Pubdate: Tue, 14 Jan 2014
Source: Albuquerque Journal (NM)
Copyright: 2014 Albuquerque Journal
Contact:  http://www.abqjournal.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/10
Author: Steven Suttle

LEAVE OUR CONSTITUTION ALONE

SEN. GERALD ORTIZ y Pino's proposal to use a constitutional amendment 
as a plebiscite on the issue of legalization of marijuana should give 
the Legislature and the citizenry pause.

 From colonial times to the present day, state constitutions were 
meant to be charters wherein the citizens grant and limit the powers 
of government. Constitutions create public offices, setting their the 
terms and defining their relationships to each other, guarantee 
personal liberties and rights, and provide a framework for 
governmental structure. They are not intended nor should they be used 
as a vehicle for general lawmaking for several reasons, first and 
foremost of which is the difficulty to amend such an amendment in the 
event of a change of circumstance, error in its drafting or eventual 
application, or public mood.

The framers of the New Mexico constitution, unlike their Arizona 
brethren, chose not to include initiative, referendum, and recall in 
their final draft. President William Howard Taft, a respected jurist 
and constitutional law scholar, actually rejected Arizona's first 
proposed constitution because it contained some of those provisions.

The senator's obvious goal is an end run around a governor who would 
certainly veto, as is her constitutional prerogative, any regular 
legislation legalizing general marijuana use. Presumably, most of the 
supporters of legalization will be Democrats. The correct thing for 
them to do is see if they can actually pass a bill repealing the 
current criminal statutes and challenge the governor to veto it, thus 
making that action an issue in the upcoming gubernatorial election. 
That would be the proper way to test public sentiment, not with a 
constitutional amendment.

Amending a constitution is a difficult business at best, but even the 
outside chance that the legislature would propose such an amendment 
and refer it to the voters sets a dangerous precedent subject to 
repetition in the future that might embrace other issues best left to 
elected representatives and not to the voters.

STEVEN SUTTLE

Albuquerque
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom