Judge allows New Hampshire woman to buy medical marijuana in Maine

[blackie]

http://www.pressherald.com/2015/11/24/judge-allows-new-hampshire-woman-to-buy-medical-marijuana-in-maine

The ruling clears the way for Linda Horan, who has late-stage lung cancer, to go out of state for marijuana before dispensaries open in New Hampshire.

CONCORD, N.H. — A woman with late-stage lung cancer can seek to buy medical marijuana in Maine before dispensaries open in New Hampshire, a judge ruled Tuesday.

New Hampshire lawmakers approved the use of marijuana by people suffering from a limited number of diseases and medical conditions more than two years ago, but the first four dispensaries won't open until next year. Linda Horan, 64, says she might be dead by then and sued the state in hopes of getting an identification card that would allow her to purchase marijuana in Maine instead.

Lawyers for the state argued that issuing Horan an identification card now would undermine New Hampshire's need to control distribution, but a judge sided with Horan and ordered the state to process her application and issue a card if it is approved. The state, which has 15 days to approve or deny an application, did not dispute that Horan would be entitled to a card.

"I'm over the moon. It really hasn't sunk in," Horan said. "I'm in tears – tears of joy. Not just for me, but for everyone else who will have the opportunity to get the medicine they need. If I'm going down, I'm going down swinging."

Horan, a retired telephone worker and longtime labor activist from Alstead, was diagnosed in July with lung cancer that has grown rapidly since then and spread to her lymph nodes and brain. Her doctors have told her that marijuana could help reduce nausea and minimize the need to use narcotics to control pain.

"She is suffering from a painful, terminal disease and is also undergoing chemotherapy. There is no dispute that cannabis can ameliorate some of her suffering," wrote Judge Richard McNamara. "She will suffer irreparable harm if relief is not granted."

Horan's attorney, Paul Twomey, called his client a hero.

"Facing death, she has chosen to fight for the rights of all the critically ill patients in New Hampshire, who should not have to fear arrest because they are sick," he said. "She may be dying, but we all owe her our thanks for showing us how to live."

Assistant Attorney General Francis Fredericks could not be reached for comment Tuesday after his office closed.

At an earlier hearing, he said the state had to balance the patient's need to obtain medical marijuana with the state's need to control its distribution at its alternative treatment centers.

"New Hampshire should not have to abandon its protocol and its plan because Maine is a step ahead," he said.

In his ruling, McNamara rejected the state's argument that allowing Horan to possess marijuana from Maine would destroy the tight distribution controls lawmakers envisioned in passing the law. He noted that the law allows visitors from other states to obtain marijuana in New Hampshire, suggesting that lawmakers knew other states would have similar provisions.

[WithoutAPaddle]

Isn't, or wasn't, there a New Hampshire Supreme Court justice named Horan?  Are they related?

[KBCraig]

Not currently.

[WithoutAPaddle]

I just Googled "judge Horan" and "New Hampshire" and found that he was a Superior Court judge as recently as 2006 [edit/update: he was still on the bench this year].   I'm just wondering if this ruling was favoritism that will not be a useful precedent to others.

[WithoutAPaddle]

I now see that there was a Supreme Court justice named Horton, Sherman Horton, Jr., actually, whose tenure overlapped that of Superior Court judge Steven Horan, who is still serving.  As they each were involved in newsworthy cases in the same era, I may have confused my recollections of the two, with Horan presiding over some Superior Court matters that I occasionally read of in the news, while Horton who served from 1990 to 2000 and died last year, was a very well connected - as all Supreme Court justices are - having been appointed to that Court by his former law partner, Governor Judd Greg, without ever having served as a lower judge. 

Judge Horan presided over the Elizabeth Marriott murder trial; Horton was impeached but acquitted for deliberating with his brethren in cases from which he had recused himself.  I sometimes get my recollections of Suharto and Sukarno confused, too.  Ditto for Lenin and Lennon.

[Free libertarian]

Okay...at the risk of getting all Joe Haas, I'm going to point out some legal stuff  that is somewhat hard to follow and ends with the STATE lying and speaking out of both sides of its mouth.

This ruling may not be all that seems on the surface.   I'll even suggest it might be part of a bigger diversion and state coverup....

They did not want this issue to go to court and get publicized!!



