If our nearsighted legislators had approved the sale of marijuana, we would have tons of new revenue. If they even had the brains to allow cultivation of hemp, that could create more income. And if our governor would raise taxes, that would help. Of course, if the state had invested in clean energy years ago instead of relying so much on fossil fuel sales, we wouldn't be in such a pickle. Tracy Neal Santa Fe [end]
One step, one person at a time, participants in the Longest Walk 5 are bringing attention to the problems of substance abuse and domestic abuse in Native communities in the United States. An initiative of the American Indian Movement, walkers arrived in Santa Fe on Tuesday, taking a break in the 3,600-mile walk to share their mission. The 30-plus participants will be in the area through Friday, when AIM founder Dennis Banks will take part in a governors conference for the Eight Northern Pueblos Council. On Wednesday, Banks and other walkers met with students at the Institute of American Indian Arts. [continues 536 words]
Ranchers Rally Over Security Problems ANIMAS - Several hundred ranchers gathered at a small-town high school in the Bootheel on Thursday to rally against what they described as a broken border. Also present were members and representatives of New Mexico's congressional delegation and officials from public security agencies, including the Border Patrol, Army, National Guard and sheriffs. More than 600 people showed up at a school auditorium in Animas, population 237. Ranchers here have been steaming over the reported kidnapping of a ranch hand in December, when drug runners allegedly hijacked the man's vehicle, loaded it with narcotics and drove him to Arizona. He came home "roughed up," his employer Tricia Elbrock said, but he survived the ordeal. [continues 621 words]
Legalize cannabis (marijuana) - but not because there are a million people who can hardly wait to pay taxes on it ("Pot in N.M. will not move forward," Feb. 15) or because it will save government money or put more police out protecting citizens. Stop caging responsible adults who use the relatively safe, extremely popular God-given plant (as described on the very first page of the Bible) because it's the right thing to do and the majority of citizens want to end the crime of cannabis prohibition and discrimination. A sane or moral argument to perpetuate cannabis prohibition doesn't exist. Stan White Dillon, Colo. [end]
What if the lawmakers who advocated for the Lynn and Erin Compassionate Use Act back in 2007 had proposed providing medical marijuana for the vague diagnosis of post-traumatic stress disorder? And what if they had suggested allowing nonprofit producers to be fronts for for-profit growers? And what if they had contemplated partnerships that turn tribal lands into huge pot farms? Well, somebody would probably have said they were high. But in the realm of unintended consequences, all of those money-driven expansions have happened or are in the works. [continues 349 words]
NM Medical Pot Producer, Nev. Tribe to Build Growing Facility Near Vegas A New Mexico medical cannabis producer this week announced a joint venture with the Las Vegas Paiute tribe to build a large growing facility and two dispensaries on tribal land in Nevada. Duke Rodriguez, founder of Ultra Health LLC, said the $5 million project could serve as a model for a similar deal in coming months with a pueblo in New Mexico. One of the two planned Nevada dispensaries will be located on a 31-acre parcel of Paiute land in downtown Las Vegas, where the tribe now operates a cigarette retail business and minimart, tribal and Ultra Health leaders said after a news conference in Las Vegas. [continues 389 words]
Two Albuquerque Girl Scouts have picked an unusual spot to sell Girl Scout cookies - a marijuana dispensary. KRQE-TV in Albuquerque reported a Girl Scout Junior and a Brownie set up shop Saturday outside medical marijuana dispensary Ultra Health and sold more than 60 boxes. Ultra Health manager James Gambling says he invited the scouts and offered to donate $1 for every box the girls sold. He says "the munchies" is a stereotype that comes with marijuana, so it was fitting to have the Girl Scouts outside. Phil Temer, a dad of one of the girls, says he saw nothing wrong with the girls selling near the dispensary. Girl Scouts of New Mexico Trails spokeswoman Carol Ann Short says selling outside medical marijuana dispensaries is against scout rules. [end]
Department of Health Regulations Kept Names Confidential Since 2007 The names of New Mexico nonprofits licensed to grow and sell medical marijuana were posted Monday on the state Department of Health website. The disclosure marks the first time the names of licensed nonprofit producers have been revealed publicly since lawmakers approved the medical cannabis program in 2007. The website lists the names and addresses of 23 nonprofit producers licensed several years ago by the Department of Health. It also lists the names of 12 nonprofits approved for licensure last year, many of which do not yet operate dispensaries. [continues 255 words]
35 Licensed Nonprofits Will Be Made Public The names of New Mexico nonprofits licensed to grow and sell medical marijuana will be identified publicly on the state Department of Health's website today for the first time since lawmakers approved the cannabis program in 2007. The names of all 35 licensed nonprofit producers will be posted at nmhealth.org, together with addresses of those with active dispensaries, agency spokesman Kenny Vigil said. The agency will also honor requests from the public to view records submitted by producers, including applications and other records, Vigil said. [continues 239 words]
The state of Colorado is not having budget problems this year because of reduced income from fossil fuels. Marijuana has generated billions - - that's billions - of dollars in revenue for the state of Colorado. Industrial hemp also would increase revenues in New Mexico. Wake up and smell the roses, people. We don't have to be at the bottom of the financial list. Marijuana is not as insidious as some people believe. Dick Hogle Espanola [end]
