Today the New Hampshire House voted 236 to 96 to pass a medical marijuana bill that the state’s governor has threatened to veto.

That’s a large enough margin to override a veto from the Governor, but the Senate only passed the bill 13 to 11. Sixteen votes are needed to override the veto in the Senate, and The Marijuana Policy Project is pushing hard for those three votes, sending out an email alert today that read in part:

The vote was a crushing 236-96, which is a veto-proof majority. And we actually needed to get a veto-proof majority, because Gov. John Lynch (D) has promised to veto our bill, just as he did in 2009.

A few weeks ago, the state Senate voted 13-11 to pass our bill, so MPP’s New Hampshire team is working furiously to get up to 16 votes in the Senate, which would be a veto-proof majority in that chamber.

Can you please make a donation today, so that we’ll have the resources to pick up the three additional votes we need in the Senate?

Specifically, we need to commission public opinion polls in targeted Senate districts, generate emails and phone calls from constituents to their state senators, and transport patients to the state capital to lobby their state senators in person.

And, of course, our lobbying firm, MPP’s sole employee in New Hampshire, and our public relations work all cost money, too.

The bill itself would allow patients and caregivers to grow medicine. They would be allowed up to 6 ounces or four plants, but the plants must be kept in a secure location known to law enforcement. Cancer, glaucoma and HIV number among the conditions that would qualify patients in the state.

Not a perfect bill of course, but there are people suffering right now in New Hampshire – and across the country – because they must either go without medicine or take dangerous and addictive prescription drugs. They should be allowed the option of a non-toxic herbal remedy.

- Joe Klare