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Tag: New Mexico

  • New Mexico May Soon Legalize Recreational Marijuana

    New Mexico May Soon Legalize Recreational Marijuana

    The state’s house voted to legalize marijuana for recreational use, potentially joining the growing number of states that have done so.

    New Mexico could soon become the 11th state in the U.S. to legalize recreational marijuana. The state’s House of Representatives passed the measure on Thursday despite being voted against by every Republican representative as well as a few moderate Democrats.

    The bill’s sponsor, state Rep. Javier Martinez (D), believes his bill will get through the senate because he reached across the aisle and worked on it with three senate Republicans.

    If passed, the bill would establish a system of sales and taxation modeled after Washington and Colorado, where marijuana has been legal for several years. However, as a compromise with senate Republicans, the New Mexico bill proposes mostly state-run marijuana dispensaries, with private sales being allowed if no state-run dispensaries are nearby.

    The legislation could become active as soon as mid-2020, possibly generating $9 million in tax revenue, according to estimates from state budget analysts. This figure is expected to grow to as high as $90 million in 2023.

    New Mexico’s Governor, Democrat Michelle Lujan Grisham, is likely to support the bill—as she ran on a platform “to move towards legalizing recreational cannabis in a way that improves public safety, boosts state revenues and allows for New Mexico businesses to grow into this new market.”

    The state senate has only until March 16th to make a move on the bill, which is good news for legalization opponents.

    “This is no surprise as legalization bills have passed the New Mexico House before. The bill now heads to the Senate, where there already exists a legalization bill that still has to clear three committees before the session ends next Thursday. While the House has passed this bill, we are confident the Senate will see through the tactics of Big Tobacco and Big Pharma investors and put public health first,” said Luke Niforatos of the anti-marijauna organization Smart Approaches to Marijuana.

    Several other states are also considering bills to legalize marijuana, including New Jersey, New York, and Rhode Island. Support for legalization on the federal level is growing, arriving in a wave of Democrats vying for the 2020 presidency who support the end of nationwide marijuana prohibition.

    View the original article at thefix.com

  • Senatorial Candidate Gary Johnson Reveals Cannabis Industry Connections

    Senatorial Candidate Gary Johnson Reveals Cannabis Industry Connections

    The former New Mexico governor disclosed his ties to the cannabis industry amid his run for U.S. Senate.

    Two-time Libertarian presidential candidate Gary Johnson has revealed his personal financial ties to the marijuana industry, which have some observers concerned about a possible conflict of interest in regard to his bid for New Mexico’s Senate seat.

    Disclosing one’s financial investments is part of the campaign process, and in recent Senate filings, Johnson stated that he owns more than $250,000 in stock from the Las Vegas, Nevada-based cannabis company Kush, as well as profit shares from a cannabis industry funding group, and capital gains from stock from another cannabis company, for which he served as CEO.

    Johnson, who previously served two terms as governor of New Mexico, has dismissed concerns about the potential conflict, stating that his political interests outweigh his connections to the industry.

    Between bids for the White House on the Libertarian ticket in 2012 and 2016, Johnson earned at least $100,000 in capital gains from stock earned during his tenure as CEO of Cannabis Sativa, and participates in a profit-sharing arrangement with the investment fund CB1 Capital, which provides funding exclusively for cannabis industry entities. Johnson serves as one of the fund’s key advisers. 

    As the Albuquerque Journal noted, issues of conflict over Johnson’s connections to the cannabis industry arose in regard to his candidacy for the U.S. Senate, which he announced in August 2018. Johnson is running on the Libertarian ticket against Democratic incumbent Martin Heinrich.

    Both Johnson and Heinrich are in favor of legalizing marijuana at the federal level, while Republican candidate Mick Rich is opposed to such efforts.

    But Johnson has waved off such worries by noting that he has been in support of legalized marijuana since the 1990s, which he described as a “career-ending move” two decades ago. “The last thing that I ever dreamed of happening is that somehow I would make money off this,” he said.

    Currently, medical marijuana is legal in the state of New Mexico, but marijuana for recreational use is not. New Mexico residents consume a considerable amount of marijuana from both the legal and black markets; approximately 27,000 individuals are registered medical marijuana patients, while more than 135,000 claimed that they consume recreational marijuana on a regular basis.

    As High Times noted, if the state made marijuana legal, industry investors could stand to make a sizable profit from sales. Researchers have estimated that more than 57 metric tons would be used in the state annually, which could yield a profit of approximately $412 million, with the possibility of growing to as much as $677 million.

    View the original article at thefix.com