CONCORD, N.H. (AP) - The House voted Thursday to allow farmers to grow hemp - a close relative of marijuana - despite federal hurdles to planting the controversial crop.

Supporters pointed out that hemp, which has a very low content of THC, the psychoactive ingredient in marijuana, has unfairly been characterized as the same as marijuana.

"You don't smoke hemp. A wheelbarrow full would only make you sick," insisted Hopkinton Democrat Derek Owen.

"Hemp is one of the oldest and most useful and strongest natural plants known to man," he told the House.

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Peter Christ Retired Police Captain

YORK, Maine - Former police captain Peter Christ spent 20 years battling drugs from behind his badge.

Now, the retired, 20-year veteran of the Tonawanda, N.Y., police department is fighting from behind a microphone and with a different message than many may imagine.

Christ, who retired in 1989 from his department north of Buffalo, N.Y., is the founder of Law Enforcement Against Prohibition, or LEAP, an organization that seeks to legalize and regulate certain drugs, and will speak at the York Rotary Club at 7:30 a.m. Friday.

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The New Hampshire House acted wisely last week in turning back an attempt to legalize the use of medical marijuana. Unfortunately, the narrow margin by which HB 774 was defeated has given enough hope to supporters that the bill is certain to return.

Backers achieved their near-victory by marketing HB 774 as one of compassion.

"This is sensible, compassionate legislation that protects our most vulnerable citizens," said Stuart Cooper of the New Hampshire Marijuana Policy Initiative in a press release after the vote.

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As a Bible-believing Christian, senior citizen with a long history of observing society and surgeon who has cared for the ills of people for the last 40 years, I would like to ask the people of New Hampshire to seriously consider declaring the "war on drugs" won and establish a licensed sales program similar to that used to distribute alcoholic beverages and tobacco products.

I must add that I have never used marijuana or any other mind-altering drug. I believe they ought not to be used at all by any one.

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CONCORD - The House voted by a narrow margin yesterday to reject a bill that would have allowed patients to use marijuana for relief of painful symptoms.

HB 774 would have allowed a person who obtained a doctor's certificate to possess seven marijuana plants and 3 ounces of dried marijuana.

The bill was killed on a 186-177 vote, despite pleas from some House members, including a cancer survivor, to pass it. The bill applies to any patient suffering what it says are "debilitating medical conditions." Opponents said that immunizing patients from state prosecution would pit state law against federal law that bars possession or use.

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State House Vote Sees Debate Over Benefits

By a slender margin, lawmakers decided yesterday against letting people with debilitating illnesses use marijuana for pain relief or other medical purposes.

The 186-177 vote in the House killed a bill that would have decriminalized the drug's use for patients under the care of a physician for severe illnesses such as cancer, AIDS or multiple sclerosis.

The debate preceding the vote heard testimony from lawmakers with medical degrees and some who said they would benefit personally from smoking marijuana for medical purposes.

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Supporters of a bill that would allow marijuana use for medical purposes had a bad week.

A House committee recommended (12-7) that the full House reject the bill. Also, WKXL in Concord refused to run an advertisement designed to drum up support for the bill, which the full House will debate this week. The advertisement was planned by the Marijuana Policy Project, a Washington-based advocacy group.

WKXL's owner, former U.S. senator Gordon Humphrey, said he was concerned that the message - that people suffering from painful diseases should be able to use marijuana to allay their pain - could be misconstrued by young people. "At various times, we have young people listening, so that's no lottery ads, no beer ads," said Humphrey, who has refused to run advertisements for the state lottery and a beer distributor before.

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If the statewide movement to decriminalize marijuana is ever made into a movie, a Hollywood producer would probably ask Sean Penn to reprise his celebrated role as the unmotivated stoner Jeff Spicoli.

But that would be the sort of typecasting that misses the point of New Hampshire Coalition for Common Sense Marijuana Policy, its members say.

Among those pushing for decriminalization are a soccer mom, selectman and two doctorate students.

Perhaps more telling of how coalition members don't fit the pot-smoking stereotype, they say, is that four of them don't use the drug, while two others say they need it for medicinal purposes.

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Dear Editor of the Equinox,

One reason to re-legalize cannabis (kaneh bosm /marijuana) that doesn't get mentioned (KSC Professor Introduces Bill In NH House Decriminalizing Marijuana Use, Feb. 1, 2007), is because it is Biblically correct since Christ God Our Father, The Ecologician indicates He created all the seed bearing plants saying they are all good, on literally the very first page (see: Genesis 1:11-12 and 29-30).

It's time to stop caging humans for using what God says is good.

Truthfully,

Stan White

[end]

Ben Conant is to be commended for raising awareness of the racist roots of marijuana prohibition in his Jan. 31st op-ed. If health outcomes determined drug laws instead of cultural norms marijuana would be legal. Unlike alcohol, marijuana has never been shown to cause an overdose death, nor does it share the addictive properties of tobacco.

Marijuana can be harmful if abused, but jail cells are inappropriate as health interventions and ineffective as deterrents. The first marijuana laws were enacted in response to Mexican migration during the early 1900s, despite opposition from the American Medical Association. Dire warnings that marijuana inspires homicidal rages have been counter productive at best.

