Law New Mexico

[momofthegoons]

New Mexico Voters Strongly Favor Marijuana Legalization And Half Back Drug Decriminalization, Poll Shows​

A strong majority of New Mexico voters are in favor of legalizing marijuana with social equity provisions in place, and about half support decriminalizing drug possession more broadly, according to a new poll.

The survey asked: “Do you support or oppose a proposal to legalize, tax, and regulate cannabis, also known as marijuana, sales to adults 21 and over, with provisions in place to ensure the tax revenue is reinvested back into communities?”

Seventy-two percent of respondents said they favor the proposal, including 94 percent of Democrats, 46 percent of Republicans and 93 percent of independents.

Voters were also asked in the poll, which was sponsored by Drug Policy Action (DPA), about a variety of equity components, regardless of how they responded to the legalization question.

Majorities support scaling back licensing fees to bolster small businesses (80 percent), expunging prior cannabis convictions (67 percent), allowing those with previous marijuana convictions to participate in the legal industry (62 percent), stopping the denial of public benefits or health care based on cannabis use or positive cannabis drug tests (68 percent), banning police stops based only on the odor of marijuana (58 percent) and providing financial assistance to low-income medical marijuana patients (62 percent).

“New Mexicans are ready for cannabis legalization, and they want to see equity built into the legislative proposal to help right the many wrongs caused by the failed war on drugs,” Emily Kaltenbach, senior director of resident states and New Mexico at DPA, said in a press release.

“Repairing the damage done by cannabis prohibition is not negotiable,” she said. “It is time to stop criminalizing people for cannabis and instead realize the economic and social benefits of having cannabis possession and sales regulated in New Mexico.”

But beyond marijuana, there’s evidently an appetite for broadly drug policy reform among New Mexicans.

Asked if they “support or oppose making small-scale possession of all drugs for personal use a misdemeanor, instead of a felony which carries steeper penalties,” 62 percent said they are in favor of the proposal while 31 percent said they were opposed.

Those who said they support that policy were asked a follow up question: “Do you support or oppose making possession, not selling, of all drugs for personal use a civil offense with a fine instead of jail time?” And 79 percent of that group said they back decriminalization, compared to 16 percent who are against it.

That means that, according to the poll, 49 percent of New Mexicans support decriminalization.

Meanwhile, voters in Oregon have the chance next month to make their state the first in the nation to decriminalize drug possession by passing a ballot measure to enact the reform.

The New Mexico survey involved interviews with 1,193 voters from September 22-24. The margin of error is 3 percentage points.

It’s possible that the strong support for cannabis legalization could further increase if voters in neighboring Arizona approve the policy change through the ballot next month. And polling in that state also indicates that there’s a strong chance of passage, with two recent surveys showing growing majority support.

While legalization isn’t on the ballot in New Mexico, House Speaker Brian Egolf (D) recently said that the legislature will again attempt to advance the reform next session.

A bill to legalize cannabis for adult use passed one Senate committee in January only to be rejected in another before the end of the short 2020 session. But lawmakers seem intent on giving it another go, and they have strong support from Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham (D), who said last month that marijuana legalization represents a positive fiscal opportunity for the state, especially amid budget shortfalls caused by the coronavirus pandemic.

In May, Lujan Grisham signaled that she may actively campaign against lawmakers who blocked her legalization bill in this year’s regular session. She also said in February that she’s open to letting voters decide on the policy change via a ballot referendum.

The legalization effort in the state may also get a boost next year from the results of this year’s primary elections in which several Democratic lawmakers who had opposed the reform were ousted by progressive challengers.

Rep. Javier Martinez (D) who chairs a joint committee that held a hearing last month to discuss the economic impact of cannabis reform, said he’s hopeful that the policy change will be enacted this upcoming session and said he anticipates that “in this year’s version of the bill, we are very likely to get Republican support, particularly on the Senate side.”

 

[Baron23]

New Mexico to Allow Out-of-State Medical Marijuana Patients​

A state district judge cleared the way for hundreds of patients to be re-authorized to participate in New Mexico’s medical marijuana program.
The ruling stemmed from a challenge of a mandate issued in September and a subsequent emergency rule adopted by the state health department just weeks later that placed additional requirements on some patients with medical marijuana cards from other states.



Ultra Health, the state’s largest cannabis company, asked the court to step in. It argued that the agency overstepped the intention of the state Legislature and created more hurdles for patients seeking to gain reciprocal admission into the New Mexico program.
Judge Matthew Wilson said the agency’s justification for adopting the emergency rule in early October was inadequate and therefore unenforceable.

“It’s important to patients who were already part of the program and got it taken away and patients who are in need of access. This was their only hope,” said a patient advocate.

Health department spokesman David Morgan said the agency is complying with the ruling and that all 323 people affected by the decision will once again be able to buy from licensed cannabis providers in the state.
People from Texas, Arizona and elsewhere have enrolled as patients in New Mexico’s medical marijuana program.
Patient enrollment has surged in New Mexico’s medical marijuana program for health ailments such as cancer, chronic pain and post-traumatic stress disorder, with a 27% jump in participation since September 2019. Active patients now number more than 98,500, and there are about 1,700 reciprocal participants.
Governor Michelle Lujan Grisham and fellow Democratic lawmakers have said recreational marijuana legalization could help diversify New Mexico’s economy and generate tens of millions of dollars in annual tax revenue. The issue likely will be brought up again during the next legislative session in January.

 

[momofthegoons]

Illegal Marijuana Grows Still Operating On Navajo Land, Despite Court Order​

A massive marijuana bust in New Mexico represents just a sliver of an ongoing operation on Navajo lands that has now drawn federal investigators

FARMINGTON, NM — Three weeks ago, city police and San Juan County sheriff’s deputies got a tip about a man moving a truckload of marijuana into a budget motel on the west side of town. When they began knocking on doors at the Travel Inn on October 8th, they could hardly believe their eyes: numerous rooms had been converted into a makeshift assembly line for processing cannabis. Officers waded knee-deep through piles of buds, and discovered 17 Chinese men and women hard at work pruning the plants.

Police seized 2,000 pounds of suspected marijuana, with an estimated street value of $2.8 million. It was the biggest marijuana bust ever made in San Juan County, according to Sheriff Shane Ferrari.

“What we found in there was only a fraction, maybe 25 percent of what they’re growing in a single greenhouse on the reservation,” he told Searchlight New Mexico.

If investigators determine that figure is accurate, it could mean the Shiprock, New Mexico farms are capable of growing thousands of tons of illegal marijuana, potentially worth billions of dollars.

Over the past year, local Navajo farm board president Dineh Benally has overseen the creation of a vast network of industrial-scale black-market cannabis farms that now stretch across the Shiprock Chapter. Over 1,000 workers from predominantly Chinese neighborhoods in Los Angeles and New York have arrived on the reservation to manage and work the farms.

Hundreds of cannabis greenhouses have been built atop 36 farms traditionally dedicated to corn, a food staple that is central to Navajo ceremonies. Transformation of the land has created simmering resentments across the community.

As of October 20th, Navajo Nation Police have made 38 arrests, issued nearly 300 citations and seized what Chief Phillip Francisco described as “thousands of pounds of marijuana” — a quantity so vast that the police department has run out of storage space in its evidence lockers.

A Navajo court issued a temporary restraining order on September 18th, ordering the closure of the farms, and on October 28th the tribal government filed a lawsuit against 33 Navajo farmers who had leased their land to cannabis growers. Still, five farms remain in operation, Francisco said, and a steady stream of workers continues to process the plants.

One of those workers was Qinliang Wang, who arrived in New Mexico last month eager to begin a job “trimming flowers.” Wang was among those arrested at the Travel Inn three weeks ago.

“I lost my job in California because of the pandemic back in March,” he told Searchlight in Mandarin, two days before his arrest. “My ancestors have been farmers for generations. When a friend told me about this work opportunity, I thought it would be perfect. Nobody told me it was illegal. Nobody told any of us workers it was illegal.”

Wang, a former restaurant worker in California, moved to the U.S. from China’s Hubei Province in 2014. Like many of the 1,000 or so Chinese laborers who came to New Mexico this year, he learned about the work opportunity through a friend. Other workers were recruited through “job agencies” in East Los Angeles and Queens, New York. Labor advocates say that these agencies are common in Chinese immigrant communities and often serve to entrap workers in exploitative jobs.

Wang said he didn’t learn that the farms had been declared illegal until after his arrival in New Mexico.

Wang and his 16 coworkers were booked into the San Juan County Adult Detention Center and have since been released. They face multiple felony drug-trafficking and conspiracy charges, carrying the possibility of more than a decade in prison, according to attorney Sarah Field of the New Mexico Public Defender’s Office. As of October 27th, Wang had not met with an attorney. He said he did not understand the charges that have been filed against him.

