Politics & Government

Tulsi Gabbard In Concord: Marijuana Legalization Will Save Lives

Watch: A roundtable focused on cannabis reform and hosted by comedian Jimmy Dore, also delved into health care policy, bipartisanship.

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CONCORD, NH — At least one Democrat running for president is calling for expansive changes to federal cannabis laws as well as possibly moving to "the Portugal model," the complete decriminalization and regulation of all illegal substances. U.S. Rep. Tulsi Gabbard, D-Hawaii, participated in a 90-minute roundtable discussion Saturday, "Rethinking Marijuana Legalization and Criminal Reform," emceed by comedian Jimmy Dore of The Young Turks fame. The 125-plus people in attendance at NHTI, Concord's community college, were mostly from New Hampshire but some came from all over New England and even Quebec, to meet the representative and speak about reform.

Dore opened the conversation by reading from a note he received from the staff at the Bedford Village Inn, the hotel he was staying at, warning guests on his floor that while staff didn't know which room the marijuana smoke was coming from, the hotel was "smoke-free" and a fee might be issued to the guest breaking the rules.

"I say, that's $100 well-spent," he said, to laughter from the audience.

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The roundtable featured Matt Simon of the Marijuana Policy Project, who has worked for many years to bring about medical marijuana and decriminalization to New Hampshire, as well as the experiences of Lisa Powers, a member of the American Cannabis Nurses Association, Heather Marie Brown, a legal advocate who uses marijuana medically, and Livi McKay, a self-described Southern Republican and legalization advocate who uses the plant to combat chronic pain.

The women spoke about their various issues with cannabis usage and advocacy — from financial crisis due to medical bills, addiction to opioids, finally being able to admit to their children that they were using marijuana because it was legal, and even hiding their usage from employers for fear of retribution. They all agreed that while some states had moved forward on assisting their citizens, reform needed to be implemented at the federal level. In between comments and testimony, some of it harrowing, Dore interjected humor, to lighten the moment.

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Currently, New Hampshire is an island of prohibition, as Simon described it, with legal marijuana in Maine, Massachusetts, and Vermont, while adding it took a Republican governor, Chris Sununu, to get decriminalization approved in the state after it was vetoed by Govs. John Lynch and Maggie Hassan, both Democrats. He said in some states, legislators were working toward what was best for the majority of their people. In other places, getting to legalization was difficult and often, a bipartisan problem. At the same time, after working on the issue for more than a decade, "it's become a different set of challenges" with marijuana legalization become more popular in New Hampshire than any individual political leader — by a wide margin, Simon said.

Gabbard thanked everyone for representing so many others who weren't as brave to promote personal choices and the need to heal by natural remedies.

"You are bringing voice to millions of people across the country, who have been told they are criminals or those who are incarcerated, or those who are seeing themselves and their loved ones, struggle and suffer because of this federal prohibition that has exist; that has hampered research from taking place," she said.

Gabbard said she understood how difficult it was for some of her colleagues to support decriminalization and legalization and how worried they were about what some of the constituents might think of them. But, ideally, she said, the people elect "leaders, not followers," and should not be worried about difficult decisions. Gabbard, who also serves on the House Cannabis Caucus, said the facts and evidence showed how beneficial it would be to change laws federally.

Many concerns were raised about reform by audience members including the high level of taxation on marijuana, the corporatization of legalization, single-payer plans, and other health care issues.

Gabbard said she would work in a bipartisan manner, as she had with other bills, including her Marijuana Opportunity Reinvestment and Expungement Act, to bring people together to work on solutions. She said the opioid crisis had opened up enough eyes to understand that "to literally save people's lives," reform was needed as an alternative to the synthetic drugs used for pain management.

Gabbard also introduced two other bills with bipartisan support: one that would de-schedule the classification of marijuana from being controlled drug as well as marijuana data collection so lawmakers and health care providers could make "informed decisions" about what works and what doesn't.

Simon noted cannabis was not for everyone and certainly not for children and teenagers. At the same time, he said, states like New Hampshire benefited heavily from liquor stores along the highway and alcohol often causes more problems and health issues that marijuana. It was time to bring it out from the shadows as was done when prohibition against alcohol was ended — because criminals had taken over the liquor business, he added. Simon also thanked Gabbard for being a leader in Congress on the issue while other candidates were often just paying lip service to the issue.

Gabbard also made a push for the United States to consider decimalizing drugs similar what was done nearly two decades ago in Portugal as part of criminal justice reform. It would save money on law enforcement and military costs by ending the war on drugs, she said. The decriminalization and regulation of all illegal drugs lowered incarceration costs and health care costs — while also allowing funds to be spent directly on care in Portugal, Gabbard said.

"It's really worth taking a look at," Gabbard said. "Portugal is not the United States. There's a lot of differences there. I think, the point is, we have to look at models that have proven that they have worked and then try to look at what we have here and take those lessons learned and best apply them."

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