With the usual fanfare and self-regard we have come to expect from the New York Times editorial board, the prestigious paper has changed its mind about pot. It now believes that the federal ban on the substance should be lifted and that the whole issue should be sent back to the states to handle. Not only did it issue a big Sunday editorial (the equivalent of a secular fatwa in my native Upper West Side of Manhattan), but it has since been flooding the zone on the issue with essays from members of the editorial board. [continues 646 words]
Arkie Kiehne's grassroots effort to oppose the legalization of marijuana for recreational gained the support Tuesday of the Roosevelt Count Commission. Commissioners unanimously passed a resolution stating they would oppose any attempt by state lawmakers at legalization. Roosevelt County Attorney Rick Queener said the resolution is a statement of Roosevelt County's opposition and has no legal power. Kiehne, who works with the World Series of Team Roping, presented a petition with 830 signatures to the commission at a July 15 meeting. [continues 194 words]
Medical Marijuana Changes Considered SANTA FE - The New Mexico Department of Health should take its time before implementing proposed rule changes to the state's medical marijuana program, a state-appointed hearing officer has recommended. Many of the proposals, which include changes in fees, testing and plant limits, have come under fire since being unveiled by the agency earlier this year. In a July 25 report, hearing officer Susan Hapka recommended the Health Department hold a second public hearing on the medical pot proposals and wait until an advisory board meets later this month before deciding whether to adopt them. [continues 281 words]
Arkie Kiehne's grassroots effort to oppose the legalization of marijuana for recreational purposes gained the support Tuesday of the Roosevelt County Commission. Commissioners unanimously passed a resolution stating they would oppose any attempt by state lawmakers at legalization. Roosevelt County Attorney Rick Queener said the resolution is a statement of Roosevelt County's opposition and has no legal power. Kiehne, who works with the World Series of Team Roping, presented a petition with 830 signatures to the commission at a July 15 meeting. [continues 194 words]
Did you see the "Meet the Press" segment on marijuana legalization last Sunday? If not, you didn't miss much - except the irritating spectacle of smug Beltway insiders making lame jokes about one of the most interesting public policy experiments of our time. Host David Gregory, reportedly on thin ice because of his cellar-dwelling ratings, kicked off what could have been a lively debate by mentioning last Sunday's landmark New York Times editorial calling for federal pot legalization. Times columnist David Brooks, who recently wrote a tortured piece explaining how he and his friends used to enjoy smoking weed but now he thinks it's bad, set the condescending tone. [continues 681 words]
This screw-up is enough to make one wonder: What were they smoking? When it came to calculating the number of valid petition signatures needed to ask Albuquerque voters if they want to reduce penalties in the city for possessing small amounts of marijuana, the numbers didn't add up. And no one caught it until it was too late. The City Clerk's Office miscalculated the number and the Legal Department approved it. Petitioners didn't question it or do the math themselves. [continues 335 words]
Backers Need More Signatures to Get Measure on Nov. 4 Ballot Securing a spot on the ballot for a proposal to reduce marijuana penalties just got tougher. City Attorney David Tourek said Tuesday that the city made a mistake in calculating the number of petition signatures required to trigger an election on the measure. Supporters need 14,218 signatures, not 11,203, he said. That's based on the number of people who voted in the last regular city election. The petition must receive signatures equal to at least 20 percent of the roughly 70,000 people who voted in last year's mayoral election, Tourek said. [continues 487 words]
SANTA FE - The fight over decriminalizing marijuana in Santa Fe is heating up, even though it's still not clear whether a petition drive to get the issue before voters will be successful. ProgressNow New Mexico is crying foul over a Republican Party leader using a public records request to obtain copies of pot decriminalization petitions from the city clerk's office. Voters "exercised their democratic rights by signing names and addresses to a city clerk's petition, not a Republican voter target list," stated an email from ProgressNow on Wednesday. [continues 168 words]
Consider it one of the unintended consequences of legalizing recreational marijuana: more homeless folks who show up because getting high isn't a crime. That's what has happened across the New Mexico state line in Colorado, where shelters like Urban Peak in Denver and Colorado Springs are reporting a surge in clients, and "of the new kids we're seeing, the majority are saying they're here because of the weed." A Facebook post Sunday included "at the 16th Street Mall in Denver .. approached by a couple with a sign that reads 'out of grass, spare a bud, for my lazy ass.' " [continues 289 words]