“These clients are at a disadvantage because they don’t have the luxury of being able to talk to us about their case,” Field said, adding that the Public Defender’s Office will represent only one of the 17 workers. The rest of them will be represented by private attorneys.

“Our hands are really tied” without a Mandarin interpreter, which the office has yet to find, Field added.

Documents and contracts obtained by Searchlight show that the project’s organizers deceptively presented the farms as legal ventures, enticing low-income residents of predominantly Chinese immigrant neighborhoods in Southern California to join up as laborers or investors. Some of the investors said that they mortgaged their homes, cashed in their retirement accounts or borrowed from loan sharks on the promise of high returns.

One investor, who identified himself only as “Mr. Zhang,” told Searchlight that he poured $220,000 into a small plot of cannabis farmland in Shiprock, compromising his life savings and listing his house in Los Angeles as collateral on high-interest loans.

“We are not rich people,” Zhang said in Mandarin, speaking from the trailer he shared with six other farmworkers. He left his wife and two young children back in California, with the promise that he would return with money for the family. Now, their savings gone up in smoke, his wife has left him.

“I am homeless now,” he said, explaining that he only had enough money left to buy one loaf of bread per day from the dollar store. “I haven’t had a bath for eight days. How can I live this way? I don’t have face to meet my friends and relatives. I would kill myself if I only knew how.”

Federal investigators have descended on the Navajo Nation in response to a Sept. 23 Searchlight story detailing illegal marijuana cultivation, child labor and worker exploitation. Agents from the U.S. State Department’s human trafficking unit are now investigating the farms. On Oct. 16, Sen. Martin Heinrich sent a letter to the U.S. Attorney’s Office in New Mexico, formally requesting an investigation into “disturbing reports” of labor exploitation and interstate drug trafficking.

Most of the workers have since returned to California and New York, according to interviews with at least 10 Chinese farm laborers and investors. But hundreds still remain.

Some are stranded in the high desert of New Mexico, left to fend for themselves after their supervisors fled without paying them their wages; others spend their days crowded into a trailer park on the outskirts of Farmington, clinging to the hope that they might still recoup a part of their investment. Still others are hiding out inside the reservation, sleeping in the woods that line the San Juan River, according to local residents.

“It’s really heartbreaking,” said Sheriff Ferrari. “These workers aren’t drug dealers. I truly think that they’ve been duped. But the people that are responsible for it — I want to make sure these sons of bitches are the ones that go down.”

All the operation’s organizers remain at large — including Dineh Benally, the local Navajo farm board president and principal organizer, who fled the area and is presumed to be in hiding, according to Navajo Nation Police Chief Phillip Francisco. Law enforcement on and off the reservation is currently working to identify the other organizers of the operation.

“The Chinese investors have lost millions or even hundreds of millions of dollars,” said Mike Chen, another worker, who was himself not arrested. “Dineh Benally is a liar and a fraud.”

Irving Lin, who was formally one of Benally’s primary business associates, stated in an October 7th affidavit that Benally told him that “the farming is continuing and will continue” in spite of the court order to stop. Navajo Police said the same thing in a separate affidavit, according to the Navajo Times.

Benally’s attorney, David Jordan, did not respond to requests for comment.

Meanwhile, many of the farms continue to operate. Video obtained by Searchlight shows hydroponic irrigation equipment nourishing lush cannabis plants, and neighbors report that most nights, under the cover of darkness, Chinese workers slip onto the farms and harvest the crops by flashlight.

Chief Francisco confirmed those reports.

Navajo Police set up a hotline for residents to report violations of the restraining order. But without jurisdiction to arrest non-Natives, tribal police have been unable to fully prevent the Chinese workers from continuing to grow and harvest marijuana inside the enormous greenhouses.

Angered by what they perceive as an inadequate response by tribal law enforcement, neighbors and traditional corn farmers have begun patrolling the neighborhoods where the cannabis farms remain active, staking out farms throughout the night and reporting their sightings to tribal police.

“I think the cops are tired of hearing from us,” said Michael Roy, a resident of the village of Cudei, near Shiprock, who patrols the roads near his home on foot, a billy club in his pocket and a camera in his hand. “The police are really not taking this serious enough. We keep reporting to them like they asked us to, but it hasn’t made a difference.”

“Even as we talk right now, they are still harvesting,” said Zachariah Ben, a corn farmer who on a recent night joined a group of Shiprock residents — some carrying baseball bats, tasers and other weapons — outside a cannabis farm where they saw workers harvesting marijuana.

When the group called Navajo Police, an officer instructed the irate crowd to leave.

“It is such a disappointment,” Ben said, explaining that he and other cannabis opponents see the farms as a threat to Navajo sovereignty and culture. “We are the laughingstock of other tribes because we can’t stop this from happening. But as soon as the foreign workers step foot off the reservation, there are sheriffs and police waiting for them.”

 

[Baron23]

In MD we are allowed 4 ounces a month, or the equiv in THC for concentrates (there is some number...can't remember) and I have always thought this to be generous.

Now, I'm not a cancer patient battling chemo side effects all day nor like some others whose conditions require frequent medication, but I don't really get even close to 4 oz/month.

So, NM is going to 15 oz/90 days....5 oz/month. Not bad.

New Mexico Considering Expanding Medical Cannabis Program​

Medical marijuana patients in New Mexico may soon be able to purchase a larger amount of cannabis.
That was the recommendation offered up on Monday by a panel that included doctors and other health care professionals in the state. According to the Associated Press, the advisory board voted “in favor of nearly doubling the limit to 15 ounces over 90 days,” a move that supporters say would bring New Mexico in line with neighboring states Arizona and Colorado. In addition, the AP reported that the panel “recommended expanding the list of qualifying conditions to include anxiety, attention deficit disorders, Tourette’s, and some substance abuse disorders.”



As it currently stands, New Mexico’s medical marijuana law includes nearly 30 qualifying conditions, and eligible patients are able to purchase eight ounces of cannabis over the course of a 90-day period. Qualifying conditions include Alzheimer’s disease, autism, cancer, epilepsy, Parkinson’s disease, post-traumatic stress disorder, and severe chronic pain.
Unlike those aforementioned neighboring states, however, New Mexico has not yet joined the ranks to legalize recreational pot use. Colorado, along with the state of Washington, voted to end pot prohibition back in 2012, while voters in Arizona did the same in this month’s election. That isn’t to say there is a lack of political and public support in New Mexico, however.

Changes in Marijuana in New Mexico​

Last year, the state’s Democratic governor Michelle Lujan Grisham signed a bill decriminalizing up to a half an ounce of marijuana, a move that changed the penalties to a mere $50 fine as opposed to actual jail time. In January, Grisham signaled that she was ready to go even further, unveiling a proposal to legalize recreational pot use. The reform, she said, would be an economic boon for the state.
“The Legislature has the opportunity to pass the largest job-creation program in New Mexico in a decade,” Grisham said in a statement. “Skeptics have been right to preach study and patience. I agree with their caution — and that’s why we haven’t rushed into this issue. But if we are clear-eyed about the risks, we have to be clear-eyed about the opportunity.”
In the statement detailing the proposal, Grisham highlighted public polling showing large majorities of New Mexico voters support legalization. But the legalization bill taken up in the state legislature was tabled in February, and advocates have shifted their focus to getting it done next year instead.
After the legislative effort failed, Grisham said she was “disappointed but not deterred,” and that “[l]egalized recreational cannabis in New Mexico is inevitable.”
“The people of New Mexico have said they want it. A diversified state economy demands it,” Grisham said. “Poll after poll has demonstrated that New Mexicans want a 21st century economy and want cannabis to be part of it: New Mexicans want more chances to stay here and build a career here; we want justice for those convicted of low-level, harmless cannabis-related offenses; we want an industry with firm and clear regulations that will keep our roads and places of business and children safe.”

 

[momofthegoons]

​

Incarcerated Patients Have A Right To Use Medical Marijuana, New Mexico Judge Rules​

A New Mexico judge has ruled that medical marijuana patients cannot be punished for using cannabis while incarcerated.

In a potentially precedent-setting case, District Court Judge Lucy Solimon granted a motion for declaratory judgement and petition for writ for Joe Montaño, who was penalized after correctional officers discovered marijuana in his possession while serving a 90-day sentence in home confinement.

The judge said that New Mexico’s medical cannabis law broadly protects registered patients, and those protections extend to people serving time in jails or prisons.

The correctional facility “shall comply with the Lynn and Erin Compassionate Use Act…and shall not penalize persons in custody or under the supervision of the Metropolitan Detention Center, including those in the Community Custody Program, for conduct allowed under the Lynn and Erin Compassionate Use Act,” Judge Solimon wrote on Tuesday.

