This NH vignette explains all when politics and cannabis collide.
A very instructive read indeed.
Valley News New Hampshire gets to the nub of the issues and we don’t get a mention of the tax issues that politicians then want to apply
Not far from downtown Peterborough, N.H., is a discreet building, somewhat removed from the main road. No signs are posted, leaving no way for outsiders to learn what the building contains.
It’s for good reason — state law dictates that no markers are allowed to indicate what’s inside. To get in, visitors must pass through the main entrance, the gowning room and a second set of doors to the main warehouse. Inside is GraniteLeaf Cannabis, one of New Hampshire’s three marijuana production companies.
The plants are behind another set of locks. Finished products are stored in a bank vault.
“Realistically, you have to get through like three layers of security to actually get to anything useful,” said Keenan Blum, GraniteLeaf’s CEO.
New Hampshire’s Therapeutic Cannabis Program, an arm of the Department of Health & Human Services established in 2013, allows cannabis companies — also called “alternative treatment centers,” or ATCs —to grow and distribute medical cannabis products to an increasing number of Granite Staters. The state has just three ATCs that operate a total of seven dispensaries.
Efforts to legalize recreational cannabis fell short at the State House again this year, but the therapeutic program qualifies people who’ve been diagnosed with eligible medical conditions to legally receive cannabis as part of their medical care. Demand for therapeutic cannabis is building: The most recent available data shows there were over 13,000 certified patients in 2022, and people in the industry estimate that number has grown closer to 15,000 now. A new law will also add anxiety to the list of eligible conditions, paving the way for even more certified patients to join the ranks.
However, Gov. Chris Sununu vetoed a bill last month that would’ve allowed ATCs to operate additional cultivation locations, including greenhouses.
“The legislation provides scant detail regarding safety, security and location requirements,” Sununu said in his reasoning for the veto. “These details are necessary to ensure appropriate controls on a regulated substance.”
The bill had delegated those details to municipalities’ individual zoning laws and would’ve had local officials solicit community feedback on potential locations for new production facilities.
The law is strict in requiring cannabis production to operate under lock and key and to not be recognizable to the general public. ATCs have to be incorporated as a state-level nonprofit, be at least 1,000 feet from any school, use two security systems from two different companies and meet myriad other restrictions for placement, operations and security. The goal is to grow cannabis for certified patients only and to reduce the risk of anyone else breaking in or accessing the products.
The leaders at GraniteLeaf Cannabis, however, say growing the plant inside a dark warehouse is so energy-intensive that it incurs lofty electric bills and has a negative impact on the environment. Had HB1581 become law, having additional cultivation centers would’ve allowed ATCs like GraniteLeaf to grow outdoors in greenhouses, which use far less energy than indoor facilities.
Jerry Knirk, chair of New Hampshire’s Therapeutic Cannabis Medical Oversight Board, said when ATCs are forced to grow indoors and pay high energy costs, they then have to raise product prices. This becomes a medical issue, he said, because a higher cost barrier makes treatment less accessible to the patients who are already certified for it.
Greenhouses “would allow a more economical production, which would allow a decreased price,” Knirk said. “You can have the best system in the world and the best medication in the world, but if it’s so expensive people can’t afford it, it’s not accessible and it doesn’t matter.”
It also makes cannabis more expensive in New Hampshire than in surrounding states. Matt Simon, GraniteLeaf’s director of public and government relations, said in places like Maine, cannabis is much cheaper, but it’s also less regulated. GraniteLeaf currently charges $124 for half an ounce of most flowers, a price they’ve gradually lowered as they’ve established more efficient HVAC and lighting systems and as more patients have become certified. In the beginning, startup costs were so high and there were so few patients that GraniteLeaf charged $55 for one-eighth of an ounce and in the $400 range for one ounce.
Having an outdoor greenhouse isn’t just about cost-cutting, energy efficiency or even the ability to produce cannabis in greater quantity. It’s also about expanding their range of products, Simon said. Inside, everything is controlled — no pests can get in the building, and everything is sanitized. That’s good in some ways, he said, but growing outdoors or in a greenhouse produces a different environment and, consequently, a different plant.
“It puts different stresses on the plants and they produce different terpenes, cannabinoids, and the end result ends up being somewhat different,” Simon said. “That would broaden our product offerings if we could expand in that way.”
It’s still early, Simon and Blum said, but they’re hopeful for an override of the governor’s veto. That would require a two-thirds supermajority vote from the legislature — if everyone who voted for it the first time did so again, Blum said, an override could be possible.
Charlotte Matherly is the statehouse reporter for the Concord Monitor and Monadnock Ledger-Transcript in partnership with Report for America.
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