Sen. Tom Sherman, D-Rye, is pictured in the Senate in this file photo.

CONCORD — Unfinished business remains from Thursday’s Senate session as two bills with lengthy debates will be before senators next week.

Left unresolved were whether to require rear-facing car seats for children up to two years old and whether to limit the number of purchases qualifying out-of-staters could make from state cannabis dispensaries in a year.

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Child Car Seats

The Senate Transportation Committee had recommended a bill requiring all children under two years old be in a rear-facing car seat be turned into a study committee to review state statistics on child injuries from accidents.

Sen. Tom Sherman, D-Rye, who had voted with other committee members to recommend the study commission, said Thursday he had heard from the lead investigator of a University of Virginia study on child restraint and urged the bill instead be passed as it was by the House.

Sherman said the majority of injuries to children from accidents are to the head, neck, and spinal cord and are much less likely to be severe in a rear-facing seat where the forward force is distributed across a child’s entire body and not just on the head and undeveloped neck areas.

He noted the public hearing held on House Bill 251 had 130 people in favor and only six opposed. Those supporting the bill included medical providers and organizations, as well as law enforcement, other safety officials, children’s advocates, insurers, and organizations such as the American Automobile Association.

“The arguments against the bill were not based on facts,” Sherman said, noting rear facing seats are no more expensive than front-facing seats, do not take up more room, and do not have a higher incidence of car sickness.

He said they should be following the science to keep the most vulnerable safe.

“This is not something new, it is a modification of a current statute,” Sherman said. “We can do this without a huge shift in policy.”

In waiting to see if the state should statistically make the change, a child’s life could be lost, he said, and that is one life too many.

Transportation Committee chair Sen. Regina Birdsell, R-Hampstead, said there is no doubt car seats save lives under national data, but when she asked for New Hampshire data there is little available.

Before mandating the rear-facing car seats, she said, “we ought to make sure we have the data to back ourselves up.”

Birdsell said the two-year study would give lawmakers time to develop the data before moving forward.

But Sherman argued the number of incidents are so small in New Hampshire it would never be statistically significant, while national data is very clear that rear-facing seats save lives.

The Senate voted 23-0 to put off action on the bill until next Thursday when it will meet again.

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Cannabis Issues

House Bill 605 addresses several issues concerning out-of-state residents and Canadians accessing cannabis at the state’s dispensaries. And the bill adds opioid addiction as a qualifying condition for the program.

People who qualify for state medical marijuana programs cannot legally transport the product from state-to-state, so if someone is in New Hampshire on vacation or for an extended period of time, and needs medication, they would be able to purchase it under the bill.

Currently the state requires out-of-state patients to have a letter from their providers to purchase cannabis at state dispensaries.

Some senators were concerned other states may have a more robust list of qualifying conditions than New Hampshire so sought to limit an out-of-state patient to three purchases a year in New Hampshire.

Sherman disagreed with the restriction saying if someone is here from California for a year on assignment it is not realistic for the person to go back to that state in order to meet the requirements of a qualifying letter from a caregiver.

Typically someone who qualifies in New Hampshire receives their supply once a month, he said, and someone here for a year would need more than he or she could obtain in three visits to a dispensary.

And he said the bill would require additional work for both the Department of Health and Human Services and the dispensaries to track the out-of-state purchases.

“Very few states have broad qualifying conditions that don’t carry a good deal of thought,” Sherman said. “I don’t think this amendment is necessary.”

But Sen. Kevin Avard, R-Nashua, said he could not support the bill without the amendment.

“I cannot support the underlying bill if New Hampshire citizens have a different standard applied to them,” Avard said.

The amendment failed on a 13-10 vote, and the bill was tabled for further work before a final vote.

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Atlantic Standard Time

The Senate did decide a regional approach is needed to have the state join the Atlantic Standard Time zone and killed a bill that would have done that if Massachusetts and Maine also agreed to permanently move ahead one hour.

The House had approved House Bill 85 last month, but the Senate Executive Departments and Administration Committee recommended killing it.

Committee member Sen. Suzanne Prentiss, D-Lebanon, said any such move should be done on a regional basis and not with only two other states as the bill provides.

Any change that did not include a regional approach would create logistical problems and periods of prolonged morning darkness in the winter, Prentiss maintained.

She said the proposed change as written would create problems for industry, medical services and many other sectors.

“This is a federal issue and should be addressed at the federal level,” Prentiss said, “to avoid the chaos of the patchwork this change would cause.”

The bill was killed on a 22-1 vote.

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Lemonade Stands

The Senate overturned the recommendation of its Election Law and Municipal Affairs Committee to kill House Bill 183 to prohibit cities and towns from requiring a license for anyone under 18 years old operating a soft drink stand.

Sen. Donna Soucy, D-Manchester, said cities and towns should be making those decisions not the state.

“Local communities are more than capable of regulating their sweet spots at the local level,” she said.

But Sen. James Gray, R-Rochester, said his constituents want some protection for their children who are raising money for a cherished possession or a cause.

He proposed an amendment that would lower the age limit to 14 years old, require they be on their own property and the limitation would only apply to licensing.

The original recommendation to kill the bill was voted down along party lines 13-10 before the amendment was approved and passed along the same party lines 13-10.

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County Administrators

House Bill 141 to allow county chief administrators not to join the state retirement system, was voted down 11-12, after Sen. Kevin Cavanaugh, D-Manchester, said it would lead to other units such as school boards seeking to exempt their administrators from having to join the system.

Exempting employees would shift costs to others in the system, he said.

The bill was tabled before a vote to kill it could be taken.

The Senate is scheduled to meet again at 10 a.m. Thursday May 15.

Garry Rayno may be reached at garry.rayno@yahoo.com

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