Roosevelt County board discusses cannabis sales

PORTALES — The Roosevelt County Board of Commissioners Tuesday discussed the regulation of cannabis sales, manufacturing and consumption and whether to change the commission’s meeting time to evenings.

Although the commission approved a Notice of Intent For Consideration of a draft ordinance on cannabis, which sets the approval process in motion, most of the discussion revolved around the concept of regulating activity on private land, with very little talk about specifics of the draft.

Two commissioners said they did not think it was the county’s business to regulate what people do on their private land. One commissioner said he thought disagreements such as odors from the manufacture of cannabis should be resolved privately between the landowners in a court of law and that it should be a private legal issue.

The county attorney said the commission can revise the draft at a later date and that this vote was to get the process started because state law goes into effect September 1st.

The other item the commission discussed at length was whether to change the time of the meetings from 9 a.m. to evenings so the working public could attend.

Two members of the public spoke in favor of changing the meeting time. They said anyone who works could not serve on the commission if it continues to meet in the morning.

Two commissioners spoke in favor of changing the time and suggested they “try it.” The matter was about to go to a vote when the commission decided to get management’s input on whether they could attend and work at night.

The commission decided to table a vote until county management had a chance to answer a survey about when and if they could attend a night meeting.