OPINION: Everything in New England Should Be Treated the Same

Online Sports Betting Now Legal in Maine

According to WMTW, as of 9a this past Friday morning, November 3, 2023, online sports betting officially became legalized. Something that was legalized in Massachusetts earlier this year back in March, and since December 30, 2019, in neighboring New Hampshire.

Recreational Marijuana Legal in Maine, Massachusetts

And where New Hampshire beat both Maine and Massachusetts to the punch on online sports betting, on the flip side, recreational marijuana became legal first in Maine back in November 2016, followed a couple of years later by Massachusetts in November 2018.

However, New Hampshire -- the "live free or die" state -- still has not legalized recreational marijuana, with a bill passing in the House earlier this year, but ultimately getting rejected by the Senate.

Couple those differences in local state laws along with ideas like -- considering this just happened -- eliminating changing the clocks off of Daylight Savings Time like we did this past weekend, along with the fact that New England, most times, is seen as one entire region as a whole and not a region made up of individual states, and you have to ask the question:

Why aren't rules and regulations on the same level throughout the entirety of New England?

Let's stick with the clock change, again since it literally just happened. Earlier this year, according to NEWS CENTER MAINE, Maine lawmakers actually attempted to propose dumping the idea of Daylight Savings Time, but clearly it went nowhere since we all "fell back" over the weekend.

But what if it did go through and get passed in Maine? Would that mean while it was 12p throughout Maine, cross the Piscataqua River Bridge on the Turnpike and suddenly it would be 11a? Or take it one step further.

Say, like they're unified in recreational marijuana laws, Maine and Massachusetts both did away with ending Daylight Savings Time, but New Hampshire decided to continue changing clocks. Cross from Maine into New Hampshire and you fall back an hour, then continue driving into Massachusetts and you gain the hour back?

Every state having certain individual laws makes sense, but when states are divided into sections (like in the case of Maine, NH, Massachusetts, Vermont, and Rhode Island making up New England; Connecticut, New York, and New Jersey making up the Tri States, etc.), having unified laws and regulations seems to make more sense.