New Hampshire lawmakers might provide voters the opportunity to legalize adult-use cannabis possession in the November 2026 election.
State Rep. Jonah Wheeler, D-Peterborough, pre-filed bipartisan legislation on Dec. 1 for the 2026 legislative session, which proposes a constitutional amendment to allow adults 21 and older the right to possess “a modest amount of cannabis intended for their personal consumption.”
Under current state law, possessing more than 3/4 ounce (roughly 21 grams) of cannabis is a criminal offense punishable by jail time and fines, according to cannabis reform organization NORML. Anything less carries a civil penalty on the first two offenses.
Wheeler’s bipartisan proposal to legalize personal possession is co-sponsored by four Democrats and five Republicans in the 400-member lower chamber that’s controlled by the GOP.
While the ballot proposal would not legalize commercial operations, such as dispensary sales, for a licensed and regulated adult-use marketplace, it represents a rare opportunity for Granite State voters.
New Hampshire is one of 24 states in the U.S. that doesn’t provide for citizen-initiated ballot measures, meaning a potential legislatively referred ballot measure offers the state’s voters a voice in overcoming what has been a years-long struggle to reform their laws beyond medical cannabis. New Hampshire has been the lone state in New England without adult-use cannabis legalization since 2022.
The New Hampshire House and Senate passed an adult-use cannabis legalization bill in 2024, but lawmakers couldn’t overcome their differences in a conference committee after the upper chamber had amended the bill in an attempt to create a state-run “franchise model” for 15 dispensaries under the state’s Liquor Commission.
“That is not a free market, nor is that a good way to legalize,” Wheeler told the New Hampshire Bulletin at the time.
That legislative fumble derailed New Hampshire from becoming the first Republican-controlled legislature in the nation to legalize adult-use cannabis. Then-GOP Gov. Chris Sununu expressed a willingness to sign the legislation, too.
In 2025, the New Hampshire House passed two legalization bills to allow adults to possess cannabis, despite Gov. Kelly Ayotte, who took office in January, having said during her campaign that she would not sign such a proposal. Ayotte’s veto pen was never tested, as the Senate killed the House’s reform attempts in committee.
Although lawmakers in the New Hampshire General Court wouldn’t need Ayotte’s approval to put a constitutional amendment on the 2026 ballot, the road ahead is steeper than a simple majority. The New Hampshire Constitution requires 60% votes in both chambers of the General Court to place a constitutional amendment on the ballot. Once on the ballot, the state requires a two-thirds supermajority vote from the electorate to pass the amendment.
Only two states in the nation have passed adult-use legalization ballot measures with a two-thirds supermajority: New Jersey (67.1%) in 2020 and Maryland (67.2%) in 2022. Both of these measures were legislatively referred.
