District 5 Councilor David K. Wheeler apparently feels so comfortable in his gerrymandered district that he no longer needs to respond to constituents. On 2 occasions, January 26th and February 11th, I emailed him requesting assistance on finding funds for a CBD labeling bill that had passed the House.

The email was short, “HB 272–relative to the labeling and sale of hemp products containing CBD passed the House in the 2021 session, but was voted Interim Study in the Senate due to a lack of funding to implement testing and certification infrastructure in NH. The cost to set up a laboratory is approximately $380,000. One of the problems, currently, is that there are no labeling requirements in NH and consumers of CBD can get scammed by unscrupulous characters who dilute the product.

I am writing to you to see if you have any suggestions on funding mechanisms that I might pursue to get this program underway. We might be able to get some modest funding from the industry who is in favor of this legislation, but having them fund the entire program doesn’t appear possible. Any direction you can provide would be appreciated.” I checked with his staff to ensure that the email address was correct. It was.

My only request was for suggestions. If he had none, that was ok, but I did expect a reply. None was forthcoming. A response back is the minimum expectation we should have from our elected representative.