Heads together

CLOVIS - If Monday's legislative luncheon roundtable at the Clovis/Curry County Chamber of Commerce is any indication, marijuana will be on legislators' minds when they travel to Santa Fe later this month for the 60-day session.

The legalization of recreational marijuana was one of many issues covered as part of the wide-ranging discussion that featured over 50 current and former area city, county, state, education and business leaders. Participants included Rep. Randy Crowder, R-Clovis, Sen. Stuart Ingle, R-Portales, and Rep.-elect Martin Zamora, R-Clovis.

Crowder said that based on the makeup of the state's House - 46 Democrats and 24 Republicans - and the House Appropriations Committee - 12 Republicans and six Democrats - the Legislature is likely to consider marijuana legalization during its upcoming session.

Crowder said he's already spoken with the chiefs of police in Clovis and Portales who oppose legalization, but understand it's likely coming down the road sometime soon.

Crowder said if marijuana is legalized, the police would like to see adequate funding and time to train officers to detect impaired drivers under the influence of marijuana.

Crowder said it would be "at least two years to get all police forces trained before they can implement this with any degree of enforcement that is going to be other than non-chaotic."

Ingle said that largely marijuana possession has been treated as a petty misdemeanor in New Mexico.

"To be convicted of anything in marijuana that was a felony, you had to be trying to sell more than eight ounces," Ingle said. "Do you know how much eight ounces is? It's a whole bunch, particularly when you consider the state of Colorado charges $500 an ounce."

Ingle said the biggest question to answer surrounding marijuana is liability, such as how it will affect worker compensation rates and what standards there will be regarding the drug and employment.

Other ideas that came out of the roundtable included a potential need for a one-stop shop to handle all of the regulatory processing for businesses.

"That would make it so much easier to start a business and to get your existing business to have only one group they have to go to instead of 30," former Lt. Gov. Walter Bradley said.

"It would make it easier on economic development," said Raymond Mondragon, Clovis Community College trustee.

Former Sen. Clint Harden said he would like to see an expansion of broadband internet in rural, underserved areas of the state, which he said would benefit education and economic growth.

Representatives from the city of Clovis, Curry County, Clovis Community College and Clovis MainStreet all gave an overview of their entity's outlook for the coming year. Clovis Municipal Schools Superintendent Jody Balch painted the darkest picture for the year ahead as he discussed the lack of new teachers entering the profession.

"Public education is at a crossroads I'm telling you, across America," Balch said. "If America doesn't find a way to get high school kids into universities to become teachers, public education with certified people is coming to a halt."

Balch noted that about one-fifth of the district's positions are unfilled or filled by international and alternative licensure teachers.

Crowder said the luncheon was a good opportunity for him and fellow legislators to hear directly from constituents before the session.

"It's healthy for the elected officials because we get kind of a sense where the community is," Crowder said. "I could tell there's a split on right-to-work, so it's healthy for us. I enjoyed the interaction."