It was a busy Friday for Governor Chris Sununu, who signed more than three dozen new bills into law.
One of the bills the governor signed would affirm the rights of local police departments to release accident reports to people involved in those accidents. Earlier this year, there was some confusion over whether that longstanding practice was legal, after the Department of Safety started requiring all accident reports to go through them.
Sununu also signed a handful of bills affecting beer and wine sales: One would let wholesale distributors sell directly to local clients; another new law would pave the way for wine retail outlets to open up in the Granite State.
One bill would add some exemptions to the state’s meat inspection laws, and it would also make the laws governing “ritual slaughter” more inclusive of different faiths.
Another new law would no longer make vaccines for non-communicable diseases mandatory, while a separate one would start allowing pharmacists to deliver more kinds of vaccines, including for Hepatitis A and B. Yet another new pharmaceutical-related law would exempt veterinarians from newly enacted opioid prescribing rules and from cataloging their prescriptions in a statewide database.
Also under laws signed by the governor Friday, the state’s medical marijuana program will expand to include people experiencing chronic pain and those getting treatment for Hepatitis C.
And then there was the lineup of the perennial study committees and commissions that always emerge when lawmakers aren’t quite ready to fix a problem but want to give it more scrutiny: The governor approved panels to take a closer look at drinking water quality along the Seacoast, long-term care and disputes over right-to-know requests.
The full list of new laws Sununu signed on Friday can be found here.