I THINK THAT the editorial regarding access to marijuana in (the July 21) Journal is excellent. As one follows developments here in New Mexico, one could be easily confused about whether the state is trying to make things more difficult for those who really need the relief in several forms or easier, as they claim. Just to avoid having to take another drug whose side effects include agonizing constipation is a big winner, so why would the state do anything but make it more readily available to as many people as possible? If we bear in mind that those with easy financial means have never had a problem getting marijuana, but it is those who are in financial stress who do, perhaps our perception of the problem will change. The Journal has taken a very nice step in helping and I thank you for that. Albuquerque [end]
Inattentive Driver, Not Border Patrol, Turned a Routine Encounter into a Soap Opera Regarding (Leslie Linthicum's UpFront column), July 20, "Border Patrol checkpoint challenge": Timothy Blomquist's attempt to become a minor celebrity and see his name in the paper is so ridiculous, I almost don't know where to begin. Let me try, though. For starters, New Mexico, even Farmington, isn't "the heartland" of America. That would be somewhere closer to Nebraska or Kansas. Second, unless he has been living under a rock, he has most certainly heard about Border Patrol checkpoints - on television, radio, or even in the newspaper. As stated in the article, they have been there for years. The subject has also been in the news as of late. [continues 459 words]
Organizers 'Cautiously Optimistic' Enough Signatures Gathered to Get It on Ballot Even supporters acknowledge it could be close. The campaign to relax penalties for marijuana possession turned in more than 16,000 signatures to the Albuquerque city clerk Monday afternoon, giving the proposal a shot at landing on the Nov. 4 ballot. But it's no guarantee. City workers have 10 days to verify that at least 11,203 of the signatures are valid and from registered voters within city limits. [continues 588 words]
RE: "Border Patrol checkpoint challenge," UpFront, Sunday, July 20 Evidently (Timothy) Blomquist was so wrapped up in viewing the scenery that he did not see the speed limit signs to reduce his speed as he neared the checkpoint and the flashing lights advising of the road closure. As an intelligence officer in the U.S. Army, was he not trained to be aware of his surroundings, to be ready to react to unexpected situations? As U.S. citizens, we must all obey the laws of our great land and cooperate with those charged with enforcing those laws. And what is so difficult in answering the one little question, "Are you an American citizen?" VICTOR VELASQUEZ Rio Rancho [end]
There were legitimate concerns with some of the Department of Health's proposed revisions of its medical marijuana rules - a hefty new fee that had yet to be justified chief among them. But rather than reconsider why users - presumably some of the state's most medically vulnerable individuals - should have to fork over an extra $50 every year as a renewal fee when the program is in the black, the department instead is abandoning plans to add criminal background checks on patients who grow their own and reduce the number of plants they can have. [continues 199 words]
American taxpayers - especially those who reside in the Land of Enchantment - deserve to know if the ends justify the means for U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration agents. As in: Ignoring rules and getting a reformed crack addict back on the pipe is OK if it means busting his dealer. Granted, Aaron Romero says in his federal lawsuit that only sheer, abject poverty got him clean. But Romero also claims DEA corner-cutting helped get him hooked again. He says federal agents knew their informant was paying him in crack cocaine to broker deals in their 2011 "Smack City" operation in Las Vegas, N.M., but they never sought approval from the U.S. Attorney's Office - violating a DEA regulation designed to prevent abuse by law enforcement - and then altered reports on the amounts of cocaine purchased to hide his cut. [continues 149 words]
Every day in southern New Mexico, the United States Border Patrol sets up at permanent stations along Interstates 25 and 10, and other highways, and diverts traffic off the roadway into checkpoints. The purpose is to intercept people who are in the United States illegally or to find drugs or other contraband being smuggled in. Agents channel every car off the highway and ask the driver, "Are you a U.S. citizen?" Thousands and thousands of travelers routinely answer "yes," are waved on and continue their travels. A few find the question intrusive and have helped launch a movement to refuse to answer. [continues 1062 words]
Patient Background Checks for Growing, New Limit on Plants Both Shelved SANTA FE - A New Mexico state agency is backing away from some of its proposed changes to the state's medical marijuana program after those plans came under fire from licensed medical pot producers and users. A top-ranking Department of Health official told lawmakers Thursday that the agency will withdraw two proposals - criminal background checks for patients approved to grow their own medical marijuana and a reduction in pot plants for personal consumption. Currently, patients can grow up to four plants and 12 seedlings, and the proposed change would have allowed two plants and six seedlings. [continues 432 words]
