Wonder Why Our Legislators Want to Hand the Cannabis Industry to the Liquor Commission?
The 2024 legislative session was enlightening for many reasons. One of the biggest reasons was the crash course we received when it comes to the Liquor Commission and why two years ago (and again this year) New Hampshire legislators attempted to take over the industry and hand it to them. Not as a regulatory agency, but as an entity that would either be the business, or have its hands in plant touching activities up and down the supply chain.
If we go back in time we can picture that just after alcohol prohibition the Liquor Commission was created as a restrictive agency with the mandate of limiting the access and consumption of hard alcohol among residents of the state.
Fast forward 91 years and the Liquor Commission is proud to sell themselves as a business full of business people whose goal it is to maximize the sales of liquor to adults 21 and older in and outside of New Hampshire.
Aside from the fact that if maximizing the sales of liquor is the goal we aren’t convinced we need to government to do it. It would suggest the government has been stealing economic opportunity from the residents for nearly a century. We suspect 91 years from now the Liquor Commission will still exist due to the New Hampshire’s addiction to the revenues they generate for the state.
What is clear is that they are not a regulatory body full of regulators, but a business operating in a competing industry. You would never put McDonalds in charge of regulating T-Bones or Bob Nadeau’s. Why on earth would we then put the Liquor Commission business in charge of cannabis?
Glad you asked! Below is a chart from The New Consumer published in their 2024 Mid-Year report on consumer trends.
The graph shows future generations are choosing cannabis over alcohol by large margins. Gen Z by 38 points, Millennials by 24 points, Gen X by 29 points and Boomers+ by 25 points!
Simply put, legislators and the Liquor Commission now see future generations choosing cannabis over alcohol and that is a direct threat the liquor gravy train. Hence the push to hand the industry to the Liquor Commission not as a regulatory body but to be in the business.
Now you know why we pushed so hard to fight against this when HB1633 was completely re-written by the Senate and sent back to the House. If we allow this to happen we are setting up hundreds of years of stolen economic opportunity from you, the people!
Hopefully the State Run and State Run by Proxy (franchise) models are dead and buried. But like any good zombie, they could be back in any given session. Pay attention and be prepared to push back!
(Image Credit: Property of The New Consumer)
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