That’s consistent with an amendment to the state’s medical marijuana law that was approved last year.

It stipulates that a “person who is serving a period of probation or parole or who is in custody or under the supervision of the state or a local government pending trial as part of a community supervision program shall not be penalized for conduct allowed under the Lynn and Erin Compassionate Use Act.”

What remains to be seen is if correctional facilities statewide will voluntarily adopt the policy or if they will move to appeal the ruling. But Sen. Jacob Candelaria (D), who represented the defendant in the new case, told The Santa Fe New Mexican that he plans to send notice to those institutions.

“There’s no discretion under the Medical Cannabis Act. You must allow this,” he said. “While the criminal industrial complex may have pushback or some concerns, take those to the legislature.”

“Because until such time as the legislature changes the law, the law is clear: You must under existing law provide incarcerated persons with the ability to access medical cannabis free from penalty. That’s the law,” he said.

The senator also told The Albuquerque Journal that government agencies should actually pay for the medical cannabis that incarcerated people use.

“I absolutely do believe that jail and prison facilities have the responsibility to provide that medical care if it’s ordered by a physician, period,” he said.

The New Mexico-based medical cannabis company Ultra Health assisted in this new case. Its CEO said in a press release that the decision represents a victory “for every medical cannabis patient in New Mexico and across the United States.”

“This ruling exemplifies the spirit of the Lynn and Erin Compassionate Use Act: cannabis is medicine and every patient deserves the legal right to access their medicine,” Duke Rodriguez said.

Read the judge’s ruling on medical cannabis policy for incarcerated individuals by following title link and scrolling to the bottom of the article.

 

[momofthegoons]

New Mexico Governor Says Marijuana Legalization Is A 2021 Priority​

The governor of New Mexico announced on Wednesday that marijuana legalization is one of her administration’s 2021 legislative priorities.

Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham (D) released her agenda for this year’s session, and part of her plan to bolster the economy and increase revenue to the state is to enact a legal cannabis market.

A outline of her proposal states that New Mexico should legalize marijuana “through legislation that protects the state’s medical cannabis program, provides for workplace safety and roadway protections and enforcement and clear labeling of products.”

Doing so will establish “an essential new revenue source for the state and employment source for tens of thousands of New Mexicans,” it says.

“New Mexico will recover from this challenging year,” the governor said in a press release. “The question is what kind of future we want to make for ourselves after we put these crises behind us.”

“We still have the power to decide what we will become. And the time to decide is this session, this year,” she said. “We can choose to return to the same-old, or we can set ourselves up to roar back to life after the pandemic, ready to break new ground and thrive.”

Lujan Grisham has been a strong advocate for reform, arguing since she was elected that marijuana legalization would represent a positive fiscal opportunity for the state, especially amid budget shortfalls caused by the coronavirus pandemic.

Marijuana legalization was also included as a legislative priority for the governor as part of the 2020 session. That didn’t materialize, however. A bill to legalize cannabis for adult use passed one Senate committee last year only to be rejected in another before the end of the short 30-day session.

Earlier, in 2019, the House approved a legalization bill that included provisions to put marijuana sales mostly in state-run stores, but it later died in the Senate.

Lawmakers seem intent on giving it another go this year. Senate Majority Leader Peter Wirth (D), for example, said earlier this month that cannabis legalization will be priorities on the legislative agenda for 2021.

“When it comes to responsibly regulating cannabis, it’s critical that we don’t just get this done, but we get it right,” Emily Kaltenbach, senior director of resident states and New Mexico for the Drug Policy Alliance, told Marijuana Moment. “Equity must be the guiding force, and we will continue to work with the governor’s administration and legislative leaders to ensure that legislation is comprehensive and reinvests back into communities most harmed by drug prohibition, particularly Hispanic/Latino, Black and Native populations in New Mexico.”

“The public wants legalization and is demanding equity to be an inseparable part of this new policy,” she said. “Repairing the damage done by the war on drugs is not negotiable for New Mexicans.”

Polling indicates that voters are ready for the policy change. A survey released in October found that a strong majority of New Mexico residents are in favor of legalization with social equity provisions in place, and about half support decriminalizing drug possession more broadly.

It’s possible that the strong support for cannabis legalization could further increase since voters in neighboring Arizona approved a ballot initiative to enact the reform in November. Also, cannabis is expected to be legalized across the border in Mexico, with lawmakers facing a Supreme Court mandate to end prohibition by April 2021.

The legalization effort in the state may also get a boost from the results of primary elections last year in which several Democratic lawmakers who had opposed the reform were ousted by progressive challengers.

In May, Lujan Grisham signaled that she was considering actively campaigning against lawmakers who blocked her legalization bill in 2020. She also said that she’s open to letting voters decide on the policy change via a ballot referendum if lawmakers can’t send a legalization bill to her desk.

Rep. Javier Martinez (D) who chairs a joint committee that held a hearing last year to discuss the economic impact of cannabis reform, said he’s hopeful that the policy change will be enacted this upcoming session and said he anticipates that “in this year’s version of the bill, we are very likely to get Republican support, particularly on the Senate side.”

The legislative session begins on January 19.

 

[momofthegoons]

New Mexico Governor And Senate Leader Say Marijuana Legalization Can Pass This Year​

The governor of New Mexico and a top Senate leader are bullish about getting marijuana legalization passed this session, with both making recent comments about what they hope the soon-to-be-introduced legislation will accomplish.

Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham (D), who included the reform as part of her 2021 legislative agenda she released this month, said in a TV interview that she’s “optimistic” about cannabis reform adding that projections show the state gaining thousands of jobs and raising hundreds of millions of dollars in tax revenue.

“I’m still really optimistic about cannabis, which is 12,000 jobs,” she told KOB-TV, “and you know by the fifth year in operation, the projections are we would make $600 million a year.”

Also part of my plan for growing New Mexico's economy: legalizing recreational cannabis, which has the potential to create 11,000 jobs and create over hundreds of millions of dollars in revenue.
I look forward to working with the New Mexico Legislature this year to get it done.
— Michelle Lujan Grisham (@GovMLG) January 22, 2021

But while the “large economic boost” that the governor expects legalization to bring is an important component, especially amid the coronavirus pandemic, lawmakers are also taking seriously the need to address social equity.

Meanwhile, Senate Majority Leader Peter Wirth (D) said last week that he’s having ongoing conversations with multiple legislators who plan to sponsor legalization bills, and he’s conveyed to them that whatever piece of legislation advances must “address those fundamental underlying issues” of social justice.

In terms of process, the top lawmaker said it’s important for legislators to be talking about their respective bills early on to resolve as many differences as possible before the issue reaches committee or the floor. The failure to get those issues taken care of in a timely manner is partly why the legislature wasn’t able to pass legalization during last year’s short session.

A bill to legalize cannabis for adult use passed one Senate committee last year only to be rejected in another before the end of the 30-day session. Earlier, in 2019, the House approved a legalization bill that included provisions to put marijuana sales mostly in state-run stores, but it later died in the Senate.

“This year I know the legislators have been working very hard, shaping and crafting these bills, and that kind of from the ground up versus the top down approach that I think is needed for a legislation of this kind,” Wirth told the Growing Forward podcast that’s a joint project of NM Political Report and New Mexico PBS. “Again, we just can’t get it into a final committee in a place where it’s not really ready to go.”

The new, post-election makeup of key committees has been helping to facilitate this dialogue and get ahead of disagreements, he said.

While Wirth said he expects some of the same voices coming out in opposition to the legislature’s push to enact legalization this session, he’s “feeling more confident” about passing the reform in the Senate this year.

Several anti-legalization Democrats, including the Senate president pro tem and the Finance Committee chair, were ousted by progressive primary challengers last year.

Additional pressure to end cannabis prohibition this year is coming from neighboring Arizona, where voters approved legalization in November and where sales officially launched last week. New Mexico shares another border with Colorado, one of the first states to legalize for adult use. Cannabis is also expected to be legalized across the southern border in Mexico, with lawmakers facing a Supreme Court mandate to end prohibition by April 2021.

Wirth said it’s important to make sure that adult-use legalization doesn’t come at the peril of the state’s existing medical cannabis program.

“I just think that it’s a program that’s really been a model for how it’s been rolled out, how it’s worked, and we want to make sure that it stays intact and is still a functioning program,” he said. “That’ll be another a big issue.”

With at least five legalization bills being prepared in the state, Wirth said, there will be plenty for lawmakers to sift through and negotiate this session. The majority leader noted that another question is whether to put marijuana tax dollars in the state’s general fund or to earmark it for specific programs.

Rep. Javier Martinez (D), who has consistently sponsored cannabis reform bills in past sessions, said recently that the “biggest change you’ll see in this bill, which is one of the main points of contention last year, was the creation of a number of different funds, earmarks, tax coming in from cannabis.”

In any case, there’s economic urgency to pass and implement a legal cannabis program. And while no bills have been introduced so far this session, lawmakers expect several to be released as early as this week.

“I’m hopeful that this is the year to get this done,” Wirth said. “I just think the longer we wait, the less of an economic impact it’s going to have, as all of our sister states around us in the country really reach in this direction at pretty high speed.”

Polling indicates that voters are ready for the policy change. A survey released in October found that a strong majority of New Mexico residents are in favor of legalization with social equity provisions in place, and about half support decriminalizing drug possession more broadly.

In May, the governor signaled that she was considering actively campaigning against lawmakers who blocked her legalization bill in 2020. She also said that she’s open to letting voters decide on the policy change via a ballot referendum if lawmakers can’t send a legalization bill to her desk.

 

[momofthegoons]

New Mexico Senators File Two Marijuana Legalization Bills, With More On The Way​

The first slate of what’s expected to be several bills to legalize marijuana in New Mexico this year were introduced on Monday.

A Republican senator is sponsoring one of the newly filed bills, while the other is being sponsored by a Democrat in the chamber. But because neither piece of legislation comprehensively addresses social equity issues, advocates are holding out hope for a separate House bill that’s expected to be formally introduced as early as Tuesday.

Sen. Cliff Pirtle (R), who filed a legalization bill in 2019 that would have established a state-run market, put out a new proposal that would create a private commercial industry. It would allow adults 21 and older to purchase and possess up to two ounces of marijuana.

Home cultivation would not be permitted. Cannabis “lounges” could be licensed by regulators, however.

A two percent excise tax would be imposed on retail marijuana sales, in addition to local gross receipt taxes, under the bill. Revenue from those tax would fund implementation and support efforts to reduce impaired driving, with the rest going to the state’s general fund and local municipalities.

“If you get your tax rate too high, it causes the cannabis to be too expensive and allows for the black market cannabis industry to thrive,” Pirtle told The Santa Fe New Mexican. “It was important to me to have a low tax rate so that we can put the black market cannabis industry out of business.”

“There is growing bipartisan agreement that prohibition has not been effective in limiting and controlling the negative effects of cannabis,” Pirtle said in a separate interview. “This proposal represents a pragmatic compromise that emphasizes public safety, while giving New Mexicans the personal liberty to make decisions for themselves.”

Meanwhile, Sen. Daniel Ivey-Soto (D) filed legislation that would similarly let adults 21 and older purchase and possess up to two ounces of cannabis. People could not cultivate marijuana for personal use, though growing up to three mature plants would be considered a civil infraction punishable by a $500 fine.

The senator’s measure calls for a 21 percent tax on cannabis sales, with revenue being split evenly among cities, counties and the state.

Ivey-Soto said his legislation is intended to free up law enforcement resources and the court system, not necessarily to generate revenue for New Mexico.

“That’s my focus,” he said. “If there’s some tax dollars that flow in as a result, so be it. We’ll accept those and put those to good use.”

But while both bills would do away with prohibition, advocates aren’t especially enthusiastic about either proposal, as they lack the robust social equity elements that they feel are imperative to any move to legalize. That’s why the plan is for activists to throw their support behind a forthcoming piece of legislation from Rep. Javier Martínez (D), who has consistently filed broad reform bills since taking office.

The details of his bill haven’t been released yet, but the measure is expected to include provisions to ensure that there’s diversity in the cannabis market, expunge prior marijuana records and allocate tax revenue to reinvest in communities most impacted by the war on drugs.

When Martinez released a legalization bill last year, it did not provide for home cultivation, though it would’ve imposed a $50 fine without the threat of jail time for people who grow up to three mature plants.

For her part, Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham (D) has repeatedly talked about the need to legalize as a means to boost the economy, especially amid the coronavirus pandemic. She said during a State of the State address last week that “a crisis like the one we’ve experienced last year can be viewed as a loss or as an invitation to rethink the status quo—to be ambitious and creative and bold.”

The governor also included cannabis legalization as part of her 2021 legislative agenda that she released last month and said in a recent interview that she’s “still really optimistic about cannabis” this session.

That optimism is bolstered by the fact that several anti-legalization Democrats, including the Senate president pro tem and the Finance Committee chair, were ousted by progressive primary challengers last year.

Additional pressure to end cannabis prohibition this year is coming from neighboring Arizona, where voters approved legalization in November and where sales officially launched last week.

New Mexico shares another border with Colorado, one of the first states to legalize for adult use. Cannabis is also expected to be legalized across the southern border in Mexico, with lawmakers facing a Supreme Court mandate to end prohibition by April 2021.

Last year, a bill to legalize cannabis for adult use passed one Senate committee last year only to be rejected in another before the end of the 30-day session.

At least five pieces of marijuana legalization legislation in total are being prepared in the legislature this year, according to a top lawmaker, and so what the program might ultimately look like is an open question.

Senate Majority Leader Peter Wirth (D) said last month that he’s been having conversations with lawmakers about what needs to be prioritized in reform legislation. That includes ensuring that it promotes social equity and protects the state’s existing medical cannabis system.

Polling indicates that voters are ready for the policy change. A survey released in October found that a strong majority of New Mexico residents are in favor of legalization with social equity provisions in place, and about half support decriminalizing drug possession more broadly.

In May, the governor signaled that she was considering actively campaigning against lawmakers who blocked her legalization bill in 2020. She also said that she’s open to letting voters decide on the policy change via a ballot referendum if lawmakers can’t send a legalization bill to her desk.

 

[momofthegoons]

​

Another New Mexico House Committee Approves Marijuana Legalization Bill​

Another New Mexico House committee has approved a bill to legalize marijuana in the state.

The Taxation & Revenue Committee, which is chaired by the bill’s sponsor Rep. Javier Martinez (D), passed the legislation on Wednesday in a 8-4 vote. This comes one week after the Health & Human Services Committee advanced the measure.

Under the proposal, adults 21 and older would be allowed to possess “at least” two ounces of cannabis and grow up to six mature and six immature plants for personal use. It would also create a system of regulated and taxed cannabis sales.

The legislation is favored by reform advocates because—unlike the other House and Senate reform measures that have been introduced this session—it would specifically use tax revenue from marijuana sales to support reinvestments in communities most impacted by the war on drugs. It also stands out for including provisions to automatically expunge prior cannabis convictions.

Martinez’s proposal would require rules for the market to be implemented by January 2022.

The committee approved a substitute version that includes a number of changes, including moving the start of legal sales back to January 1, 2022 from October 1 of this year. That would apply to existing medical cannabis dispensaries and microbusinesses, with sales for other retailers set to start September 2022.

The substitute also removes language earmarking tax revenue for a community reinvestment fund and a low-income patient subsidy program. The fund accounts will still be created, but it would be up to lawmakers to steer money to them in future sessions once cannabis revenue starts coming in.

Other modifications include new language on regulatory authority for the cannabis market, allowing health and safety inspections of businesses, addressing workplace and employment issues, replacing fines and fees for youth who violate the law with a civil infraction penalty, stipulating that people can petition for resentencing for offenses made legal and adjusting the state excise tax on marijuana from nine percent to eight percent while giving local jurisdictions the option to levy an additional four percent tax.

Martinez said at the hearing that one primary objective of his bill is to “protect” and “enhance” the state’s medical cannabis program, which “has been a godsend for communities and families across the state, particularly those suffering from chronic illness, chronic pain, PTSD.” Secondly, he said, “we’ve got to ensure that whatever legalization framework we lead with is rooted in values of equity and justice.”

The legislation next heads to the House floor. Separate Senate bills have not yet been scheduled for hearings.

For her part, Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham (D) has repeatedly talked about the need to legalize as a means to boost the economy, especially amid the coronavirus pandemic. She said during a State of the State address last month that “a crisis like the one we’ve experienced last year can be viewed as a loss or as an invitation to rethink the status quo—to be ambitious and creative and bold.”

The governor also included cannabis legalization as part of her 2021 legislative agenda that she released last month and said in a recent interview that she’s “still really optimistic about cannabis” this session.

That optimism is bolstered by the fact that several anti-legalization Democrats, including the Senate president pro tem and the Finance Committee chair, were ousted by progressive primary challengers last year.

Additional pressure to end cannabis prohibition this year is coming from neighboring Arizona, where voters approved legalization in November and where sales officially launched earlier this month.

New Mexico shares another border with Colorado, one of the first states to legalize for adult use. Cannabis is also expected to be legalized across the southern border in Mexico, with lawmakers facing a Supreme Court mandate to end prohibition by April.

Last year, a bill to legalize cannabis for adult use passed one New Mexico Senate committee only to be rejected in another before the end of the 30-day session.

