Decriminalizing Pot Will Have Little Effect on Crime, Courts or Corrections

On the heels of the U.S. Congress announcing its initiative of lower drug sentencing, Albuquerque Mayor R.J. Berry vetoed the city council's passage of decriminalization of marijuana.

In his veto message, the mayor was firm; it is bad public policy to enact city ordinances that preempt state and federal law.

I agree, this type of conflict in laws makes for legal chaos, and does not give citizens who want to be law abiding guidance on what is legal and illegal. It becomes confusing for law abiding citizens and sets the police up for civil rights lawsuits for either acting or failing to act against certain behaviors.

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Mayor Richard Berry's veto of a marijuana decriminalization bill withstood a challenge from Albuquerque city councilors on Wednesday.

Democrats on the City Council failed to persuade one of their Republican colleagues to change positions and join them in favor of a veto override.

But no one changed positions. The override attempt failed on a 5-4 vote along party lines.

It takes six of nine councilors to override a mayoral veto.

About a half-dozen speakers urged councilors to override the veto and enact the legislation - which called for making it a civil offense, not a criminal violation, under city law to possess an ounce or less of marijuana.

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If All Pass Muster, Medical Pot Growers in NM Will Rise to 35

Health officials have selected 12 applicants to become licensed nonprofit producers for New Mexico's medical cannabis program, subject to site visits showing they comply with state regulations.

If all 12 receive licenses, it would increase the total number of licensed medical pot producers to 35, the New Mexico Department of Health said Monday.

No licensed producers have been added to current list of 23 since 2010.

The agency did not identify the 12 selected applicants, despite a directive announced in July by Gov. Susana Martinez that the names of medical marijuana producers and their employees be made public.

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LAS CRUCES - Dona Ana County sheriff's deputies arrested a Sunland Park city councilor on minor drug charges Monday during a council meeting.

Sergio R. Carrillo was arrested at the meeting and booked on misdemeanor charges of possession of marijuana, less than an ounce, and possession of paraphernalia, according to sheriff's spokeswoman Kelly Jameson.

Carrillo, who also works as a substitute teacher in the Gadsden Independent School District, did not respond to an emailed request for comment and could not be reached at City Hall.

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Legislation Would Have Applied to Small Amounts of Marijuana

Citing his oath of office, Mayor Richard Berry vetoed legislation Wednesday that sought to decriminalize the possession of small amounts of marijuana.

He also rejected a companion proposal - to make marijuana a low priority for law enforcement.

Berry, a Republican, said the oath of office he took included a promise to uphold the law.

"I just have hard time signing any legislation that preempts state and federal law, whether it's marijuana or any other issue," Berry told reporters Wednesday.

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Albuquerque City Council Approved Changes, and Now Final OK Lies With Mayor Richard Berry

The Albuquerque City Council on Sept. 21 voted to reduce marijuana penalties for possessing an ounce or less for personal use. Mayor Richard Berry has 10 days from the vote to veto it. Will the mayor, who vetoed the legislation last year, change his mind this time around? He should. Let me count the ways.

1. Over 115 million people, or one-third of the U.S. population, lives in jurisdictions where marijuana has been decriminalized. Oregon decriminalized marijuana more than 40 years ago. Santa Fe, Washington, D.C., and Philadelphia decriminalized marijuana last year.

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Five Albuquerque city councilors say they don't want people going to go to jail for having less than an ounce of marijuana. And that argument - which prevailed last Monday night and resulted in legislation destined for a mayoral veto - would have more street cred if police officers were actually busy with, and jail cells were actually full of, good-natured, nonviolent, recreational stoners. But they aren't. Albuquerque Police Department spokesman Tanner Tixier says "in my experience, officers very rarely arrest for possession under an ounce, if that is the only charge. Typically if an arrest is made, it's dependent upon the offender's attitude. But the argument that we are consistently arresting people with a joint isn't accurate."

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Mayor Plans to Veto Legislation, Citing State, Federal Law Conflict

Albuquerque city councilors don't want people going to jail simply for possessing small amounts of marijuana. But they may not get to decide. The council late Monday voted 5-4 along party lines in favor of making it a civil offense - not a criminal violation - under city law to possess an ounce or less of marijuana.

The council also adopted a resolution declaring marijuana a low law enforcement priority for city police.

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On September 21st, the Albuquerque City Council will consider a bill to remove criminal penalties for possession of marijuana for adults. The measure filed by Council President Rey Garduno and Councilor Isaac Benton makes possession of an ounce or less of marijuana a civil infraction, punishable with a fine of $25.

Eighteen states and the District of Columbia have already decriminalized marijuana. More and more people are realizing that this is a necessary policy change that will make a difference in people's lives and improve public health.

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Garduno, Benton to Introduce Plan; Mayor May Oppose the Idea

Two Albuquerque city councilors plan to introduce legislation next week that would make it a civil offense - not a criminal violation - under city law to possess an ounce or less of marijuana.

Their proposal would also declare marijuana as the lowest law-enforcement priority for city police.

Officers, however, would still have discretion to cite people under the state law for marijuana possession - the penalties for which can include up to 15 days in jail and fines up to $100 as a criminal petty misdemeanor.

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Nonprofit Has Applied for License From State

State Department of Public Safety chief. Two-term Bernalillo County sheriff. City of Albuquerque public safety director. And now, aspiring medical marijuana producer?

