Whether we’re ready for it or not, legal marijuana for adult recreational use is coming to New Mexico.
Almost three-fourths of New Mexicans have supported the legalization of cannabis for years, that percentage steadily increasing as we watched neighboring Colorado and other states benefit from the cash crop.
But it’s not all about catching big money that will rain down on supporting New Mexico businesses, retailer and ultimately state coffers and its spend-crazy legislature.
While this solid majority of residents wanted legal pot, the agreement ended there. There were many differences on how the final law should read.
How can the state spend the proceeds? That was a no-brainer from the start. All tax proceeds will flow to the general fund where legislators can divvy the booty.
What about law enforcement, which has to change policing to a certain degree? There’s no help there. As Española Police Chief Roger Jimenez told us in January there will have to be training to identify someone driving under the influence of cannabis. There’s not a simple test, such as Breathalyzer. There are still questions about amounts of marijuana in possession and perhaps the number of people in a car, at a party.
An Albuquerque television news station presented a good story about training for officers all over the state that would allow them to determine if someone is driving while high. The easy course is three days. The real course is two weeks. That’s a lot of cops off the street to get trained.
In an April 1 (Edgewood) Independent story Ninth Judicial District Attorney Andrea Reeb said, as the district attorney, she would be fine with the legalization if certain stipulations were put into place.
“If you’re going to legalize marijuana, give us a tool to prosecute people driving under the influence,” she said. “So, that’s my big problem with the legalization of marijuana is that they are not giving us the tools to prosecute these people effectively.”
The other side of that argument is: how many people are driving around high right now? We’re sure that number isn’t too much lower, if at all, than those driving drunk.
The law allows the state to levy an initial excise tax on recreational marijuana sales of 12 percent. That would rise to 18 percent.
That’s on top of current Gross Receipts Tax, which in Española’s Rio Arriba County side is a hair short of 9%.
Another argument was how much could a person possess and how many plants could they grow? These are all relative arguments. One person may hold an ounce for a month, another for a few days. The same argument applies to plants.
The law landed on possession of up to 2 ounces (57 grams) of marijuana.
The number of plants allowed in a home ended up at six, or 12 per household. Again, that could be a lot for one person and not enough for another. It’s not easy growing quality cannabis and the home-growers will dwindle over time.
A big issue, which proved to be the breaking point during the regular session was expunging people’s records who have violated current and past marijuana laws. That wicket was so sticky it was pulled out of the current cannabis bill and passed separately.
Those who smoked pot in the 1960s, ‘70s and even into the ‘80s knew if they were caught it could mean years, sometimes decades in prison, for relatively small amounts of pot, such as an ounce. It’s likely people were released from prison in the past decade or two for a couple of joints in 1975. There have been letters to the editor and columns in the big city dailies written about such horror stories.
Should these folks be forgiven for breaking a law then that will no longer be a law after the governor signed the legalization bill? The right says they broke the law and that’s that. The left says you can’t keep persecuting someone for something that is no longer illegal.
Also left out of the bill was the opportunity for cities and counties to opt out. So it’s going to be legal everywhere, whether you’re in a right-leaning, God-fearing Chavez County town or laid back, left-leaning Española.
Now entrepreneurs, cities and counties must learn how to make money from it, without the downside of legalized marijuana turning around and biting them.