I’ll be watching the project to pass a legalized cannabis law in New Mexico, the 12th state to do so, the second by legislative action and not by citizen initiative. The proposed bill was filed yesterday in advance of the session which opens Monday.
A good article can be read here. I skimmed the bill last night and am quite impressed with what they are trying to do.
A recent poll shows 75% approval by citizens, it has the full support of the new governor, and a similar bill passed the House, but failed the Senate last year. The biggest risk is this is a 30-day session; no state has tried to pass such a law in such a short time.
The proposed bill is very well done. It avoids the pitfalls experienced in other states, contains the latest thinking on social equity, and protects and leverages the existing medical market quite nicely. First day of retail sales will be Jul 1, 2021. Taxes will be on the low side in the proposed bill, but those are subject to discussion before it passes.
Now, the bulk of the details are pushed off to a new steering committee and a regulatory agency to write the actual rules. I presume they checked with the other western states to see exactly the scope of this. And someone is going to point out there aren’t any cost figures in the bill, to be figured out later, I guess.
Intriguing to me, as the Sun article points out, is that the growing region of the state is Southern New Mexico: Las Cruces, Deming, Hatch, Silver City, and Lordsburg. So Deming could get a new industry. A lot of the current medical grows are in the Albuquerque area, but it’s a small program.
The NM market is small. Las Cruces stores would serve El Paso and a hunk of West Texas, as well as being the first legal stop on I-10 coming from the east. I anticipate a scattering of shops all along I-10 through the state (A Bowlin’s pot shop?), so the tourist market will be there.
I’ll be reading the bill this weekend, as will the reporters that cover such things, and mention anything interesting I see.