The professional evolution of Darren White has taken a new turn. White, through his private investigations and security company, is affiliated with a firm that is one of 17 applicants seeking state Department of Health approval to become a licensed medical marijuana producer.

State corporation records list White as one of the directors of Purlife, a nonprofit whose listed purpose is "conducting medical marijuana sales in New Mexico."

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Here is a challenge for you. Reconcile the following:

In 1791, the Bill of Rights was ratified, including the Fourth Amendment, guaranteeing "the right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers and effects against unreasonable searches and seizures."

In 2015, a 21-year-old woman named Charnesia Corley says she underwent a public body-cavity search for drugs at a gas station in Texas.

Explain, if you can, how the former and the latter can be simultaneously true.

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Prosecutors Get Too Much Power As They Stack Charges and Threaten Long Terms

The new consensus that something is wrong with American criminal justice is welcome. The amazing number of people in prison - a measure on which, adjusting for population, no other nation comes close - is indeed a sign that the U.S. system is broken.

It's good that the will to fix it seems to be growing.

Yet dwelling too much on that one statistic is unwise. There's a danger of missing the point.

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CHICAGO - Don Winslow's epic new novel, "The Cartel," about Mexican drug lord Adan Barrera's desperate moves to stay on top of a quickly changing political and competitive landscape, couldn't have been released at a better time.

The book, which begins with a Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman-esque prison break, came out mere weeks before the real Guzman, the head of the Sinaloa cartel, disappeared from a Mexican prison cell through a tunnel.

This wasn't solely coincidental - "The Cartel," along with Winslow's 2005 novel "The Power of the Dog," is well researched and chronicles the recent history of the Mexican drug cartels from 1975 to 2004.

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The City Different is in a unique position, at just the right time in history, to have a small but powerful impact on how low-level drug offenders are treated, and, ultimately, on whether or not they are offered a chance at recovery.

With increasing awareness of the social, economic and political effects of mass incarceration, it is more important than ever to begin thinking outside the box about the war on drugs.

Some $60 billion is being spent annually to keep people incarcerated, and destructive mandatory-minimum sentences continue to flood our jails and prisons with individuals who are nonviolent drug offenders.

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Spokesman: Marijuana Is 'Still Illegal Under Federal Law'

SANTA FE - Medical marijuana is legal in New Mexico, but the federal Drug Enforcement Administration seized and destroyed numerous pot plants from a licensed dispensary in Santa Fe after a recent explosion burned two employees.

The Santa Fe police asked the DEA to help investigate after the blast at the NewMexiCann Natural Medicine dispensary in Santa Fe on July 23. Two employees were seriously burned as they were using a process that involves soaking marijuana in butane and then using propane heat to extract THC, or tetrahydrocannabinol, to produce concentrated hash oil.

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As the Campaign to Regulate Marijuana Like Alcohol begins in earnest collecting the thousands of signatures needed to qualify for the 2016 statewide ballot, the voices of those wishing to hang on to prohibition ring loud.

But in trying to raise their voices, opponents are failing to advance the debate. Instead, those who want to block Arizona adults from approving the responsible regulation and taxation of marijuana are resorting to scare tactics and faulty stats to advance their arguments.

While people like Yavapai County Attorney Sheila Polk may sincerely believe in her goal of continuing prohibition policies by claiming marijuana is more dangerous than alcohol, she's conveying an erroneous message.

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School Districts Take Pre-Emptive Strikes in an Attempt to Steer Students From Drugs and Alcohol

The misconception is easy to have, and often it leads to the wrong conclusion: Only teenagers in big cities can lay their hands on drugs.

"You can get drugs anywhere," said Billy Burns, the athletic director at Logan High, a school in a remote area of eastern New Mexico with about 85 students in grades 8-12. "If you believe the hearsay, a small town is just like a big town. We have the same problems."

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So many good things have happened to Joseph Rivers lately that it's easy to forget that the good came from a bad experience in Albuquerque four months ago when Drug Enforcement Administration agents took his $16,000 and thus his dream without benefit of arrest or criminal charge.

Which is not to say that the bad is completely over - because it isn't.

Rivers, you may recall, is the young man from the Detroit suburbs who was headed west to Los Angeles to seek his fortune as a rapper and music video producer when the Amtrak train he was traveling in made a stop April 15 in Albuquerque and his $16,000 in cash, stored in an envelope in a blue suitcase, was seized by DEA agents who had a hunch - - but no search warrant, charging document or probable cause - that the cash was connected with criminal activity.

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WASHINGTON - Don Winslow, novelist and conscientious objector to America's longest "war," was skeptical when he was in Washington on a recent Sunday morning.

This was shortly after news broke about the escape, from one of Mexico's "maximum security" prisons, of Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman, head of the Sinaloa drug cartel.

Guzman reportedly escaped through a 5-foot-tall tunnel almost a mile long and built solely for his escape.

Asked about this, Winslow, his fork poised over an omelet, dryly said he thinks Guzman might actually have driven away from the prison's front gate in a Lincoln Town Car. What might seem like cynicism could be Winslow's realism. Fourteen years ago, Guzman escaped from another "maximum security" prison simply by hiding in a laundry cart. With exquisite understatement, The Wall Street Journal reports that his recent escape raised "new concerns about corruption in Mexican law enforcement."

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