Earlier, in 2019, the House approved a legalization bill that included provisions to put marijuana sales mostly in state-run stores, but it died in the Senate. Later that year, Lujan Grisham created a working group to study cannabis legalization and issue recommendations.

Polling indicates that voters are ready for the policy change. A survey released in October found that a strong majority of New Mexico residents are in favor of legalization with social equity provisions in place, and about half support decriminalizing drug possession more broadly.

Last May, the governor signaled that she was considering actively campaigning against lawmakers who blocked her legalization bill in 2020. She also said that she’s open to letting voters decide on the policy change via a ballot referendum if lawmakers can’t send a legalization bill to her desk.

 

[Baron23]

"rejecting an amendment that would have increased the daily sales limit for medical cannabis patients from three grams to two ounces.

3 grams is all you can buy at a time in NM.

I fucking HATE politicians.

New Mexico Senate tightens rules on medical marijuana​

With two bills to legalize marijuana sales stalled in the Senate Judiciary Committee, the New Mexico Senate turned its attention to the state’s medical marijuana program Monday, March 15.
With Senate Bill 340, the Senate voted to prohibit sales to out-of-state residents who do not have a medical marijuana card issued in New Mexico, after first rejecting an amendment that would have increased the daily sales limit for medical cannabis patients from three grams to two ounces.
The amendment was introduced by Sen. Jacob Candelaria, D-Albuquerque, who identified himself as a medical marijuana patient suffering from Post-traumatic Stress Disorder as the result of childhood rape. He blistered the state Department of Health for its handling of the program, saying there is no scientific basis for the current limit.
“There is a lot of information that is being provided by the Department of Health on this bill that is untrue,” he said. “The department’s rules that limit the amount of medical cannabis that I can purchase to about three grams a day is arbitrary and capricious, and it’s not really based on a doctor or medical science or research. It’s based on a political rule that was put in place years ago.”
Candelaria said he has a card from California because he can’t purchase enough cannabis to meet his needs with just the New Mexico card.
The cap of 1,750 plants per producer has not been increased in years, Candelaria said, creating an artificial shortage that has resulted in higher prices and less availability than in other states. He said the cap is based on politics, not science.
“The plant caps were put in place when the governor was secretary of health. It’s politics at its best,” he said.
Sen. Cliff Pirtle, R-Roswell, who is the sponsor of one of the two legalization bills awaiting a hearing in the Judiciary Committee, supported the amendment. He said patients living in rural areas of the state need to drive long distances, just to get three grams at a time.

Bill sponsor Sen Gerald Ortiz y Pino, D-Albuquerque, said the amendment would remove the safeguards to prevent abuse and would result in more marijuana being sold on the black market.
“It basically converts our carefully regulated medical cannabis program into a come-and-get-it free-for-all; whatever you need, whatever you want, just come and get it,” Ortiz y Pino said. “It would create an enormous shortage immediately, and it would force the department to change the plant count, which is what the real purpose of this amendment is about. If we do that, the fear is it increases the supply for the black market,” Ortiz y Pino said.
The purpose of Senate Bill 340 was to prevent people from out of state – mostly Texans – from getting medical marijuana cards in California and using them to purchase marijuana in New Mexico. It would change the definition of “reciprocal participant” to only include state residents.

“People who live in Texas get online and get a California doctor to authorize a medical marijuana card, and then they come into New Mexico and use the card to purchase cannabis here,” Ortiz y Pino said.
Sen. Jeff Steinborn, D-Las Cruces, said he has sympathy for those in Texas who need medical marijuana but do not qualify under the stringent laws in place there.
“I’ve come to understand just how lifesaving and miraculous the effects of cannabis can be for people who are undergoing a lot of different medical conditions, and just how restrictive some other states can be,” Steinborn said, adding that it is only allowed in Texas for those with a terminal illness. “So, for me, people in other states taking advantage of New Mexico’s medical marijuana program is really humanitarian in nature.”
Sen. Stuart Ingle, R-Portales, noted that when the bill was originally passed 14 years ago, it was sold as being for those dying of cancer. “We’ve come a long way since then,” he said.
Candelaria, a practicing attorney, represented cannabis supplier Ultra Health in a lawsuit against NMDOH when it attempted to remove reciprocity by rule. First Judicial District Court Judge Matthew Wilson originally ruled that NMDOH failed to justify an emergency rule change, but later clarified that it could make the change through the normal rulemaking process.
SB 340 passed on a 28-11 vote, and now moves to the House with just five days left in the session, which ends Saturday, March 20. Sen. Craig Brandt, R-Rio Rancho, said after the vote that legislators could resolve a lot of issues with the medical marijuana program by passing the legalization bill.
“We need to get Pirtle’s bill down to the floor so that we don’t have to mess with this,” Brandt said.
The Judiciary Committee did not meet Monday and was not expected to hear the marijuana bills Tuesday, pushing them to Wednesday at the earliest.

 

[momofthegoons]

New Mexico Just Officially Legalized Cannabis​

It’s official: the leader of New Mexico just signed a cannabis bill into law, adding to the growing ranks of already legal U.S. states.

The law was signed this week by Democrat Governor Michelle Lujan Grisham. With this new ruling, those 21 and up will be able to possess cannabis. Home growing will be legal, as will a regulated market that is projected to start in 2022. It will also allow for the expungement of past cannabis records. Those serving time for cannabis may also be eligible for resentencing.

While it’s still exciting that legal cannabis is official, Governor Lujan Grisham was definitely expected to sign. She has worked hard to push for legalization since she first got into office, even going so far as to call a special session to hear a legal cannabis bill. It was the House and Senate that were closer calls, but her signature still makes the New Mexico law official and ushers in a new era.

While New Mexico has had a medical cannabis program since 2007, for a long time, their acceptance of the plant stopped at medicine. Nearby states like California and Colorado have long since implemented recreational cannabis, but New Mexico is just now taking the plunge.

The Changes In New Mexico’s Cannabis Laws​

Lujan Grisham claims that cannabis reform will help bring in money to the state and create more jobs to help boost the economy following COVID.

When she signed the bill, she brought up how legalization will help heal the wounds from the war on drugs that disproportionately penalized people of color and other marginalized folks. An estimated 100 people could be released from prison in New Mexico, and thousands will become eligible to have their records expunged.

“It is good for workers. It is good for entrepreneurs. It is good for consumers,” she said of legalization. “And it brings about social justice in ways in which we have been talking about and advocating for, for decades.”

Under the new law, Lujan Grisham will appoint a superintendent of the Regulation and Licensing Department who will oversee and regulate the industry. The bill includes a concept from Representative Javier Martinez that expunges past cannabis convictions.

Martinez claims he supports legalization and hopes the entire U.S. will follow suit in order to quell the drug cartel violence that occurs when cannabis is kept in the illicit market.

“I grew up along the border. I’ve seen what the war on drugs has done,” Martinez said. “I’m proud that New Mexico — little old New Mexico — has done its part to tell the federal government once and for all to legalize cannabis for the people.”

By the beginning of 2022, rules for the newly legal market will be due, and a format for producing safe products and issuing business licenses and worker licenses will be developed. Only those 21 and up will be able to work in the legal cannabis market.

The state’s economy will get a big boost from the 12-percent-and-up recreational sales tax in addition to the 18 percent sales tax already in place for sales in New Mexico. Medical cannabis will remain untaxed.

As more and more states repeal cannabis prohibition, New Mexico joins the ranks of newly legal states and looks forward to a boost in social equity and economic growth.

 

[CarolKing]

Home>News>New Mexico: Adult-Use Legalization, Expungement Measures Signed into Law

New Mexico: Adult-Use Legalization, Expungement Measures Signed into Law​

• BY NORML
• POSTED ON APRIL 15, 2021

Santa Fe, NM: On Monday, Democratic Governor Michelle Lujan Grisham signed two separate measures into law amending the state’s marijuana policies. The first measure (House Bill 2) legalizes and regulates marijuana possession, production, and sales for adults. The second measure (Senate Bill 2) facilitates the automatic review and expungement of the records of those convicted of low-level marijuana offenses.
Lawmakers approved both bills during a special legislative session demanded by Gov. Lujan Grisham, who had been a vocal proponent of the reforms.
NORML State Policies Manager Carly Wolf said: “This is a day to celebrate! New Mexico will greatly benefit from this new revenue stream and the creation of thousands of jobs. Most notably though, legalization will spare thousands of otherwise law-abiding residents from arrest and a criminal record, and the state’s new expungement law will help provide relief to many who are suffering from the stigma and other collateral consequences associated with a prior marijuana conviction.”
The adult-use measure (House Bill 2) permits those ages 21 and older to legally purchase up to two ounces of marijuana and/or up to 16 grams of cannabis extract from licensed retailers. It also permits adults to home-cultivate up to six mature plants for their own personal use. Retail sales would begin by April 2022. Activities involving the personal possession and cultivation of cannabis are depenalized on June 29, 2021, the date the new law takes effect.
The expungement measure (Senate Bill 2) stipulates that those with past convictions for offenses made legal under this act are eligible for automatic expungement of their records. Those currently incarcerated for such offenses are eligible for a dismissal of their sentence. It’s estimated that over 150,000 New Mexico residents are eligible for automatic expungement under this measure, according to the Department of Public Safety.

