For the first time ever, New Hampshire’s Senate passed a marijuana legalization measure on Thursday, returning the bill to the House of Representatives for concurrence on recent amendments before it potentially heads to the governor’s desk to be signed into law.
Key Changes and House Opposition
Senators adopted several major changes since the cannabis legislation passed the House last month, including an initial floor vote last week. However, some key representatives have already signaled their intention to reject the bill in its current form.
Senators voted 14–10 to pass the legislation, HB 1633, after first adopting a number of revisions. Among them were a Senate Finance Committee amendment that included a bevy of changes—most from Senate President Jeb Bradley (R), a legalization opponent—as well as two other amendments addressing drafting errors in the bill.
Major Amendments Adopted
The committee amendment adopted on the floor reduces the measure’s proposed possession limit from four ounces to two and creates a new misdemeanor penalty for anyone consuming cannabis in a vehicle. It also steps up proposed penalties for selling marijuana to minors, requires annual training of industry employees and mandatory reporting of cannabis use disorder, sets new rules around local approval of cannabis businesses, and appoints a prevention specialist to the Cannabis Control Commission—a body that would have authority over rulemaking until it is disbanded after five years.
Bradley has repeatedly stated that while he opposes cannabis legalization, he feels an obligation to make improvements to the measure if it has the votes to pass. “Whether you’re a no vote or a yes vote, take solace in the fact that we have made a much better product,” he said.
Two other floor amendments made typographical changes to correct drafting errors in earlier Senate amendments to the bill.
Rejection of Additional Amendments
The Republican-led Senate also rejected two floor amendments from Democrats. One would have given licensing preference to existing in-state medical marijuana businesses over out-of-state applicants, and another would have made marijuana possession legal for adults immediately upon the bill’s passage.
The House-passed version of the bill would have legalized possession immediately, but the Senate Finance Committee amendment delays the policy change until 2026, once the state’s licensed market is up and running. Bradley and others have expressed concerns that legalizing possession without a legal place to buy the drug would expand the state’s illicit market.
Challenges Ahead for the Bill
While the vote is a milestone, there’s a way to go before the proposal potentially reaches the desk of Gov. Chris Sununu (R), who has gently endorsed the Senate plan while warning he wouldn’t sign the earlier House-passed version.
Some House lawmakers, including the bill’s sponsor, Rep. Erica Layon (R), say the Senate shouldn’t take for granted that the House will OK the revised bill. “I appreciate the strategy of somebody opposed to it trying to make it as palatable as possible,” she told Marijuana Moment a day before the Senate vote. “The question is, will the House swallow it?”
Once the bill returns to the House, representatives can choose to approve the measure in its revised form, reject it, or send the proposal to a bicameral conference committee to hammer out a compromise.
Concerns over Senate Amendments
Layon said that while she hasn’t tried to count the likely votes in the House yet, she personally can’t support the amended bill. “I think that every move they make away from the House position makes it less and less likely to pass,” she said. She has criticized elements of the Senate version, most notably its government-run franchise model for cannabis stores, warning that the bill could expose the state to legal and financial risk and would put the government in the business of matters as minute as setting prices on store menus.
Potential Impact of Conference Committee
Some backers of the bill worry that sending it to conference could lessen its chances of passage. Many believe Bradley, the Senate president, would stack the conference committee with prohibitionists to scuttle the reform.
In its current version, the proposal would allow 15 franchise stores to open statewide. Purchases would incur a 15 percent “franchise fee”—effectively a tax—that would apply to both adult-use and medical marijuana purchases. The proposal would limit each municipality to a single cannabis retail establishment unless it’s home to more than 50,000 people. Local voters would also need to pre-approve the industry for businesses to open in that jurisdiction.
Future of Legalization in New Hampshire
Adults could possess up to two ounces of marijuana. However, home cultivation of cannabis for personal use would remain illegal. The bill would create misdemeanor penalties for consuming cannabis in a car, including passengers, and for consuming marijuana in public, with the possibility of jail time for second and subsequent offenses.
Some House members have expressed distaste for the Senate changes. “I already know of 50 Democrats who are going to nonconcur, and I think that’s the tip of the iceberg,” Rep. Anita Burroughs (D), a key sponsor of the bill, told the New Hampshire Bulletin. She added, “I’ve been fighting for this for a lot of years, and I never imagined a day where I would vote against a bill that I’ve been sponsoring and working on. But it’s like a bridge too far.”
Diverging Views on the Bill
A Republican sponsor in the House, Rep. J.R. Hoell, also plans to vote against the revised bill. He opposes the pivot to the franchise model, which he says would create a near monopoly in the industry, and the removal of provisions allowing adults to grow their cannabis at home. “I think a free market does a better job of managing sales and cost distribution,” Hoell said, “and it solves problems that government can’t even anticipate. And this is definitely not a free-market model at this point.”
Layon believes many lawmakers feel like their chance to legalize is now or never and are thus willing to accept provisions they might otherwise oppose. “I think there’s just this clock,” she said, “and people feel like this is our only chance to get it done.”
Urgency for Reform
Some advocates emphasize that the time for reform is now, even if it means making compromises. They warn that while Sununu is far from a vocal supporter of legalization, his potential replacement—leading Republican gubernatorial candidate Kelly Ayotte—is outright opposed to the reform.
“While the Senate version of HB 1633 has flaws, it would still represent significant progress” over current law, Karen O’Keefe, director of state policies for the group Marijuana Policy Project, told Marijuana Moment. “It would legalize twice as much cannabis as neighboring Massachusetts and Vermont starting in January 2026, preventing hundreds of annual arrests. It would also stop people from losing their children, being denied medical care including organ transplants, and losing their professional licenses for cannabis.”
Future Leadership and Legalization
Gov. Sununu is the first New Hampshire governor to support legalization, albeit with many parameters that required an extremely restrictive bill. He is not running for re-election, and leading gubernatorial candidate Kelly Ayotte is a staunch opponent of legalization.
Sununu has recently reiterated that he’ll only consider signing the bill if lawmakers follow strict criteria, including limiting the number of retail stores to 15 statewide and prohibiting lobbying and other political activity by the marijuana industry.
Legislative Challenges
New Hampshire lawmakers worked extensively on marijuana reform issues last session and attempted to reach a compromise to enact legalization through a multi-tiered system. However, the legislature ultimately hit an impasse. The Senate defeated a more conventional House-passed legalization bill last year, despite its bipartisan support.
After the Senate rejected the reform bills in 2022, the House included legalization language as an amendment to separate criminal justice-related legislation—but that was also struck down in the opposite chamber.
The journey toward marijuana legalization in New Hampshire continues to face significant hurdles, with differing views on the best approach to reform and the role of government in regulating the industry.