Man Claims He Was Paid in Drugs for Brokering Deals in Las Vegas, NM A one-time target of a federal narcotics investigation claims U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration agents and informants "reignited" his crack cocaine addiction to help their undercover investigation into drug dealing in Las Vegas, N.M., during an operation called "Smack City." Aaron Romero claims in a federal lawsuit filed Monday that he was a longtime crack cocaine addict who was so poor he had finally stopped doing drugs for months until an informant working for the DEA approached him to broker drug deals in exchange for a portion of the drugs the informant purchased. [continues 534 words]
SANTA FE - Supporters of decriminalizing possession of small amounts of marijuana brought petitions with the signatures of more than 7,000 people to Santa Fe City Hall on Tuesday, in an effort to get a proposal on the November general election ballot. Over the next 10 days, City Clerk Yolanda Vigil will verify whether there are enough valid signatures of registered voters - 5,763 are required - to call an election among city voters on the measure. The proposal would make possession of an ounce or less of marijuana a civil infraction punishable by a fine of $25 or less. Decriminalization supporters said they had 7,048 voter signatures on their stacks of petitions. [end]
In states where medical and recreational cannabis sales are allowed, disquieting new trends and statistics are proving its unique dangers for those most vulnerable to its effects: children. One such statistic is a spike in calls to poison control centers. According to the National Poison Data System, calls about accidental ingestion of marijuana in children 9 and younger more than tripled in states that decriminalized marijuana before 2005. In states that enacted legalization from 2005 to 2011, calls increased nearly 11.5 percent per year. Over the same period in states without decriminalization laws, the call rate stayed the same. [continues 705 words]
Drug Trade, Clientele Are Not What They Used to Be Women juggling espresso drinks and shopping bags bustle past a Jeep parked at a shopping center one sunny afternoon in June as a drug dealer hops into the passenger seat. He exchanges three grams of heroin for $125 from a mother of teenagers. The transaction takes 45 seconds. It's a scenario that plays out all over Albuquerque and other cities as heroin dealers catering to young, affluent suburban addicts shift their operations from backalley deals in shady parts of town to delivery on demand at downtown offices, high-end malls and suburban homes. [continues 2117 words]
Nev. Company Makes Marijuana Oils, Drops (AP) - A Nevada-based startup that plans on selling medical and recreational marijuana products named former New Mexico governor and U.S. Libertarian presidential candidate Gary Johnson as its CEO and president, the company announced Tuesday. The announcement came as Cannabis Sativa Inc. said it had acquired marijuana research business Kush while company officials work to navigate changing state laws on marijuana and potential challenges from the federal government, which still views marijuana as a controlled substance. [continues 270 words]
Many Veterans Will Be Unable to Get the Medical Marijuana They Need If State Implements Rule Changes Over the past several weeks I have been following the growing scandal concerning our country's Veterans Affairs system and their disgraceful treatment of American military veterans with disgust. Sadly, we have also learned that veterans here in New Mexico have not been treated any better. As many as 3,000 veteran patients in New Mexico were assigned a primary care doctor in the Veterans Affairs system but were never actually seen. [continues 601 words]
If you think local police look increasingly like soldiers armed for battle instead of civil servants responsible for protecting you, it's not your imagination. As noted in the Journal's recent three-part series analyzing "mission creep" at the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, the federal government funnels millions of tax dollars to local police departments in the form of grants used to purchase high-powered paramilitary style weapons and other gear. Law enforcement agencies across the country are also tapping into a military surplus program to acquire Mine-Resistant Ambush Protected vehicles, or MRAPs, that were used in Iraq and Afghanistan. [continues 623 words]
BETHESDA, Md. - From her perch as head of the National Institute on Drug Abuse, Nora Volkow watches anxiously as the country embarks on what she sees as a risky social experiment in legalizing marijuana. For those who argue that marijuana is no more dangerous than tobacco and alcohol, Volkow has two main answers: We don't entirely know, and, simultaneously, that is precisely the point. "Look at the evidence," Volkow said in an interview on the National Institutes of Health campus here, pointing to the harms already inflicted by tobacco and alcohol. "It's not subtle - it's huge. Legal drugs are the main problem that we have in our country as it relates to morbidity and mortality. By far. Many more people die of tobacco than all of the drugs together. Many more people die of alcohol than all of the illicit drugs together. [continues 644 words]
