Hanover residents will vote on legislation Tuesday that urges Hanover Police not to arrest an adult for possession of marijuana if the individual has evidence of a physician's certification.
If enacted, however, the legislation would not have any legal effect, according to New Hampshire Assistant Attorney General Jim Kennedy.
"[The town] can urge the Hanover police department to do whatever they want," Kennedy said. "But the police department officers have taken an oath to uphold the laws of the state."
Therefore, if passed, the "urging" of this legislation could never be successful, and would only serve as a statement of support for medicinal marijuana use. If police stopped arresting marijuana users who have physician approval, the officers would be violating their oath-of-office.
Stuart Cooper, executive director of Livefree, a Manchester-based marijuana policy reform project, introduced this legislation by petition to the town of Hanover. Since Cooper does not reside in Hanover, he appealed to Hanover residents to sign the medicinal marijuana petition.
"I'm not an outsider coming in -- I live in New Hampshire," Cooper said. "Seventy percent of residents of New Hampshire support this issue."
The Becker Institute, a market-research organization in Sudbury, Mass., polled 401 registered New Hampshire voters and found that 68 percent support a state law to allow people with serious illnesses to use marijuana.
The town has an obligation to propose this petition at the town hall because it was signed by more than 24 residents, the threshold required to introduce legislation at the town meeting.
"[The] vote is an empty vote," Town Manager Julia Griffin said. "The act of urging is fine. But what they're urging us to do is illegal."
Hanover Police Chief Nicholas Giaccone also said that there would be no consequences whatsoever for the police department.
"We have never been confronted with anyone who is in a medical situation where they need marijuana for medicinal purposes," Giaccone said.
Cooper framed the debate about the legislation in terms of one fundamental question.
"It's a question of should we protect or arrest seriously ill people," Cooper said. "You have somebody who has cancer or who has AIDS, and a lot of doctors will tell you that marijuana helps."
If this legislation is passed. Cooper continued, the town would send a clear message that the community does not want to arrest seriously ill people to the state and federal government, and also to presidential candidates that will be coming through Hanover.
Hanover has debated weighty issues at town meetings in the past. Subjects such as climate control, the impeachment of President Bush, and legislation relating to the war in Iraq have been discussed.
At the end of March, the New Hampshire House of Representatives defeated a bill by a margin of nine votes that supported medicinal marijuana use for the chronically ill, with a vote of 186-177.
Because of the support in New Hampshire for this medicinal cause, Cooper plans to introduce petitions in Keene and Nashua similar to the one introduced for Hanover's town meeting.
The town meeting is set to start at 7 p.m. on Tuesday. It will take place in the Richmond Middle School Gymnasium.
