Late last night the Senate Judiciary Committee killed the legalization bill, despite overwhelming support in both political and non-political groups.
Reasons given were that the bill didn’t do enough to “keep cannabis out of the hands of children” and “didn’t do enough to address impaired driving”. The NM bill was about as thorough and proven on these issues as any state in the union, and was as comprehensive as current experience elsewhere demonstrates.
New Mexico has one of the least transparent legislative systems I’ve seen, so it’s going to take a day or two for the details to become available.
I do not understand why lawmakers prefer the loosy-goosy medical laws over the much more robust adult use laws that other states have and can show how they work in real life. By the time a bill gets passed, the existing medical program will be pretty much out of control.