September 2019

Dear Senators,

I’m reaching out to implore you to do the right thing this morning, and vote to override the Governor’s misplaced veto on HB 364, and support homegrown cannabis for qualifying patients. With your experience in the Senate, having heard testimony on this issue over the years, I have to believe that you now know that allowing patients to grow medicine for their personal use is the most compassionate approach we can take. Patients, not criminals!

You have a historic opportunity to change the lives of patients for the better, including for a dear friend of mine, a paraplegic who needs daily MJ for pain, and cannot always afford what the dispensaries charge.  Cannabis treatments from dispensaries remain cost prohibitive for many patients (more than $400 per ounce!!!), so allowing patients to grow a plant/herb that gives them relief should, of course, be allowed in a free society.   

Sadly, the Governor is wrong on this issue and I hope you will do the right thing and stand with patients and the majority of Granite Staters, including the House of Representatives who yesterday overturned the Governor’s veto by more than the 2/3 majority required. It is clear: Granite Staters want this madness to end. 

If you are a Republican, I understand it is difficult to stand against our party and our Governor, but I trust you know in your heart of hearts, it is the right thing to do. If you are a Democrat, today’s veto override vote should be a no-brainer. I know that, personally, I will be watching Democrat Lou D’Allesandro’s vote ever-so-closely. If he votes against this bill, against compassion, and against patients, as he has done on MJ issues in the past, I hope voters of District 20 will finally give him the boot in 2020 in favor of my candidacy.

You all have an important decision to make, but I believe this is why you are there to serve. I hope you will stand with the will of the people, patients, and freedom, and vote to override the Governor’s veto on HB 364. 

Yours sincerely,
Carla Gericke

Governor Sununu needs to start listening to the will of the people over other entrenched special interests (like police unions who are only supposed to “enforce the law” NOT lobby). A vast majority of Granite Staters support the legalization of cannabis for recreational purposes, and yet, here we are, still muddling through our pathetic, terrible, uneconomical and largely useless medical marijuana laws. While I agree with the Gov on many issues that promote and enhance the #NHAdvantage, he is wrong on cannabis, and I hope his vetoes on MJ reform and homegrown are overturned when the legislature goes back into session later this month.

Bipartisan “Letter to the Editor” in today’s Union Leader from Sen. Jay Kahn of Keene (Senate District 10) and Sen. John Reagan of Deerfield, who represents Senate District 17 (read full LTE here):

“Our state government has made it too difficult and too expensive for many New Hampshire residents to access therapeutic cannabis products. Two fixes passed by the Legislature are immediately available. We ask you to contact your state legislators and urge them to override the governor’s vetoes of SB 88 and SB 145 and lower the barriers for accessing therapeutic marijuana.”

“We must do better for Granite Staters who receive physician-authorized permission to use therapeutic marijuana. Residents can’t simply obtain their physician’s permission and go to the local pharmacy. By statute, a patient must wait 90 days, while they fill out a state form and submit a photo on a CD-ROM so they can receive a state ID card. The process is awful, which makes us think Governor Sununu was poorly advised when he vetoed legislation to fix it.”

For those interested in learning more about the medicinal qualities of marijuana, I recommend watching the documentary, Weed the People (watch trailer): “Cannabis has been off-limits to doctors and researchers in the US for the past 80 years, but recently scientists have discovered its anti-cancer properties. Armed with only these laboratory studies, desperate parents obtain cannabis oil from underground sources to save their children from childhood cancers. ‘Weed the People’ follows these families through uncharted waters as they take their children’s survival into their own hands. Some of their miraculous outcomes beget the unsettling question at the heart of the film: If weed is truly saving lives, why doesn’t the government want people to access it?”

Why, indeed… Could it be because the government, represented by special interest like police unions, correctional unions, and the like, BENEFIT from prohibition? Did you know who the top 5 lobbyists against marijuana legalization are? Let me help you:
Police unions
Private prisons
Prison guard unions
Alcohol companies
Big Pharma
Can you figure out why? 🙂