Medicaid's Decision to Pay for Naloxone, Used to Revive Overdose Victims, Should Widen Its Availability Medicaid will now pay for a medication that serves as an antidote for drug overdoses, a move intended to reduce the high death rate among New Mexicans who use prescription pain killers. The drug naloxone has been used for years by hospitals and paramedics to revive overdose victims. State health officials, in announcing the change last week, want more medical providers to write prescriptions for the drug and want to encourage more pharmacies to stock it, said Dr. Mike Landen, state epidemiologist for the New Mexico Department of Health. [continues 369 words]
The Department of Health says it plans to start charging medical marijuana patients $50 a year to renew their registry ID cards, and it will use the estimated $550,000 a year in additional revenue to expand the state's pot supply. It's an interesting proposal, considering: 1. The state does not grow or supply marijuana. 2. Fees from the current 23 licensed medical marijuana producers already bring in about $500,000 to a program that cost $414,400 to run in 2013. [continues 338 words]
Producers, Patients Testify Program Would Be Crippled SANTA FE - Patients and producers in New Mexico's 7- year-old medical marijuana program lined up Monday to criticize - in sometimes heated tones - new fees and other proposed program changes. About 500 people took turns packing a Department of Health auditorium for a public hearing on the proposed rule changes, some holding signs emblazoned with messages like "Being sick is not a crime." About 175 testified. Producers and patients, many of whom described themselves as military veterans, said the proposed changes would cripple the medical marijuana program by making it more difficult to obtain medical pot. [continues 350 words]
Narcotic Can Be Hidden on Greeting Cards, Child's Drawings There's a drug making its way into local jails - one that can be camouflaged on children's drawings, greeting cards or postage stamps. The Metropolitan and Sandoval County detention centers in the past year have deployed new techniques aimed at stemming the flow of the drug Suboxone, a fairly new narcotic used to treat opiate addiction. The jails no longer allows crayon drawings or greeting cards, and require letters to be written on white paper. [continues 676 words]
Petition Drives for Referendums Launched in Duke City, Santa Fe SANTA FE - Voters in Albuquerque and Santa Fe could decide whether to reduce criminal penalties for possessing small amounts of marijuana if separate petition drives launched Tuesday succeed in the two New Mexico cities. The voter initiative process, which requires supporters to obtain a large number of signatures, is a new approach in the debate over marijuana policy. Legislative proposals to both reduce criminal penalties for possession of small amounts of pot and to legalize recreational use of the drug have failed during the last two years at the state Capitol, a fact not lost on backers. [continues 394 words]
Growers: Increases Will Force Medical Pot Users to Buy on Streets About 11,000 New Mexicans licensed to buy medical marijuana would pay a first-ever fee of $50 a year to renew their registry ID cards under regulations prop o s ed by the state Department of Health. Nonprofit producers that grow medical pot say the proposed rules would also triple the cost of their annual licensing fees to $90,000 for those that grow the proposed maximum of 150 mature plants and 300 seedlings. [continues 537 words]
Dear Alibi, I strongly support legalizing marijuana. Booze, cigarettes and prescription drugs kill millions worldwide every year, but I know of no one killed from using only marijuana. In the 1970s I took some tokes offered me, but I have never bought, never sold, never grown marijuana in my life. If I had a disease where my only choices were a prescription drug or medical marijuana, I would choose marijuana-no question. Eating it raw or vaporizing it is healthier than smoking it. [continues 374 words]
CHICAGO - If Radley Balko is right, it may be the dog lovers of America who touched off a movement to rein in the strong-arm tactics that have accompanied the militarization of the country's police forces. Balko, who writes The Washington Post's "The Watch" blog on criminal justice issues, says that police these days too frequently shoot people's pets when making a raid and people are becoming fed up. I recently read Balko's book, "Rise of the Warrior Cop: The Militarization of America's Police Forces," after spending some time in a firearms class. In that class was a retired policeman who firmly subscribed to the "us vs. them" mentality Balko so vividly illustrates. [continues 646 words]