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TWO WEEKS AGO, U.S. drug agents launched raids on 11 medical-marijuana centers in Los Angeles County. The U.S. attorney's office says they violated the laws against cultivation and distribution of marijuana.

Whatever happened to America's federal system, which recognized the states as "laboratories of democracy"?

According to the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws, 11 states (Alaska, California, Colorado, Hawaii, Maine, Montana, Nevada, Oregon, Rhode Island, Vermont, and Washington) have eliminated the penalties for physician-approved possession of marijuana by seriously ill patients. In those states people with AIDS and other catastrophic diseases may either grow their own marijuana or get it from registered dispensaries.

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What do Tom Cruise, the Fox News Channel, Rush Limbaugh and Keene State College's own Chuck Weed have in common?

Not much, unless you ask Keith Olbermann, political pundit for MSNBC's Countdown with Keith Olbermann, who, on every show, counts down the top three worst people in the world.

Weed, who is also a New Hampshire state representative, recently had the distinct honor of holding the nightly title of "one of the worst persons in the world" for his proposed House Bill 92, legislation for the decriminalization of marijuana in the Granite State.

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"It is dangerous to be right when the government is wrong." -Voltaire.

"The spirit of resistance to government is so valuable on certain occasions that I wish it to be always kept alive." -Thomas Jefferson.

"Drop a dime and I'll break you off something proper..."-Ice Cube

I was under the impression that in America, politicians have to do what we tell them. Now that may sound a little harsh, forward or even like reverse fascism, but that really is a representative government stripped to its purest form. We elect "politicians" and they are supposed to represent the interests of their "constituents."

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At 10:15 p.m. on Friday, Chuck Weed was told to be ready by the phone for his interview on Fox News' "Hannity and Colmes" show.

The interview was only a part of the national media interest in the bill Weed, professor of political science and New Hampshire state legislator, introduced to decriminalize marijuana in New Hampshire known as HB 92.

The week before Weed was interviewed on "Hannity and Colmes," MSNBC's "Countdown" with Keith Olbermann named him the third worst person in the world for introducing the bill.

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New Hampshire Representatives Push for Marijuana Legalization

Three New Hampshire representatives have proposed legislation that would legalize the use of marijuana in the "Live Free or Die" state. The legislators insist that the bill is in the state's interest due to the resources wasted in prosecution of what many consider a victimless crime.

Rep. Charles Weed, a Democrat from Keene, initiated the bill, which is co-sponsored by two Republicans, Rep. Paul Ingbretson of Pike and Rep. Steve Vaillancourt of Manchester.

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Editor, The Citizen: Regarding your Jan. 20 editorial: If health outcomes determined drug laws instead of cultural norms marijuana would be legal. Unlike alcohol, marijuana has never been shown to cause an overdose death, nor does it share the addictive properties of tobacco. Like any drug, marijuana can be harmful if abused, but jail cells are inappropriate as health interventions and ineffective as deterrents.

The first marijuana laws were enacted in response to Mexican migration during the early 1900s, despite opposition from the American Medical Association. Dire warnings that marijuana inspires homicidal rages have been counterproductive at best. White Americans did not even begin to smoke pot until a soon-to-be entrenched government bureaucracy began funding reefer madness propaganda.

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Military Had Been Key In Finding Traffickers

Stretched thin from fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan, the U.S. military has sharply reduced its role in the war on drugs, leaving significant gaps in U.S. anti-narcotics efforts.

Since 1989, Congress has directed the Pentagon to lead the detection by air and sea of illegal drugs headed to the United States and to support the Coast Guard in catching them.

But since 2002, the military has withdrawn many of those assets, according to more than a dozen current and former counter-narcotics officials, as well as a review of congressional, military and Homeland Security documents.

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The heat seems to have left the debate over use and sale of marijuana in New Hampshire, but we're not ready to accept that laws against its use are too harsh.

Lawmakers and law enforcement officials are debating marijuana again this session of the Legislature. While we don't seem to be hearing the passionate pleas of past debates, we still feel there is cause to be on the side of caution.

Advocates like Weed and critics in the state's Justice Department remain at odds.

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Legislation Exceeds Laws in Other States

If Rep. Charles Weed's bill passes, selling marijuana would be legal in New Hampshire.

Weed argued yesterday that legalizing marijuana use and sales would free up the police and government to tackle more violent crimes. In a hearing of the criminal justice and public safety committee, Weed said current laws are unfair to those who are convicted of marijuana use. They can be unfairly incarcerated with users of harder drugs, such as cocaine and heroin, he said.

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CONCORD - A New Hampshire police officer said Wednesday that decriminalizing marijuana would help those addicted get treatment and make it more difficult for young people to obtain it.

"I can tell you the current system we have is allowing our kids to easily get it," said Brad Jardis, a Hooksett resident who has served in recent years as a patrolman in Epping and Plaistow.

The Jardis testimony broke up a predictable band of speakers from both sides one would expect to hear from about legislation (HB 92) dealing with putting an end to criminal penalties for the possession and sale of marijuana.

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