The judges decision might have been made to limit any further conversation or inquiry into  why the state and Nicholas Toumpas (the commissioner of health and human services) haven't implemented the NH medical marijuana program yet, but what they really want to avoid is.... raising any questions regarding the history of the unpublished and nonexistent NH controlled drug schedule. 


They DID NOT WANT NICHOLAS TOUMPAS ON THE WITNESS STAND.   I know this and the state knows that I know this.

I had Nicholas Toumpas served to appear in court several years ago and he never showed, the State and court colluded to prevent him from being asked questions about any NH  formation and publication of the NH controlled drug schedule under oath by me. Fuck them.

Now by this judges ruling,  NH will deviate from the federal drug schedule, (feds don't allow ANY pot) which they have claimed in court is the schedule they've used and still use to determine which drugs are controlled / illegal.   

By "allowing" medical marijuana for one person, the state of NH is caught in a scenario where they have to make their own NH drug schedule or admit the one they claimed to follow, the FEDERAL SCHEDULE, no longer applies. Which also could shed light on the fact NH never formed or published it's own controlled drug schedule....like their law said they must.


That's right,  the state of NH arrested and prosecuted people for a long time for "controlled drugs" ,yet they never formed, published or updated a NH controlled drug schedule as their own law said they must.   (We, a few legal busy bodies in Grafton have proof of this)

There was also a law RSA 21:32 which stated things like the New Hampshire controlled drug schedule was supposed to have been published periodically in a statewide newspaper to inform the public of which drugs are controlled.   This NEVER happened, which makes the arrests prior to that legally speaking invalid, (void for vagueness).   

In July of 2011 the state knew they had a problem...because we had so nicely pointed it out to the dolts...so they then did a cover up by making a change to the law on publication RSA 21:32.   This change was buried in the Governor Lynch budget bill and wasn't supposed to be discovered....but those damn pesky Grafton legal types found that too.  Sneaky fuckers aren't we?


So what we have is a state that has declared some drugs illegal, yet they never told the public which ones were illegal and when pressed said "oh we use the federal schedule", because they knew we had proved they never made or published a NH controlled drug schedule....thus invalidating ALL of their controlled drug arrests prior to July of 2011.

That's right kids, your state government hasn't followed its own laws....amazing huh?

So anybody arrested for controlled drugs in NH ought to ask the right questions about how they are supposed to know WHICH drugs are legal and which are not, then stand back as the state's proverbial nose rapidly grows to epic proportions.

[Tom Sawyer]

This years Joseph Haas Award goes to...

That is some good stuff there  Free libertarian. I believe it should be the opening salvo in the Drug War Reparations Hearings. I mean we won't be hanging the fuckers from lamp posts or anything... just an airing of grievances and tales of the evil abuses that were heaped upon peaceful folks for decades.

[Free libertarian]

   
It seems the state really really DIDN'T want Nicholas Toumpas on a witness stand.    The state of NH is caught in a legal contradiction and might need some help getting their multiple stories to coincide.   I think I might go to my legal tool box and see if I can find some monkey wrenches for them to use to screw their conflicting stories together. 

I have all of the documentation and "legal logic" (now there's an oxymoron!) for people arrested prior to July of 2011 to go after the state for false arrest etc. if anybody is interested.   

You can't legally speaking enforce a non existent state law* then point to a federal schedule as the law the state follows when cornered by Grafton legal types and then flip back to IGNORING the federal law when it is convenient, as they just did.






*the state controlled drug law is non existent becuase they never formed or published their own drug schedule as their law said they must.

[Jay]

I would imagine the State might be bankrupt for the next 20-30 years paying restitution to unjustly imprisoned persons if this ever got out.

[Free libertarian]

I would imagine the State might be bankrupt for the next 20-30 years paying restitution to unjustly imprisoned persons if this ever got out.

  They seem to want to keep the lump under the carpet, and get nervous anytime a vacuum cleaner in Grafton gets plugged in.

A reading of the State "drug laws" RSA - 318-B:2 indicates that their schedule was supposed to be published..  Of course in order to publish something, it must first exist in the first place, which it didn't, not as a state schedule anyway.

A reading of their laws on publication RSA 21:32 prior to July of 2011 was that the state controlled drug schedule was to be published in a newspaper etc.   It never was.   After July of 2011 they "fixed" the law (buried the change to the law in the voluminous governor's budget bill...the peasants were not supposed to see what they did there, but we found it) by saying the state drug schedule could be published on a website.   

