Hopefully you were prepared for this. House Bill 356 died abandoned and alone before the Senate Finance Committee last week. It was the closest New Mexico has ever come to legalizing recreational cannabis. It seemed a painful and undignified death.The bill would have made it legal for adults over 21 to possess up to an ounce of cannabis as long as they had a receipt proving it was purchased from a legal source. We would have been the 11th state to legalize the maligned plant. It would have protected employers who wished to maintain a drug-free workplace and—most importantly—would have created a system of state-run recreational marijuana producers and retailers. The House approved the bill earlier this month—an unprecedented step in a long history of attempts to legalize. It also passed through its first assigned Senate committee, but fizzled soon after.You might have already noticed it while talking to your peers: No one’s crying over the loss. Lord knows I hate criticizing our honored government, but the idea of a New Mexico state-run recreational cannabis industry is enough to paint abject terror onto the face of every voter I’ve spoken to about the subject. An industry pal of mine crossed herself and whispered a prayer in what I mistook at the time for mock concern. I first read about changes made to the bill while riding an elevator a few weeks back. I accidentally laughed in shock despite myself. The other passengers glanced over nervously.Those changes were the result of a bipartisan “compromise” that seemed designed to make the bill an untouchable and unlovable piece of trash. It was made to align more with Senate Bill 577, which had already been tabled. The original version of HB 356 would have made it legal to possess up to two ounces (sans receipt), left room for protection of users and—most importantly—did not include a state-run retail system.On the final day of the legislative session, the Associated Press quoted Sen. John Sapien saying he thought the bill was dead. Sen. John Arthur Smith, who chairs the Senate Finance Committee, reportedly told the Albuquerque Journal that there wouldn’t have been enough votes to pass it out of his panel and that one of the bill’s sponsors had asked him to ignore it if that were the case.Sapien reportedly said some private companies and medical marijuana providers were concerned about the bill’s final wording. No kidding.It’s like “Dancing With the Stars,” but with much less attractive people. No, dear reader, that spontaneous wrinkle in your nose isn’t a sign of an oncoming stroke. You probably smell a rat.
Baked Goods: So It Goes
Legalization Bill Fails
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