A Senate committee on Thursday approved a measure to let New Mexico voters decide whether the state's constitution should be amended to legalize marijuana and regulate production, sale and taxation of the substance. If voters approved the ballot issue, the possession and personal use of marijuana by those over age 21 would become legal in New Mexico. The measure, Senate Joint Resolution 2, sponsored by Sen. Gerald Ortiz y Pino, D-Albuquerque, was approved 5-4 by the Senate Rules Committee and sent to the Senate Judiciary Committee. The measure likely has slim chances in the House. The House Agriculture, Water and Wildlife Committee last week voted 7-1 to table a proposal to legalize and tax recreational marijuana. [end]
Representative: Measure Is 'All About Business' A bill to legalize marijuana previously went down in flames, but a separate measure for commercial use of hemp in New Mexico breezed through its first legislative test Tuesday. The Senate Conservation Committee voted 9-0 to advance the Industrial Hemp Farming Act. Committee members voted to move the bill forward without recommendation because it was modified a bit just before the hearing began. State Sen. Cisco McSorley, the sponsor, said Congress already has approved a Farm Bill that permits states to proceed with research projects on hemp. [continues 358 words]
Backers of Proposal Vow to Keep Trying SANTA FE - New Mexico appears unlikely - at least for now - to join four other Western states that have legalized recreational marijuana use, after a House committee on Friday voted down a proposal to regulate and tax the drug. Members of the House Agriculture, Water and Wildlife Committee tabled the pot proposal on a 7-1 vote, making its passage highly unlikely during the 60-day session that ends March 21. Opponents of the measure said legalizing marijuana use could pose a public safety threat and lead to more impaired employees on New Mexico work sites. [continues 401 words]
If we weren't such a nation of addicts, maybe hordes of drug smugglers wouldn't crash our borders to feed our habit. Maybe drug cartels wouldn't terrorize Mexico and Central America - our gift to our southern neighbors. Maybe drunks wouldn't kill so many on our highways, or our health-care system wouldn't be so overwhelmed and costly. Maybe not so many families would fall apart and our cities wouldn't be bloodstained by gang wars - or so many adolescent lives wasted before they could even get started. [continues 633 words]
SUCH A WASTE, to risk the life of one of our finest to accomplish what any high school student can do - purchase $60 of meth in a parking lot. Shouldn't we allocate our resources in more meaningful pursuits? Even if we had succeeded in busting a street level addict/dealer without injury to an officer, what would we have actually done? We would saddle our legal system with tens of thousands of dollars in expenses trying him, we might pay his room and board in jail for years, and does anybody think that would prevent even one other addict from buying $60 of meth from a different dealer that very night? Let's treat our police with more respect. Albuquerque [end]
THIS LETTER is in response to Patricia Monaghan's letter about medical marijuana and driving, published Jan. 12. Monaghan is missing the point about Rep. Bill Rehm's bill seeking penalties for drugged driving equal to those for drunken driving. The point is impairment. We need impaired drivers off the road, whether they are impaired by alcohol, marijuana or any other substance. There's no argument about this: There are more alcohol-impaired drivers than cannabinoid-impaired drivers. To start with, Americans consume more alcohol. [continues 162 words]
English Teacher Who was Forced to Resign Praised; Now at an ABQ Charter A handful of people showed up to Monday's Rio Rancho school board meeting to support former V. Sue Cleveland High English teacher Katrina Guarascio, who resigned last month amid controversy over a writing assignment and how she conducted herself in class. The district accused Guarascio of being unprofessional, repeatedly using profanity and sexually explicit language in her class. They said "numerous parents" raised concerns about her and her classroom. [continues 625 words]
We are all disheartened by the conflict between police and many black men. A major factor seems to be the War on Drugs that we ask police to wage. It is public knowledge that the arrest rates of African Americans is many times that of white youth although statistics show that usage is comparable among similar age groups. In effect, the police have been asked to wage a war not supported by the general public. It is generally acknowledged that the War on Drugs has been a phenomenally expensive disaster. Perhaps it is time to resurrect common sense and end the war. National attitudes on marijuana use have changed indicating that this direction is gaining acceptance. We should end the war. This will require the public attitude, especially of social conservatives, change. This is not as a war on conservatives but a time of reconciliation. Bernard Gross Santa Fe [end]
SANTA FE - The state Supreme Court is set to hear arguments in the case of northern New Mexico man who claims his privacy rights were violated after a flyover prompted a ground search. That search turned up more than a dozen marijuana plants on his remote property. The outcome of the case could affect the ability of law enforcement agencies to use drones and other means of aerial surveillance. The home of Norman Davis, now 79, in the Carson area of Taos County was checked during a 2006 joint operation of New Mexico State Police, National Guard and state Game and Fish. Authorities were looking for pot-growing operations. A search was conducted with Davis' reluctant consent after a spotter in a helicopter saw vegetation in Davis' greenhouse and plants outside. [end]
Police Reveal Few Details but Say Sting Operation Changed at the Last Minute Veteran narcotics Lt. Greg Brachle is the Albuquerque police officer who shot and critically wounded a fellow officer during a $60 undercover methamphetamine sting last week, the police department confirmed. Police didn't release much more new information about the shooting Monday - including why exactly Brachle fired or what the perceived threat was - but did say that the plan for the operation was changed at the last minute and that the undercover officers took the unusual step of revealing to the suspects that they were police. [continues 713 words]
Marijuana's Negative Effects 'Pale in Comparison' To Alcohol Abuse on Roads We're all concerned about reducing impaired driving, but "Road Warrior" columnist D'Val Westphal consulted only one biased and uninformed source on the topic of cannabis in her Dec. 29th column. Her sole source, Rep. Bill Rehm, R-Albuq., is a retired Bernalillo County sheriff's captain. Several of Rehm's statements were glaringly wrong. First, he states that "(n)ot everyone who drinks alcohol intends to become intoxicated. They have a drink with dinner. Smoking marijuana has one purpose: to get high." That is absolutely wrong! Twenty-three states (including New Mexico) and Washington, D.C., permit the medical use of cannabis and according to procon. org there are approximately 2.4 million medical cannabis patients in the nation. [continues 508 words]
With legalized medical marijuana in 23 states and Washington, D.C., you might think that legal use of the plant would not result in the loss of your job or other dire consequences, but you are wrong. This is because federal law still classifies marijuana as a Schedule I drug, which means it has no approved medical uses. Drugs and other substances that are considered controlled substances under the Controlled Substances Act are divided into five schedules. Schedule I controlled substances are considered to have no currently accepted medical use in the U.S., a lack of accepted safety for use under medical supervision and a high potential for abuse. [continues 513 words]
Too much energy is being spent rewriting rules for the distribution of medical marijuana in New Mexico. The state Department of Health, rather than devising cumbersome rules that make it harder for patients to get the medicine they need, should streamline the process. While the latest version of rules is an improvement (anything would be) on the original plan, more work is needed. Compassion needs to play a role. The Medical Cannabis Program is too important to sick patients to burden it with rules that are more political than practical. Testimony from patients whose quality of life has been improved because of marijuana prescriptions is too compelling to ignore. [continues 336 words]
Latest Public Hearing Draws Smaller Crowd A public hearing on the revised version of proposed rule changes for the state Medical Cannabis Program on Monday drew far fewer people than a June hearing on the first version, and it was generally less contentious. One woman wondered aloud if the hearing was deliberately scheduled during the holidays in order to reduce attendance. The 50 people who spoke had many of the same criticisms of the proposed rule changes that were voiced last summer, but several also said they were pleased with the revisions. [continues 608 words]
WHAT'S ONE TOKE OVER THE LINE HERE? Eric Jackson points out, "We all know it's illegal to drive while intoxicated, and that it's illegal to have open containers of alcohol in a vehicle - but what about using marijuana? "Let's say a person has a medical marijuana card," he emails. "Is there an 'open container' law for pot? I ask because I observed a man toking on a marijuana pipe while stopped at a stoplight in Rio Rancho. Is it illegal to partake of marijuana while driving, even if one has not reached a level of intoxication that would cause impairment?" [continues 592 words]
Clearly, the far right wing of this country would love to return to a medieval, feudal state with them (the 0.1 percent) as our feudal lords. During those original good old times, the lords of the realm could confiscate any property accumulated by the lower classes arbitrarily at any time. The article ("In seizure of civil assets, police look for 'goodies,' " Nov. 11) about "civil asset forfeiture" shows this practice has now been resurrected. U.S. law enforcement and the Internal Revenue Service proudly admit to seizing millions of dollars worth of property and cash from private citizens when no laws have been broken and often where no criminality is even suspected. [continues 55 words]
Budget Bill Sent to Obama Calls for Backing off State-Run Programs For the first time ever, Congress has gone on record opposing federal intervention against state-sanctioned marijuana businesses in states like New Mexico that have medical marijuana programs. The federal budget bill passed recently by Congress includes a short provision that says "None of the funds made available in this Act to the Department of Justice may be used ... to prevent such states from implementing their own state laws that authorize the use, distribution, possession, or cultivation of medical marijuana." [continues 611 words]
Marijuana May Follow in Footsteps of Cigarette Industry in Luring New Users Last month, people voted to legalize recreational use of marijuana in Oregon, Alaska and the District of Columbia. As the movement toward marijuana legalization continues, lawmakers and policy experts are looking to the experiments in Colorado and Washington for guidance. We should not overlook, however, valuable lessons from our experience with another legal drug: tobacco. In the late 19th century, the landscape of tobacco consumption was very different than it is today. Tobacco use was much less prevalent, and cigarettes accounted for a tiny portion of consumption. [continues 654 words]
When you send your children off to school, you hope for a teacher who not only fills their minds but inspires them to make their lives extraordinary. Our schools are full of such wonderful teachers. But some of these teachers are burning out or being beaten down with the demands of conformity and administrative hoop-jumping. Worst of all, they are leaving. The latest loss is Katrina Guarascio, a creative writing teacher who for the past eight years was a beloved educator at V. Sue Cleveland High School in Rio Rancho until she resigned Dec. 3, leaving more than 170 students with a parade of substitute teachers who have come and gone not just since Guarascio's resignation but for three weeks in October when she was placed on administrative leave for reasons that have changed with the weather. [continues 842 words]
Student Essay About Jesus and Pot Ends With RR Teacher's Resignation What seemed at first to be an innocuous creative writing assignment sparked a controversy at a Rio Rancho high school that ultimately cost Katrina Gaurascio her job, the former English teacher said Tuesday. In response to the assignment, one student wrote an essay about Jesus distributing marijuana. Another student complained to her parents about it. Gaurascio, an English teacher at V. Sue Cleveland High School, ended up being put on paid leave for three weeks, and then later asked to change her creative writing class or resign - which on Dec. 3 she did. [continues 857 words]
Inside New Mexico