Younger Voters Likelier to Support Casual Use Marijuana fans probably shouldn't get too excited about lighting up legally in New Mexico - at least, not just yet. A Journal flash poll conducted last week found more registered voters were opposed to marijuana legalization than favored it. Forty percent of the respondents statewide said the use of marijuana should be legal in New Mexico, 47 percent said it should not, and 13 percent said they were not sure. [continues 557 words]
Proponents of legalizing marijuana in New Mexico talk about how it will reduce crime and how citizens have rights over what they put in their own body. They say grass isn't a gateway drug and doesn't have harmful side-effects - both debatable points. Last legislative session Sen. Gerald Ortiz y Pino, D-Albuquerque, proposed a failed bill to legalize marijuana and promises to bring it back again next year. In the meantime, our neighbors directly north are showing us some drawbacks of legalization. [continues 248 words]
Throughout history, the U.S. and Mexico have shared a border, common cultures and economic base. Unfortunately, the two countries also have long shared a common scourge - the drug trade. As the influential 1960s rock band the Velvet Underground sang in their song "Heroin," "Heroin, it's my life and it's my wife." For everybody from the street addict to the sophisticated drug cartels, this lyric is truer than ever in both countries. Heroin has become a particularly dangerous drug because of its widespread availability. Years ago, it was mostly found in the larger cities of the U.S., and was only sporadically available in Mexico. Up until a decade ago, Afghanistan produced more than 80 percent of the world's opium, which is used to manufacture heroin. According to the most recent reports, Mexico's production of opium increased more than six times during the past decade, making this country the current number two producer of opium in the world. [continues 561 words]
In 2007, scientists writing in the British medical journal the Lancet caused a stir when they ranked 20 often-abused drugs in terms of their degree of harm. Few readers had objections to the scientists' naming heroin as the worst drug. What raised hackles was their uncompromising evaluation that alcohol was worse than cannabis, which in turn was worse than LSD; and that the street version of the synthetic narcotic methadone was worse than any of them. The scientists said they were trying to "help society to engage in a more rational debate about the relative risks and harms of drugs." [continues 68 words]
Speaker Notes Changing Social, Legal Environment The deputy director of the National Institute on Drug Abuse will speak in Albuquerque and Santa Fe next week on the effects of marijuana use on the brain, body and behavior. Dr. Wilson Compton, a nationally known expert on the causes and prevention of drug abuse, comes to New Mexico at the invitation of the University of New Mexico Department of Psychiatry, and will speak in both cities as part of the IDEAS in Psychiatry program, a public education series hosted by the department. [continues 259 words]
The list of qualifying conditions for participating in New Mexico's medical marijuana program could soon grow. The program's medical advisory board voted Wednesday to add all types of neurodegenerative dementia, including Alzheimer's disease, to the list of medical conditions. Health Secretary Retta Ward will have to make the final decision. It's not clear when that might happen. The Drug Policy Alliance filed a petition seeking the change. The group says medical marijuana is currently available to Alzheimer's patients in 13 of the states that have medical marijuana programs. The group says there are more than 30,000 New Mexicans living with Alzheimer's disease, and that number is expected to increase to more than 40,000 by 2025. Supporters say medical marijuana could help with brain inflammation and sleep patterns. [end]
Kudos to Erik Briones for going where New Mexico's Department of Health still refuses to go. The medical marijuana producer recently opened the doors of his Los Ranchos business, Minerva Canna, to highlight a recent $60,000 expansion, designed to make things more convenient for his clients and more conducive to his bottom line. Meanwhile, the Health Department continues to keep all information about the individuals and businesses it has licensed to prescribe, produce and sell medical pot behind closed doors. Even though many of those advertise online, tout their state licenses, include their bricks-and-mortar addresses and go so far as to promote weekly specials and punch-cards for frequent buyers. [continues 325 words]
State Rep. Bill McCamley, D-Las Cruces, has written a letter to two U.S. lawmakers asking them to consider changing the way marijuana laws are enforced at Border Patrol checkpoints in New Mexico and other border states. In the letter, which he sent to U.S. Rep. Beto O'Rourke of Texas and U.S. Sen. Tom Udall of New Mexico, McCamley argues that conflicts between federal and state laws regarding marijuana use unfairly punish medical marijuana patients. While law enforcement agents in most areas of the state make allowances for medical marijuana patients, those who must go through border checkpoints are still routinely detained and have their marijuana confiscated. [continues 254 words]
