Recreational pot users, please take a hit, lean back and chillax while reading this. Straight-laced, “squares,” please apply your common sense and judgment, unclouded by Tetrahydrocannabinol.
States around the country are scrambling to balance budgets on the back of taxes on recreational marijuana. While on the surface it’s an obvious fix with many positive attributes, Colorado Gov. John Hickenlooper’s caution to states attempting to legalize pot, keeps wafting around our head.
Hickenlooper said last summer he would have preferred Colorado look at several downside aspects to recreational legalization. His biggest caution had to do with edibles, which are candies or baked goods infused with some form of canibinol. They aren’t regulated and doses vary. The effects also affect people differently and at different time frames. A few deaths have resulted from edible ingestion and emergency rooms have seen cases of over-indulgence.
The Colorado governor said law enforcement, businesses in general, the medical community and local governments were not prepared for the influx of new residents, “marijuana tourists,” and a criminal element that escalated after pot was legalized in 2012.
His advice was two-pronged: move slowly and do research and learn from Colorado’s mistakes.
New Mexico has done neither. We couldn’t get a hemp bill passed through the legislature in 2015 and suddenly recreational use marijuana opponents have jumped to the proponent side, hands open to grab the cash.
Because we legalized medical marijuana early in the game (1996) New Mexico has a wealth of information regarding ailments, treatments, successes and failures. Over 30,000 people in the state have access to medical marijuana. That’s a great place to start research.
There are several pain management medical groups that would like to get at that information and learn from it. However, the state won’t allow the doctors to access the data. Bureaucrats cite the Health Insurance Privacy and Portability Act (HIPPA). Doctors don’t care who the patient is or where they live. They want access to the data to determine what is working and what isn’t. Instead, all doctors are disconnected from each other.
Law enforcement in the state is also disconnected and while a few agencies may be considering a community or county with legal recreational marijuana, we doubt they have any sort of plan in place.
In a state with our drug problems, should we even attempt to legalize a drug that will attract more drug users and the criminal element of which Hickenlooper warned? We’ve got plenty of drug problems right now that no one can address. Should we invite more?
We won’t even touch the legal aspect of driving while high. That’s another set of laws that would need to be considered and amended.
Will there be an impact on our dwindling water supply as pot farms spring up along the Rio Grande corridor?
Last year, Colorado pot retailers partied to $996 million in sales. The Colorado Department of Revenue partook of $135 million in taxes and fees to the state. That’s a lot of green on the back of a green industry that created many construction, agriculture and retail jobs. It’s tempting.
But before we roll that first legal joint, perhaps we should look farther down the road and see what ramifications await us. We’re a state notorious for not looking before we leap. How about we put infrastructure and policies in place and learn from Colorado?
Legalizing marijuana is probably a good idea in the near future. We just aren’t grown up enough yet to manage it. Learn, put proper programs in place, then let’s do it properly.