Serving Clovis, Portales and the Surrounding Communities
Serving Clovis, Portales and the Surrounding Communities
Recreational marijuana is a fait accompli in New Mexico.
Full disclosure: I am a supporter of medical marijuana and have voted for it in the past. We currently use many more powerful drugs to control pain and distress (oxycodone is one of these) and I believe that if cancer patients and those with PTSD can find relief with medical marijuana, they have my support.
I am not now and have never been in favor of recreational marijuana.
New Mexico has a state Cannabis Control Division. The director of that division is Kristen Thomson.
The New Mexico Regulation and Licensing Department oversees the CCD. There are licenses for medical and recreational marijuana, and then the licenses break down further into small, medium and large producers. There are also licenses for selling, transporting and other peripheral support activities.
New Mexico has no limit on the number of producer licenses that can be issued. “We don’t have any limit on the number of people that we’ll license for any of the cannabis businesses,” said John Blair, the deputy superintendent for the New Mexico Regulation and Licensing Department. “If a million New Mexicans want to get a license, we would license a million people.”
New Mexico regulators have just doubled the number of plants that a licensed producer can grow. The reason given by Director Thomson for this doubling of plants is, “to ensure that everyone can maximize the benefits of a thriving cannabis industry.”
It is important to remember that, having established the business, the state government wants a “thriving cannabis industry” and is working toward that goal.
One benefit of this new endeavor, may be the reuse of existing unused buildings. There are any number of relatively large buildings standing empty across the state. Growers of all sizes, large, medium and small, could refurbish them at a reasonable cost for reuse as plant beds. This could have a positive effect on the overall economy of the state.
One detriment may be the impact on the overall labor market. If a worker goes home, drinks one legal beer, and smokes one legal marijuana cigarette every day after work, the alcohol will not show up in his system the following day. The marijuana is cumulative and not only remain with him for an extended period of time, it will increase each day.
The worker will pop positive for marijuana any time he is tested for drug use. This does not mean he is under the influence. It means he has THC in his system. Accidents of all types, whether at work, at home, or on the road, will become a lawyer’s bonanza.
New Mexico voters should review the first official Morse code message, transmitted in 1844: “What hath God wrought.”
Rube Render is a former Clovis city commissioner and former chair of the Curry County Republican Party. Contact him:
