Republican Sen. Daniel Innis holds a long record of supporting marijuana legalization. But after a split vote among his conservative colleagues placed bills regulating the plant’s medical use in limbo, Innis said he won’t be leading a charge to pass them this year.

A faction of four conservative lawmakers – including Innis, who represents Franklin, Boscawen, Warner and 19 other towns north and west of Concord; Manchester senators Keith Murphy and Victoria Sullivan; and Merrimack Sen. Tim McGough – joined Democrats on Thursday to vote keep legislation alive that would expand the state’s Therapeutic Cannabis Program by allowing certified patients to grow a limited amount of the plant at home.

Their split from party leadership created a 12-12 tie on House Bill 53.

“There are a few folks who really vote in the ‘liberty’ direction,” Innis told the Monitor after the vote. “I tend to be one of those – not always, but generally – and I think that’s a part of what you saw in the vote. We believe in people taking personal responsibility, but we also want to give them access to things that might help them. And to me, this was in part a liberty vote.”

After a brief caucus, all Republican senators agreed to table that bill and two other cannabis-related ones.

“I think that was the right thing to do because it doesn’t kill the idea, right?” Innis said.

Tabling a bill leaves it open for consideration but could mean its demise if it’s left on the table at the end of the legislative session. Innis, however, said he has no plans to save it by taking it off the table.

“It wouldn’t surprise me if another senator might,” he said, “but I won’t do that.”

The Senate has passed a few versions of the home-grow bill several times in the past 15 years, but they’ve always been vetoed.

After Kelly Ayotte won the governor’s race, advocates like Matt Simon, who works for one of the therapeutic cannabis production companies, GraniteLeaf Cannabis, had focused their efforts on expanding the medical program and specifically on legalizing home cultivation for patients.

After today’s vote, however, Simon said he’ll “continue to have no expectations.” He said he hoped the close vote would inspire people to call and email their legislators, but he’s skeptical that senators will change their minds.

“I’m not going to hold my breath,” Simon said.

While no small number of Republicans in the New Hampshire Legislature support legalizing cannabis in some form or another, the stance from party leadership – and most conservatives – is one of disapproval. Sen. Daryl Abbas, a Republican from Salem and vice chair of the Senate Judiciary Committee, said his colleagues found the quantities allowed in the medical home-grow bill to be too high. It would let certified patients and caregivers cultivate three mature plants, three immature plants and 12 seedlings, as well as possess up to eight ounces. 

Abbas said he worried higher possession limits could let patients transfer or sell the product they grow.

“This really opened – well, we thought opened – the floodgates to something that we couldn’t reasonably regulate if we wanted to and really meaningfully enforce,” Abbas said.

Those who support it argue that allowing home cultivation could decrease costs for therapeutic cannabis patients and make it easier for them to access medicine. With only seven dispensaries in New Hampshire, many patients must consistently make long drives to obtain their medicine.

The Senate also tabled House Bill 51, which would allow medical producers to use non-intoxicating hemp cannabinoids in their products, and House Bill 75, which would decriminalize recreational cannabis. Innis said afterward that he couldn’t support HB 75 because it doesn’t establish a framework for retail sales or easy access. It would’ve hurt the state’s chance to “really do this right” later on, he said. Murphy was the only Republican to vote against tabling that bill.

“We’ll just say, ‘Oh, well, it’s legal here. Go to Maine, Vermont or Massachusetts, spend your money there and leave your tax dollars behind,’” Innis said. “I think it is time that we get this done, because everyone who wants weed in our state is already getting it. They’re just getting it somewhere else.”

Democrats, on the other hand, viewed it as a solid starting point to build upon.

“Under this bill, the state can finally begin to create a thoughtful regulatory framework: one that prioritizes public health, safety and economic opportunity,” said Keene Sen. Donovan Fenton.

Several other cannabis bills are up for consideration in the coming weeks, too. The Republican-led Senate Judiciary Committee voted on Tuesday to recommend thwarting House Bill 190, which would increase the possession limit for therapeutic cannabis patients, and House Bill 198, which would legalize certain quantities of recreational cannabis but establish penalties for its use in public.

They’ll also weigh penalties for criminal violations of medical marijuana use in House Bill 380 and whether to allow each of the three state-approved therapeutic cannabis production companies to build an outdoor greenhouse in House Bill 301. The Legislature approved a similar version last year that was vetoed by then-Gov. Chris Sununu.

Charlotte Matherly is the statehouse reporter for the Concord Monitor and Monadnock Ledger-Transcript in partnership with Report for America. Follow her on X at @charmatherly, subscribe to her Capital Beat newsletter and send her an email at  cmatherly@cmonitor.com.