Nathaniel Gurien: Cannabis and Hamburgers

Readers of my last column, “Cannabis Rogues & Lickspittles” may recall my unpacking of the governor and Republican leadership’s ill-conceived scheme to keep the overwhelmingly popular issue of common-sense cannabis legalization from handicapping the electoral prospects of likely Republican anti-cannabis Republican gubernatorial candidates Kelly Ayotte and Chuck Morse next year.

The day following sabotaging passage of pretty good legalization legislation in the Senate after the House passed it by a 3-1 margin, Gov. Chris Sununu pretended to suddenly reverse himself by announcing his support for a legalization framework that was patently illegal, dangerous and unworkable. He then rammed through a bill creating our current heavily biased N.H. kangaroo cannabis commission without any industry or public stakeholders as members with a mandate to study and create state monopoly model legislation that he and leadership knew could never be implemented unless and at least until federal cannabis prohibition ended.