The state is a liar liar and its pants are on fire. 

[WithoutAPaddle]

I think the state paid about $8 million in hush money in the wake of the judge Fairbanks fiasco.  They bottled that one up so tight that it is nearly impossible to research the details.

http://unsolvedmysteries.wikia.com/wiki/Judge_John_Fairbanks

I just googled and found this elaborate Judge Fairbanks fiasco account here: http://www.gnbtaxpayers.com/FAIRBANKS,%20JOHN,%20JUDGE%20-%20SCANDAL%20&%20COVER-UP.pdf

[blackie]

Now by this judges ruling,  NH will deviate from the federal drug schedule, (feds don't allow ANY pot) which they have claimed in court is the schedule they've used and still use to determine which drugs are controlled / illegal.   

By "allowing" medical marijuana for one person

This is just allowing a NH resident to have medical marijuana in NH. Visiting qualifying patients can already have medical marijuana in NH.

My Maine MMJ certification is valid in NH because I also have a doctors note saying I have a qualifying medical condition as defined in RSA 126-X:1. I can have 2 ounces of medical marijuana in NH. I can't get any cannabis from a NH patient, but I don't see anything that would prevent me from transfering it TO a NH patient.

126-X:2 Therapeutic Use of Cannabis Protections. –

V. A valid registry identification card, or its equivalent, that is issued under the laws of another state, district, territory, commonwealth, or insular possession of the United States that allows, in the jurisdiction of issuance, a visiting qualifying patient to possess cannabis for therapeutic purposes, shall have the same force and effect as a valid registry identification card issued by the department in this state, provided that:
       (a) The visiting qualifying patient shall also produce a statement from his or her provider stating that the visiting qualifying patient has a qualifying medical condition as defined in RSA 126-X:1; and
       (b) A visiting qualifying patient shall not cultivate or purchase cannabis in New Hampshire or obtain cannabis from alternative treatment centers or from a qualifying New Hampshire patient.

[KBCraig]

A reading of their laws on publication RSA 21:32 prior to July of 2011 was that the state controlled drug schedule was to be published in a newspaper etc.   It never was.   After July of 2011 they "fixed" the law (buried the change to the law in the voluminous governor's budget bill...the peasants were not supposed to see what they did there, but we found it) by saying the state drug schedule could be published on a website.

Did they ever do even that much?

[Free libertarian]

A reading of their laws on publication RSA 21:32 prior to July of 2011 was that the state controlled drug schedule was to be published in a newspaper etc.   It never was.   After July of 2011 they "fixed" the law (buried the change to the law in the voluminous governor's budget bill...the peasants were not supposed to see what they did there, but we found it) by saying the state drug schedule could be published on a website.

Did they ever do even that much?

They have made some allusion to "relying heavily" on the Federal controlled drug schedule.  I got that "answer" in a dancing lawyer letter reply from Nicholas Toumpas lawyer in the winter / early spring of 2011.
I had made inquiry with Toumpas office via a 91-A right to know action for the history of the newspaper publication of the NH controlled drug schedule.  (They couldn't provide it, because they couldn't publish something they never made and never did)   

In a "remarkable coincidence" I was trying to get a Grafton County judge to "approve" Toumpas as a witness at my trial for manufacturing a controlled drug (pot) which was scheduled around the same time. Naturally I was going to ask him questions that would have proven, legally speaking, there are no NH controlled drugs, since NH never made or published a schedule as their law said they must.

Of course the judge denied me being able to put Toumpas on the witness stand.   Toumpas had also failed to appear at the 91-A court hearing I had in Merrimack County....even after being served by the sheriffs office to appear which I got to pay for. 
It was almost like he was "above the law" (smirk)

Collusion + Coverup = FUCK THE STATE.

[WithoutAPaddle]

I don't know how one would go about researching this comprehensively, or, shall we say, pervasively, to see to what extent New Hampshire's trial procedures may differ from the norm, but when I read a New Hampshire Rule or Statute a few decades ago regarding subpoenaing a witness, it said that the Court can subpoena witnesses, whereas when I looked up the similar situation in a couple of other states, their procedure said that the party can subpoena the witness, so I filed a "Motion to Subpoena" that witness, and the court simply ignored it.