Serving the High Plains

Legal pot is capitalism at its best

We are about a year away from legalizing recreational marijuana in New Mexico.

Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham has already set the wheels in motion for its passage at the Roundhouse next year, and if the state is ready with the regulations, it could conceivably become legal on July 1, when a lot of new laws take effect.

That’s my prediction — legal pot will be selling in New Mexico by this time next year.

Whether legalized marijuana will hit the streets next year or the year after, it’s coming, and probably sooner rather than later. Lujan Grisham has created a task force that’s looking at how the 11 states that have legalized recreational marijuana are regulating their burgeoning cannabis industries. She wants the task force’s work done in time for next year’s legislative session, where she intends to pass a law legalizing recreational pot.

It’s the next logical step. First it was medical marijuana, legalized in New Mexico 12 years ago and now legal in 33 states. Then came hemp, brought out of the cannabis closet late last year when Congress passed a farm bill that legalized the production of hemp nationwide.

Marijuana is being normalized nationwide, as 11 states have jumped on the weed wagon and legalized it for recreational purposes, and more states — including New Mexico — are bound to follow soon.

Here’s an interesting tidbit: Look at a national “weed map” online and compare it to a map of the 2016 electoral vote for president. With some exceptions, of course, it appears that the “legalization” states are coming mostly from the blue states, where Democrats dominate, while most of the Republican red states are resisting the legalization of both medical and recreational cannabis.

In other words, marijuana has become a partisan issue, with Democrats supporting legalization and Republication opposing it.

That’s certainly been true in New Mexico. Medical marijuana was legalized here under Democratic Gov. Bill Richardson, and then full legalization was blocked for years under Republican Gov. Susana Martinez. And now our new governor, after leading a blue wave into office statewide, is bound and determined to pass full legalization into law ASAP.

I don’t understand the Republicans’ reluctance to jump on board. It’s capitalism at its best: A free enterprise development that’s going to enrich a lot of people. And to argue against marijuana on moral grounds is laughable when it comes from a party behind Donald Trump, perhaps the most morally bankrupt president we’ve ever had.

This issue, however, isn’t strictly partisan. There are Republicans who favor legalization and Democrats who oppose it. In fact, Lujan Grisham will have to tread carefully to capture the votes she needs for legalization, even though her party controls both chambers at the Roundhouse.

But it’ll happen. Polls have shown a clear majority of New Mexicans favor legalization, and for the lawmakers who might still be entrenched in old-world thinking, there’s just too much money to be had for them to hold out indefinitely.

Tom McDonald is editor of the New Mexico Community News Exchange. Contact him at:

[email protected]

 
 
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