Cannabis legalization bill derailed in Senate panel (Legal Pot dead in NM this year)

The Albuquerque Journal ^ | February 12, 2020 | Dan Boyd

[CedarDave]

SANTA FE – The push to add New Mexico to the ranks of states that have legalized recreational cannabis for adult use will have to wait another year.

The Senate Judiciary Committee voted 6-4 late Wednesday to table a high-profile marijuana legalization bill, as two Democrats joined with Republicans to block it from advancing.

Backers acknowledged the measure is all but dead for this year’s 30-day session, which ends next week, but said they plan to try again in 2021.

“We’d have no chance of getting it through now,” the bill’s sponsor, Sen. Gerald Ortiz y Pino, D-Albuquerque, said in an interview after Wednesday’s vote. “This is a setback, but I think in the long run it will produce a better bill.”

Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham had added the cannabis legalization bill to the sessions’s agenda, and said after the vote that it’s inevitable that New Mexico will legalize marijuana – although it won’t happen this year.

“I am disappointed but not deterred by tonight’s committee motion. The door remains open. We will keep working to get it done,” the Democratic governor said in a statement.

[CedarDave]

With many physicians ready to prescribe, medical marijuana is readily available in New Mexico, as is pot from Colorado just a few hours north from Santa Fe and ABQ. Even without legal pot, many applicants for good paying jobs in the oil patch can't pass a drug test and legalization would make that worse.

[chajin]

Well, don’t get weed-weed up...

[CedarDave]

NM list PING!

I may not PING for all New Mexico articles. To see New Mexico articles by topic click here: New Mexico Topics

To see NM articles by keyword, click here: New Mexico Keyword

To see the NM Message Page, click here: New Mexico Messages

(The NM list is available on my FR homepage for FR member use; its use in the News Forum should not be for trivial or inconsequential posts. Let me know if you wish to be added or removed from the list.)
(For ABQ Journal articles requiring a subscription, scroll down to the bottom of the page to view the article for free after answering a question or watching a short video commercial.)

[LegendHasIt]

Good.

[know.your.why]

Colorado is a nice drive any time of year.

[Mariner]

The real issue here is a group of politicians aren’t getting paid what they think their vote is worth.

There’s a very clear majority of citizens in NM that want legal pot.

[NobleFree]

Even without legal pot, many applicants for good paying jobs in the oil patch can't pass a drug test and legalization would make that worse.

Why is it anybody's business but the users if they choose to render themselves unable to get oil patch jobs?

[RitchieAprile]

Here in WA I smell it all the time when riding my scooter in traffic.

[CedarDave]

Why is it anybody's business but the users if they choose to render themselves unable to get oil patch jobs?

Taxpayers for one - we pay for health care, food stamps, etc. for those unemployed.
And company's for two - they need workers for projects they bid on or hold. It's bad on other employees (who have to take up the slack) and on the company's bottom line when they don't have staff or those with skills to do the job.

[NobleFree]

Why is it anybody's business but the users if they choose to render themselves unable to get oil patch jobs?

Taxpayers for one - we pay for health care, food stamps, etc. for those unemployed.

We should stop. Using one violation of rights to justify another is not a conservative argument.

And company's for two - they need workers for projects they bid on or hold.

They don't own the labor pool; they should meet their needs by either more narrowly tailoring their testing - standard marijuana testing detects any use within the past few weeks - or by raising the wages they offer ... supply-and-demand and all that.