Officials Promise Full Transparency in Reviewing February's Taos Incident Residents and business owners in Taos Ski Valley say the "swaggering" demeanor and heavily armed presence of a U.S. Forest Service law enforcement officer assigned to the ski area may have set the tone for a controversial drug sweep that now has the agency investigating itself. Jackie Banks of the Forest Service's Kaibab National Forest in Arizona, along with Cheri Bowen, a law enforcement patrol captain also from Arizona, are part of an "After Action Review Team" that arrived in the ski valley on Thursday to meet with valley officials and residents about what happened on Feb. 22. [continues 908 words]
Forest Service Is Under Fire After Release of Memos SANTA FE - Last month's controversial drug sweep at Taos Ski Valley was the result of U.S. Forest Service officers trying to make an annual quota for citations, contends a federal worker advocacy group that released two memos from the Forest Service on Monday. In one memo, issued last November, a U.S. Forest Service official says the national leader of the agency's law enforcement operation expected each officer to issue at least 100 citations a year - and that less than a third in the Southwest region had met that goal. [continues 815 words]
Rear View Search In January 2013, police in Deming, New Mexico, pulled over David Eckert for allegedly running a stop sign. They then took him to the Gila Regional Medical Center, where he was subjected to an abdominal X-ray that showed no drugs; a manual search of the inside of his anus that found no drugs; a forced enema and defecation in front of officers, which found no drugs; two more rounds of forced enemas that found no drugs; more X-rays that found no drugs; and finally a forced colonoscopy under sedation in which a camera was rammed through to his colon and large intestine. The camera found no drugs. [continues 126 words]
Agents, Drug Dog Ran 'Saturation Patrol' In Parking Lot SANTA FE - One Carson National Forest employee has been called a Nazi, former Gov. Gary Johnson is on the warpath and there have been numerous other complaints because of a drug sweep by Forest Service agents at Taos Ski Valley last week. In short, the agency is catching some serious grief for an operation in which four agents with a drug dog issued several citations and confiscated "possession amounts" of marijuana in a "saturation patrol" that included the ski valley parking area and nearby roads. [continues 682 words]
Health Department Wants to Ease Rules SANTA FE - The state agency that runs New Mexico's medical marijuana program wants to bring more licensed producers on board and relax restrictions on how many pot plants can be grown after a survey that found the program was struggling to supply a growing number of certified patients. If approved, the Department of Health's proposals would likely take effect later this year. They would be the first rule changes to the medical marijuana program since 2010. [continues 619 words]
Plan to remove marijuana from list of illegal drugs sent to full Senate SANTA FE - A proposal to remove marijuana from New Mexico's list of illegal Schedule 1 drugs is headed to the full Senate after a committee voted late Saturday to revise a bill intended to toughen drug laws. Democrats on the Senate Judiciary Committee backed the surprise first step toward decriminalized marijuana while debating Senate Bill 127, which would add synthetic marijuana products to the Schedule 1 list of controlled substances. [continues 642 words]
ALL CITIZENS SHOULD take heart that Sen. Gerald Ortiz y Pino's ill-advised proposal to legalize marijuana through a constitutional amendment failed to receive a do-pass recommendation from the Senate Rules Committee and appears dead for this session. As the Journal has previously noted, plebiscite by constitutional amendment is a not a proper way to enact ordinary legislation and represents a slippery slope. More significantly, perhaps, is that Sen. John Ryan's proposal to make it more difficult to amend the state Constitution has cleared its first hurdle and is on its way to the Senate Judiciary Committee. [continues 235 words]
Senate Committee Blocks Amendment SANTA FE - A proposal that would have allowed New Mexico voters to decide whether to legalize and regulate marijuana was blocked Tuesday in a Senate committee, though the measure's sponsor vowed to bring it back again next year. "We'll just keep trying it until it happens," Sen. Gerald Ortiz y Pino, D-Albuquerque, told reporters. "I think it's inevitable." The proposed constitutional amendment, modeled after a new law in Colorado, was stymied on a 5-5 vote in the Senate Rules Committee. The vote likely left the measure deadlocked for the rest of this year's 30-day session, Ortiz y Pino said. [continues 361 words]
SANTA FE, N.M. (AP) - A proposal to let New Mexico voters decide whether to legalize recreational marijuana stalled in a legislative committee on Tuesday and is likely dead for the year. The Senate Rules Committee deadlocked 5-5 on whether to send the constitutional amendment to another committee for consideration. The proposal would have made it legal for adults 21 and over to possess and use marijuana. It would have been left to the Legislature to later establish a system for regulating and taxing marijuana. [continues 521 words]
Inside New Mexico
