New Mexico recreational pot legalization passes 1st test

SANTA FE, N.M. (AP) — A Democrat-backed bill to legalize recreational marijuana businesses in all towns and counties across New Mexico passed its first test late Tuesday amid heighten interested from businesses and health care advocates.

Об этом сообщает http://balansst.com

The Senate Public Affairs Committee voted 4-3 along party lines to move along the measure that would subsidize medical marijuana and automatically expunge many past pot convictions. The committee had to convene on the Senate floor to accommodate crowds around a proposal that would subsidize medical marijuana for low-income patients and expunge many past pot convictions.

An initial draft of the bill from Democratic Sen. Gerald Ortiz y Pino of Albuquerque would also override local governments that don’t welcome the industry. The condition is an attempt to stamp out black markets.

“This is the future,” Ben Lewinger, executive director of the New Mexico Cannabis Chamber of Commerce, told lawmakers. “New Mexico doesn’t have time to waste precious years.”

But the future of the bill remain uncertain as it moves to the Senate Judiciary Committee, where chairman Sen. Joseph Cervantes, a moderate Democrat from Las Cruces, has said he had concerns about legalizing recreational marijuana in the state.

Under the proposal, every r ecreational dispensary would be required to also offer medical marijuana to patients who qualify under a long list of conditions such as cancer, post-traumatic stress and chronic pain. New Mexico founded its medical cannabis program in 2007.

The initiative was condemned as a threat to workplace and roadway safety by a coalition that includes the local Roman Catholic Church, Greater Albuquerque Chamber of Commerce and Smart Approaches to Marijuana — a nonpartisan group opposed to marijuana legalization.

..