 

[momofthegoons]

New Mexico Exhales, Becoming 18th US State to Officially Legalize Adult-Use Weed

States are now falling like dominoes, as New Mexico becomes the third state in two weeks to legalize adult-use cannabis.


National Cannabis Awareness Month, indeed — the last week has been a banner moment for cannabis legalization, with New Mexico becoming the third state in mere days to legalize the use of recreational cannabis for adults 21 years and older. It is the 18th US state to do so.

“New Mexico can ‘finally exhale,’” trumpeted the state’s largest newspaper, the Albuquerque Journal.

“Legalized adult-use cannabis is going to change the way we think about New Mexico for the better – our workforce, our economy, our future,” tweeted Governor Michelle Lujan Grisham after signing the bill on Monday. Lujan is a major advocate for the positive benefits legalization could have for the state’s oil and gas-dependent economy, even calling a special legislative session in March to get the bill passed.

New Mexico voters also had to work to make this moment happen. Last year, they voted out two anti-legalization Democrat state Senate leaders in their primary elections.

Two other states have legalized recreational cannabis during the last few days. At the end of March, New York managed to pass legislation after years of lawmaker debate over Drug War restitution and appropriate use of cannabis tax dollars. Virginia became the first Southern state to do so, with its law taking effect on July 1st.

Financial estimates for the plant’s sale in New Mexico are rosy, with some public finance expertspredicting the state could rake in $318 million in just the first year of sales. That would result in $20 million from excise taxes — set at 12 percent of retail sales, set to rise over the next few years to 18 percent, in addition to 5 to 9 percent local and state taxes — in the first fiscal year alone, and 11,000 jobs.

The law takes effect — guaranteeing the right to possess cannabis for state residents — on June 29, though retail sales may not take place until April 1, 2022. Many finer points of the state’s new regulatory system need to be locked down by the beginning of the next, from product safety rules to requirements for cannabis business licenses.

New Mexicans will be able to grow six cannabis plants per person and up to 12 plants per household — important, given the lag likely to occur with retail sales. The legal possession limit outside one’s home is two ounces, or 28 grams. Police will no longer be able to use the scent of marijuana as justification for searches, and cannabis-related offenses that are no longer illegal under the new law will be expunged from individuals’ criminal records.

Towns and cities will not be allowed to ban cannabis businesses from their jurisdictions, but they will have the final say when it comes to hours and location density. There are special allowances to facilitate the participation of Native communities in the new industry.

Governor Lujan has even suggested that cannabis legalization could help her state bounce back from an emotionally challenging year.

“We’re all still feeling like we’ve been shell-shocked,” she told the Albuquerque Journal. “People need something to hang on to and believe in.”

 

[momofthegoons]

New Mexico Marijuana Legalization Law Officially Takes Effect​

New Mexico’s marijuana legalization law took effect on Tuesday, with limited personal possession and cultivation officially becoming legal for adults 21 and older.

People can now lawfully possess up to two ounces of cannabis, 16 grams of concentrates and grow as many as six mature plants for personal use. But it will still take some time before retail sales launch.

New Mexico is the first of three states where adult-use legalization laws are set to take effect this week. Next up are Virginia and Connecticut, which both have new policies ending cannabis prohibition coming into force on Thursday.

In New Mexico, under a timeline published by the Cannabis Control Division, which falls under the state Department of Regulation and Licensing, regulators must establish an advisory committee and begin accepting certain marijuana business licenses no later than September 1.

By January 1, 2022, the division must issue licenses to qualified commercial cannabis companies and begin to license marijuana training and education programs. Retail marijuana sales must begin by April 1, 2022.

Regulators will hold the first public hearing on cannabis production rules on Tuesday.

“After decades of people being arrested for simply possessing cannabis or growing a few plants, New Mexicans are finally able to exhale,” Emily Kaltenbach, senior director for resident states and New Mexico for the Drug Policy Alliance, said in a press release. “But make no mistake, this fight isn’t over. We still have our work cut out for us to fully repair the damage that has been done as a result of prohibition, and that means advocating for equity and diversity in the new industry and coming back during the 2022 budget session to ensure funds are made available for critical reinvestment in the communities that have been most harmed.”

There is no set limit on the number of business licensees that could be granted under the program, or the number of facilities a licensee could open, although regulators could stop issuing new licenses if an advisory committee determines that “market equilibrium is deficient.”

Cannabis purchases will include a 12 percent excise tax on top of the state’s regular eight percent sales tax. Beginning in 2025, the excise rate would climb by one percent each year until it reached 18 percent in 2030. Medical marijuana products, available only to patients and caretakers, would be exempt from the tax.

In an effort to ensure medical patients can still access medicine after the adult-use market opens, the bill allows the state to force licensed cannabis producers to reserve up to 10 percent of their products for patients in the event of a shortage or grow more plants to be used in medical products.

Local governments cannot ban cannabis businesses entirely, as some other states have allowed. Municipalities can, however, use their local zoning authority to limit the number of retailers or their distance from schools, daycares or other cannabis businesses.

Polling indicates New Mexico voters are ready for the policy change. A survey released in October found a strong majority of residents are in favor of legalization with social equity provisions in place, and about half support the decriminalization of drug possession more broadly.

Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham (D) gave final approval to the cannabis legalization legislationin April, fulfilling a key goal for her administration. She had to convene a special session to ensure that lawmakers got the job done after they failed to pass legalization during the regular session.

A separate, complementary bill providing for expungements for convictions made legal under the marijuana legalization law was also passed during the special session and signed by the governor. Under it, courts must begin reopening qualifying cases within 30 days after the legislation goes into effect on January 1, 2022.

Regulators launched a website to provide information about legalization before the governor even signed the bill into law.

Lujan Grisham included cannabis legalization as part of her 2021 legislative agenda and has repeatedly talked about the need to legalize as a means to boost the economy, especially amid the coronavirus pandemic. She said during a State of the State address in January that “a crisis like the one we’ve experienced last year can be viewed as a loss or as an invitation to rethink the status quo—to be ambitious and creative and bold.”

Additional pressure to end cannabis prohibition this year came from neighboring Arizona, where sales officially launched in January after voters approved a legalization ballot initiative last year. To New Mexico’s north is Colorado, one of the first states to legalize for adult use.

New Mexico’s House in 2019 approved a legalization bill that included provisions to put marijuana sales mostly in state-run stores, but that measure died in the Senate. Later that year, Lujan Grisham created a working group to study cannabis legalization and issue recommendations.

In May of last year, the governor signaled she was considering actively campaigning against lawmakers who blocked her legalization bill in 2020. She also said that she was open to letting voters decide on the policy change via a ballot referendum if lawmakers didn’t send a legalization bill to her desk.

 

[bulllee]

Judge orders New Mexico to lift medical cannabis purchase restrictions​

Published August 24, 2021



A New Mexico state district court judge ordered that purchase limits for medical cannabis patients should be increased to conform with the new recreational marijuana law approved by lawmakers this year, a move that could result in a sales boom for dispensaries.
According to the Santa Fe New Mexican, District Court Judge Benjamin Chavez issued a writ on Friday directing state officials to allow registered MMJ patients – including the plaintiff in the case, Jason Barker – to buy up to 2 ounces of marijuana per day.

That total is the legal purchase limit set by New Mexico’s new adult-use marijuana law signed by the governor in April.
That’s a significant increase over the previous limit under the state’s MMJ program – 8 ounces every 90 days.
The state health department and the Regulation and Licensing Department now must reply in court to the judge’s order – which stems from the lawsuit Barker filed in May – or comply with the writ.
Spokespeople for both agencies declined to comment to the Santa Fe New Mexican.
Recreational marijuana sales are not expected to begin until next year.
In the meantime, the judge’s order could mean a big increase in sales for the state’s dispensaries if the registered 120,000 patients will be able to purchase up to 2 ounces a day.

 

[bulllee]

Questionable New Mexico cannabis license raises allegations of unfairness​

Published 5 hours ago



(This story has been updated with comment from GH.)
The New Mexico cannabis industry is in an uproar over allegations of favoritism by state regulators after the lead agency overseeing medical marijuana companies quietly reopened applications for business licenses, awarded one permit and then closed the window again.

