intact,” said Rep. Wayne MacDonald (R), a member of the panel and
chair of the House Health and Human Services Committee.


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Rep. Laura Telerski (D), who last week replaced an earlier House member of
the panel, expressed disappointment at the move and said she would ask to
be replaced on the conference committee.

“I was a part of this committee to hopefully have discussion and defend the
House position, which included the therapeutic home growth for cannabis,”
she said, adding that home cultivation would expand accessibility and
reduce costs for patients. “Unfortunately, I will not be able to support
the agreement by this committee, and I will be requesting to be replaced.”

Other members of the conference committee moved ahead with the modified
proposal, accepting a House compromise plan minus the cannabis homegrow
provision. The agreement will now go to both legislative chambers for their
approval.

SB 118 didn’t originally contain the cannabis language, but earlier in the
session—following the Senate’s tabling of HB 53, a separate homegrow bill
that senators had previously tabled—a House committee had amended the bill
to add language from the standalone bill.

So far this session, the Senate has been broadly hostile to drug reform
proposals. While a number of bills have cleared the House of
Representatives—including a renewed effort to legalize adult-use marijuana—nearly
all have gone on to die in the Senate.

“These outcomes are disappointing, but unfortunately, they aren’t
surprising,” Matt Simon, director of public and government relations at the
medical marijuana provider GraniteLeaf Cannabis, told Marijuana Moment last
month.

Earlier in the year, Simon said it appeared “that a few senators just want
to kill every bill that deals with cannabis policy, no matter how modest
and non-controversial”—an observation that’s largely held true.

As for broader cannabis legalization, the Senate in early May narrowly
voted to table a House-passed marijuana legalization bill, effectively
ending this year’s effort to end cannabis prohibition in the “Live Free or
Die” state.

The chamber voted 12–10 to table the measure, HB 198, from Rep. Jared
Sullivan (D). It had previously passed the House of Representatives in March,
but weeks later the Senate Judiciary Committee recommended the proposal be
rejected.

If enacted, the bill would have legalized noncommercial possession and use
of marijuana among adults 21 and older, permitting adults to have up to two
ounces of marijuana flower, 10 grams of concentrate and up to 2,000
milligrams of THC in other cannabis products.

Sullivan’s proposal was a pared-down version of a legalization measure
lawmakers nearly passed last year, under then-Gov. Chris Sununu (R), but it
did not include that bill’s regulated commercial system—a controversial
issue that ultimately derailed the earlier effort.

Recent state polling suggests New Hampshire residents strongly favor
cannabis legalization. In late April, a Granite State Poll, from the
University of New Hampshire’s States of Opinion Project, found 70 percent
support for the reform, including majorities of Democrats, Republicans and
independents.

“Support for legalization has increased slightly since June 2024 (65%) and
remains considerably higher than in the mid-2010s,” it added. “Majorities
of Democrats (84%), independents (72%), and Republicans (55%) support
legalizing marijuana for personal use.”

Last legislative session, New Hampshire lawmakers nearly passed a bill that
would have legalized and regulated marijuana for adults—a proposal that
then-Gov. Chris Sununu (R) had indicated he’d support. But infighting over
how the market would be set up ultimately scuttled that measure. House
Democrats narrowly voted to table it at the last minute, taking issue with
the proposal’s state-controlled franchise model, which would have given the
state unprecedented sway over retail stores and consumer prices.

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Reject Medical Marijuana Homegrow appeared first on Marijuana Moment.