Names Will Become Public on Monday The names of licensed nonprofit medical marijuana producers and those seeking licenses from the state will become public under new rules taking effect next week, the New Mexico Department of Health announced Monday. The confidentiality surrounding producers was challenged last year in a lawsuit filed by freelance journalist Peter St. Cyr and the New Mexico Foundation for Open Government. They argued the Health Department was violating public records law by keeping producers' names secret. The agency has been reworking the rules since July, when Gov. Susana Martinez ordered officials to make the information public in the interest of transparency. [continues 184 words]
All 18 Senate Republicans, 6 Dems Vote Against Proposed Constitutional Amendment New Mexico won't follow the lead of Colorado and other Western states that have legalized marijuana as a recreational drug, at least not this year. State senators on Sunday night voted 24-17 against a proposed constitutional amendment that would have allowed people 25 and older to buy and smoke marijuana. The measure also would have legalized industrial hemp, a cousin of the marijuana plant, that has myriad commercial uses. [continues 483 words]
When crack hit America in the mid1980s, for African-Americans, to borrow from Ta-Nehisi Coates, civilization fell. Crack embodied instant and fatal addiction; we saw endless images of thin, ravaged bodies, always black, as though from a famined land. And always those desperate, cracked lips. Our hearts broke learning the words "crack baby." But mostly, crack meant shocking violence, terrifying gangs and hollowed-out inner cities. For those living in crack-plagued areas, the devastation was all too real. Children learned which ways home were safe and which gang to join to avoid beatings, or worse. [continues 795 words]
For-Profits Play Increasing Role Eric Howard takes great pride in his "ladies," each of which can yield up to 16 ounces of medical cannabis in a 16-week life cycle. "They get so heavy, they fall over right at the end," said Howard, master grower at an 11-acre growing facility in Bernalillo owned by Ultra Health LLC. A trellis system is needed to support the heavy flowering branches of the mature plants. Howard urges a visitor to feel one of the dense flowers, which leaves a sticky resin on the fingers. [continues 1575 words]
We Must Treat Addiction Like Any Other Disease and Aim to Prevent and Treat Last fall, I listened as a mother named Cary Dixon told her family's story at a forum I convened in West Virginia. It was heartbreaking. Cary's adult son has struggled with a substance use disorder for years, and she described the pain that families like hers have gone through. "We dread the next phone call," she said. "We don't take vacations for fear of the next crisis. We come back from vacations because there's a crisis." [continues 590 words]
Measures Again Pushed to Allow Sale, Possession in New Mexico SANTA FE - Sixty-one percent of New Mexicans surveyed this month said they support legalizing marijuana, and doing that would bump up state revenues by tens of millions of dollars, legalization supporters said Thursday. "If it can get on the ballot, it's going to pass," said Sen. Gerald Ortiz y Pino, D-Albuquerque, who once again is sponsoring a constitutional change to legalize marijuana possession, regulate its production and sale, and tax it. [continues 553 words]
Look Back to Alcohol Prohibition for Understanding of Why Taboos about drugs are lying shattered across the U.S., like broken debris after a party. But even as some states have begun to decriminalize or legalize marijuana, there is an argument that is making some Americans hesitate. They ask: Aren't many drugs, even pot, much more potent today than they were in the 1960s, when the boomers formed their views on drug use? Hasn't cannabis morphed into super skunk? Aren't people who used legal painkillers like OxyContin and Percocet sliding into heroin addiction - suggesting that legally accessible drugs are a slippery slope toward the abuse of harder drugs? [continues 608 words]
Medical marijuana producers told state health officials Wednesday that disclosing the locations of growing facilities would invite criminals to burglarize the sites, while open-records advocates countered that greater transparency will help ensure fair and effective management of the state's cannabis program. "We have a product that criminals want," said Eric Briones, founder of the Minerva Canna Group of Los Ranchos, one of 23 nonprofits licensed by the state Department of Health to grow and sell medical pot. Minerva must conduct its business in cash because banks don't take deposits from cannabis growers, he said. "We have cannabis and we have cash." [continues 179 words]
Producers: Rule Change Will Expose Us to Criminals SANTA FE - Medical marijuana producers told state health officials Wednesday that disclosing the locations of growing facilities would invite criminals to burglarize the sites, while open-records advocates countered that greater transparency will help ensure fair and effective management of the state's cannabis program. "We have a product that criminals want," said Eric Briones, founder of the Minerva Canna Group of Los Ranchos, one of 23 nonprofits licensed by the state Department of Health to grow and sell medical pot. Minerva must conduct its business in cash because banks don't take deposits from cannabis growers, he said. "We have cannabis and we have cash." [continues 411 words]
Proposed Rules Would List Distributors but Not Those Who Produce Own Supply In a strongly worded letter, New Mexico Attorney General Hector Balderas said Monday that a Department of Health proposal to disclose the identities of licensed nonprofit producers of medical cannabis doesn't go far enough to abide by the state's open records law. Balderas contends that state law doesn't authorize the agency to withhold the names of more than 4,000 New Mexicans licensed to grow their own supply of medical pot. [continues 467 words]
Inside New Mexico