According to the Santa Fe New Mexican, the state health department, without a public announcement, began accepting applications for marijuana cultivation licenses for one week in late June before all industry oversight was transferred to the new Cannabis Control Division.
The health department received one application that week and awarded a license to the applicant, Albuquerque-based GH, the New Mexican reported.
The application window was the first time since 2015 that New Mexico cannabis regulators had made new business permits available, but the lack of communication to the industry and others who would have been interested in applying has many crying foul.
But the chief executive of GH told the New Mexican that “we submitted an application like everyone else.”
Several in the New Mexico market are referring to the incident as “weedgate,” the newspaper reported, and the chief executive of one MMJ company in the state said the industry is “up in arms” over how the process played out.
As an indicator of how much interest there is in New Mexico marijuana permits, the Cannabis Control Division received nearly 900 applications in August for cultivation licenses.
In April, the state became one of the latest to legalize recreational marijuana, and the upcoming new market has many in the industry eager to get a foothold.

 

[momofthegoons]

Federally sanctioned marijuana grow operation to open in New Mexico​

GRANTS, N.M. – Marijuana use is becoming more widely accepted – but for decades there's been one powerful opponent: the federal government. It is still classified as a Schedule 1 drug, meaning the feds view it like they view cocaine, heroin and meth.

But, now marijuana is moving into a class of its own because federal officials are finally allowing cannabis to be researched. Politicians and Bright Green Corporation came together in Grants, New Mexico where they will be growing a different type of green because they are breaking ground on a very unique facility.

"We are one of three, in the United States of America, that are federally legal to handle Schedule 1 drugs,” said Terry Rafih, chairman of Bright Green Corporation.
Bright Green Corp., a Canadian company, said they’re now at the forefront of unlocking the mysteries of marijuana.

"We chose Grants, New Mexico because of the climate," Rafih said.

They have some lofty ambitions.

“If you look at the number of people that are dependent on opioids for many different pains and ailments that we deal with, the product that we are going to be producing out of here and the patents that we have - hopefully - we're hoping it will eliminate, eventually, opioids. That is our goal,” Rafih said.

The bones of a greenhouse have already been built, but that's just the start because the whole facility will soon be a 115-acre research and manufacturing cannabis plant. With more than 100 employees, they said it's worth more than $300 million in investments, however, some locals still have some concerns.

"They haven't even talked to anybody in the city of Grants until today. And that makes me very nervous,” said Martin Hicks, mayor of Grants.

Hicks, known to be outspoken, had some reservations.

"My big concerns are water. Where are they going to get the water from? Workforce, where are they going to get the workforce from? Where's that workforce going to live?"

Rafih said the recyclable water system will ultimately use less water than the neighboring city golf course. He also said that initially there will be over 400 local jobs needed for construction.

"Am I against this project? No. We need jobs, we need everything that goes along with it. But, I do have a lot of concerns that need to be answered,” said Hicks.

"If we do all the things we say we're going to do, and we have every intention of doing so, then it should be a long, long-term play,” said Rafih.

 

[momofthegoons]

New Mexico Considers Changes to Limit Recreational Cannabis Tourism​

New Mexico might implement new laws that would limit recreational cannabis tourism. Officials claim these limits would ensure public safety.

Regulators in New Mexico held a public hearing this week to discuss rules for the state’s forthcoming recreational cannabis market.

The state’s Regulation and Licensing Department, as well as its Cannabis Control Division, fielded questions and comments from the public during last Thursday’s hearing over the rules that will govern cannabis retailers and manufacturers.

According to the local website NM Political Report, the comments at the hearing “varied from proposed regulations for packaging requirements, general business practices to cannabis deliveries to both businesses and residences.”

The meeting was highlighted by the appearance of Katy Duhigg, a Democratic state Senator who also serves as a cannabis attorney in Albuquerque. Duhigg “brought up a series of issues she said she would like to see changed and offered specific suggestions,” according to the website. It was reported that she “took issue with a proposed requirement that cannabis manufactures prove they have access to water rights because manufacturing doesn’t necessarily use water the same way cultivation does.”

“Requiring all manufacturers to prove water rights for their application, I think, is unreasonably burdensome, because it’s just not going to be a factor for a number of them,” Duhigg said, as quoted by NM Political Report.

Lawmakers in New Mexico passed a bill legalizing recreational pot use for adults during a special legislative session in the spring. The legislation was signed into law in April by Democratic Governor Michelle Lujan Grisham. This means big things for New Mexico, as for the first time ever, they will finally have a legal cannabis industry.

Legislators had failed to pass a legalization bill during the regular 60-day session, prompting Grisham to call a special session to get the proposal over the finish line.

“The unique circumstances of the session, with public health safeguards in place, in my view, prevented the measures on my call from crossing the finish line,” Grisham said at the time. “While I applaud the Legislature and staff for their incredible perseverance and productivity during the 60-day in the face of these challenges, we must and we will forge ahead and finish the job on these initiatives together for the good of the people and future of our great state.”

Grisham’s office specifically cited the legalization bill as a reason for the special session.

“With general, across-the-aisle agreement on the importance of the legalization initiative, the governor intends to see through final passage of this potentially significant economic driver, which is estimated to create over 11,000 jobs and ensure New Mexico is not left behind as more and more states adopt adult-use cannabis legalization,” the governor’s office said at the time.

The extra time proved effective, as New Mexico legislators soon passed the Cannabis Regulation Act, which legalized recreational cannabis use for adults aged 21 and older.

The new law officially went into effect on June 29, allowing such adults to have up to two ounces of pot outside their home (and even more inside their home).

Under the Cannabis Regulation Act, regulated marijuana sales must begin by April 1, 2022.

At the public hearing last Thursday, participants like Duhigg addressed some of the stipulations in the bill, including one requiring cannabis producers to “show that they have legal access to water after many members of the public raised concerns about New Mexico’s scarce water supply,” according to NM Political Report.

The website said that Duhigg with a “provision that would limit cannabis retail businesses from giving away free products to anyone but medical cannabis patients,” as well as one that “would limit cannabis deliveries to residential addresses.”

The latter, she said, will “reduce cannabis tourism in New Mexico.”

 

[bulllee]

PHOTO cendeced

​

New Mexico Cannabis Raid Spotlights Native American Jurisdictional Dilemma​

A federal raid on a Pueblo Indian reservation in New Mexico again brings into focus the contested jurisdictional status of Native American nations where cannabis is concerned. More tribes are asserting their right to cultivation as a matter of sovereignty—despite federal intransigence.


By
Bill Weinberg
Published on December 9, 2021
https://cannabisnow.com/cannabis-ra...erican-jurisdictional-dilemma-in-new-mexico/#


A federal raid on a household cannabis plot on tribal land in northern New Mexico’s Sangre de Cristo Mountains is sparking controversy over who has how much enforcement authority on Native American reservations. As more states embrace legal adult-use cannabis, a lack of clarity persists on the question of how much power the state, federal and tribal governments have on these lands.

On Sept. 9, agents from the US Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) confiscated nine plants from a garden at the Picuris Pueblo home of Charles Farden, 54, a life-long reservation resident who is not actually Native American. Farden is enrolled in the New Mexico medical marijuana program, to treat post-traumatic stress and anxiety.

Farden told the Associated Press he was shocked to be put in handcuffs as federal agents uprooted his plants, which were then thick with buds—about a year’s personal supply, by his estimate.

“I was just open with the officer, straightforward. When he asked what I was growing, I said, ‘My vegetables, my medical cannabis,’” Farden told the AP. “And he was like, ‘That can be a problem.’”

Federal Law Comes First?​

New Mexico’s legislature approved a medical marijuana program in 2007, while Picuris Pueblo instated its own parallel program for tribal members in 2015.

As Picuris Gov. Craig Quanchello told Albuquerque’s The Paper: “We’re exercising our sovereignty. We went through our community and said, OK, this is what’s going on. This is what we want to do. How does the community feel about cannabis from the medical side? …We wanted to provide an alternate medicine for our community people, and we wanted options… We wanted to have an affordable medicine.”

And this is going to become a more pressing question as the Land of Enchantment gets a legal adult-use market. This April, New Mexico’s Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham signed a general cannabis legalization bill, which took effect in June—permitting up to six plants per individual or 12 per household for personal use, with no weight limit. Commercial sales are set to begin next April. At least two of New Mexico’s 23 federally recognized tribes are seeking an agreement with the state allowing them to operate cannabis businesses—Picuris and Acoma Pueblo.

But the feds, of course, do not recognize any state legalization law. And it is the feds that share law enforcement responsibilities with the governments of federally recognized tribes. This is especially an issue for Picuris, a small pueblo that does not maintain its own police force, relying on BIA officers to enforce tribal laws. The specter of BIA raids could put the kibosh on plans for retail outlets on the pueblos.

In a recent letter to Gov. Quanchello obtained by the Associated Press, a BIA special agent in charge said the agency won’t instruct its officers to relax enforcement on the reservations—and that cannabis cultivation remains a federal crime, notwithstanding any changes to state or tribal law.

“Prior notification of law enforcement operations is generally not appropriate,” the letter stated. “The BIA Office of Justice Services is obligated to enforce federal law and does not instruct its officers to disregard violations of federal law in Indian Country.”

Officials with the BIA and Interior Department, which oversees the agency, did not respond to the AP’s request for comment on the matter. Farden has not been hit with any criminal charges.

Prelude at Picuris​

The September bust at Picuris also had a prelude about four years earlier. On Nov. 30, 2017, agents from the BIA’s Division of Drug Enforcement arrived at the pueblo to uproot and confiscate a medical marijuana “test plot” of 36 plants that had been established on land under the control of the tribal government.

News gets out slowly in this rugged and remote part of the state, even today, and it wasn’t until the following November that the raid was written up by the Albuquerque Journal. “They took the plants and threatened to prosecute us,” Gov. Quanchello told the newspaper.

A year later, there had still been no arrests or prosecutions. But the test plot was not replanted.

Gov. Quanchello emphasized that the pueblo had been totally open with state and federal authorities about what they were doing. “We even told them if they ever want to raid us, here’s where you need to go,” he told the Journal.

Contacted by the Journal for comment about the raid, the US Attorney’s Office in Albuquerque sent this terse reply via email: “The matter about which you inquire was investigative in nature and, as a matter of policy, Justice Department agencies, including the US Attorney’s Office, do not comment on investigative matters.”

Negotiating a Solution​

This September’s second raid at Picuris has dampened hopes that the situation would improve under the new administration of Joe Biden.

In its account of the new raid, the Associated Press quoted Portland-based criminal defense attorney Leland Berger, who last year advised the Oglala Sioux Tribe of South Dakota after it instated a cannabis program. Berger implicitly noted the 2014 Wilkinson Memo, which instructed federal prosecutors not to interfere with cannabis sales or cultivation on tribal lands. “It’s remarkable for me to hear that the BIA is enforcing the federal Controlled Substances Act on tribal land where the tribe has enacted an ordinance that protects the activity,” he said.

As the AP noted, other Native American nations around the country have successfully reached accommodations with state and federal authorities—if informally in the case of the latter.

In Washington, the Suquamish Tribe in 2015 reached a “compact” with the state to open a retail cannabis outlet just across Puget Sound from Seattle on their Port Madison Reservation.

In Nevada, several reservations now operate dispensaries, bringing their own tribal laws into conformity with the state medical marijuana program and adult-use regulations.

In South Dakota, the Oglala Sioux last year became the only tribe to establish a cannabis market without parallel state regulations, approving both medical and adult use in a March referendum at the Pine Ridge Reservation. That November, a statewide referendum legalized adult-use cannabis in South Dakota, although the state supreme court this November barred it from taking effect.

Sometimes the federal presence on tribal lands is welcomed by reservation governments. President Biden this November ordered several federal agencies to coordinate a new effort to combat human trafficking and crime in Indian Country, where rates of violence are more than twice the national average. But the boundaries between tribal and federal power have long been contested. As Berger told AP: “The tribes are sovereign nations, and they have treaties with the United States, and in some cases there is concurrent jurisdiction… It’s sort of this hybrid.”

‘We Are Being Discriminated Against’​

Cannabis Now reached Gov. Craig Quanchello by phone at Picuris Pueblo. He fills in some details on the two raids at the reservation.

Of the medical marijuana test plot that was destroyed in November 2017, he stresses the tribal government’s effort to be transparent. “We met with the US Attorney’s office, and the [Taos] county and state officials, to let them know what we were doing. Our program mirrored the state’s, but we added PTSD and opioid abuse as treatable conditions.”

Nonetheless, in the 2017 raid, “They brought in dogs and surveillance airplanes—basically shutting down our world. At that point we were hesitant to go forward.”

With new administrations in both Washington and Santa Fe, the tribe was just beginning to get over this hesitancy this year. House Bill 2, the legalization measure signed by Gov. Lujan Grisham on April 12, includes a provision for “intergovernmental agreements with Indian nations, tribes and pueblos.”

Then came this November’s raid on Charles Farden, a non-Native who is married to a tribal member and is enrolled in the state medical marijuana program. “The pueblo recognizes the state card,” Quanchello says.

Quenchello sees cannabis as an obvious option for the mountain-locked pueblo, where the already meager economy has been hit hard by the COVID-19 pandemic.

“We’re farmers by nature,” he says. “We’ve always grown our traditional crops—corn, hay, alfalfa. We don’t have much population, but we have land. We see this as a means of economic development.”

And he portrays the willingness to work with the state government as a matter of good faith. “We don’t have to,” he asserts. “We are sovereign. But we want to do it, in a spirit of teamwork.”

Yet he’s open about his frustration at two federal raids, even as other reservations around the U.S. have been given some breathing room.

“Why is the BIA picking on us, the smallest pueblo in New Mexico, with no gaming and not on a traffic route? The money is not going to go into anyone’s pocket, it’s going back to the community—to provide healthcare for our kids, our elders. We don’t get enough federal funds to operate, and the funds are dwindling every year. We’re being discriminated against here.”

 

[momofthegoons]

New Mexico Releases Final Adult-Use Cannabis Rules​

The New Mexico Cannabis Control Division released detailed rules about license types and restrictions.

The New Mexico Cannabis Control Division (CCD) announced on December 28 that it has finalized the rules for cannabis manufacturers, retailers and couriers. The final rules were published in Issue 24 of the New Mexico Register. Hundreds of applications for licenses are currently under review.

The rules are effective immediately, with last-minute revisions following several rounds of public comment from small business owners, CEOs and other businesspeople.

“Every day brings us closer to the first adult-use cannabis sales in New Mexico,” Cannabis Control Division Director Kristen Thomson said in a press release. “Thanks to the Cannabis Control Division’s open and transparent rule-making process over the past six months, businesses and consumers can be confident that all necessary support and protection is in place to ensure a thriving cannabis industry in our state.”

Under the state Cannabis Regulation Act, adult sales in New Mexico are scheduled to begin by April 1, 2022. The rules that took effect Tuesday include manufacturing rules that replace emergency manufacturing rules implemented last fall, with intentions to protect workers and improve workplace safety.

The rules outline the licensing of retail stores, with new restrictions. The courier rules set guidelines for safe delivery and proper distribution of cannabis products by licensed couriers.

According to a news release, the CCD has been accepting manufacturing and retail license applications through its online licensing system and has received more than 300 submitted applications total across all industry sectors.

“Our dedicated team of professionals is working hard through the holidays and… every day to work with applicants to get licenses issued and businesses up and running,” Thomson said. “Standing up a thriving new industry is no small feat, and I know that our team, our system and New Mexico’s prospective licensees are up to the challenge. New Mexico will be ready for adult-use sales in 2022.”

Manufacturing Rules​

Manufacturers are also prohibited from adding nicotine or caffeine to cannabis products under the final rules, but naturally-occuring caffeine is tolerated. Manufacturing licenses are divided into four classes:

• Class I: packaging and re-packaging of already-made products
• Class II: manufacturing of edibles or topical products from already-extracted products; can also conduct Class I activities
• Class III: manufacturing of extracts (extracting) using mechanical methods and nonvolatile solvents; can also conduct Class I and Class II activities
• Class IV: manufacturing of extracts (extracting) using volatile solvents or supercritical CO2; can also conduct Class I, Class II, and Class III activities

Retail Rules​

Once retail sales begin on April 1, 2022, customers ages 21 and over, and people 18 and over who possess a valid qualified patient, primary caregiver or reciprocal participant registry identification card, will be allowed inside.

Retailers can take cannabis out of the packaging to display for customers, but the displayed product cannot be sold or consumed, and it must be destroyed. Retailers are also prohibited from providing free samples. Many other restrictions apply.

Courier Rules (Delivery)​

The maximum retail value of products that a courier can carry is $10,000, and couriers are not allowed to carry packages for delivery for more than 24 hours. Delivery recipients will have their identity Delivery recipients must either over 21 or older, or be 18 or older as a qualified medical cannabis patient or primary caregiver, and must be pre-verified electronically before a courier delivers cannabis.

The full list of final rules can be found on the New Mexico Commission of Public Records.

The New Mexico Regulation and Licensing Department had issued a license to the first company, Mother’s Meds, to operate as a cannabis cultivator on November 1.

Deadlines were tight, but the state’s leadership pulled together. The final rules are in place four months ahead of the plan for adult-use cannabis sales. Under the Cannabis Regulation Act, which was passed earlier this year, cannabis industry rules need to be in place by January 1, 2022, and adult-use cannabis sales will start by April 1, 2022.