“We’ve become the mecca for ‘mota’…and we have to ask ourselves: Is that really what we want to be?”
Patrick Lohmann is the source.
Joseph Cervantes of Las Cruces, D-New Mexico, says that New Mexico has, in more than three-years since recreational marijuana was legalized, become the poster-child state for marijuana sales.
“We’ve become the mecca for ‘mota’,” Cervantes said, using a slang term for marijuana common in New Mexico. We have to question: “Is this really who we want to become?”
The state legislator and members of the interim Courts and Criminal Justice Committee of the Legislature met in Taos on Monday to discuss how many shops there are in the state and their hope for the creation of a new group of cannabis police officers who will enforce the laws that the Legislature passed when they legalized marijuana recreationally in April 2022.
New Mexico has sold more than $1.7 billion worth of cannabis to adults and patients since the legalization. More than 1,600 businesses have been licensed in the cannabis industry, such as producers, retailers and testing laboratories.
The marijuana industry in California is growing, but high-profile cases of marijuana lawbreakers have prompted legislators to adopt House Bill 10. This bill funds the training and hiring of new officers who are fully qualified to prosecute those suspected of lying about their source, exploiting workers, or modifying the drug.
Clay Bailey is the superintendent at the New Mexico Regulation and Licensing Division. He said the state will be advertising for a chief of police to lead the new team of officers in the coming weeks. They will hire another six officers.
I’m looking for people who are experienced and know their stuff. [who have] Bailey told the newly hired officers that they had “dealt with drugs and other things and knew what they were getting into”.
HB 10 gives the new officers the power to conduct more forensic audits within the state system to track growers. Bailey stated that new inspectors are freed up to do audits in order to find out, for instance, if growers have lied about the origin of their products or flooded the market with illegal goods.
There are 40 pharmacies and 1 grocery store
According to the Regulation and Licensing Division of the Department, there are no limits in the state laws on how many licenses can be granted. Local jurisdictions can also not ban the operation of cannabis dispensaries, but they can regulate the distance between them. Maestas recommended that state lawmakers alter the law to give towns and municipalities control of licenses.
Officials from the state said that up to forty cannabis stores exist in Sunland Park which is bordering Texas and where marijuana for recreational use is not legal.
Cervantes’ senate constituency includes Sunland Park. “This just isn’t healthy,” he said. Sunland Park, my locality is in a bad environment. [to] “40 dispensaries and one or two grocery stores, perhaps one liquor store.”
According to data released by the state on Monday, the town has been the second largest marijuana producer in the State since April 2022. Nearly 3 million recreational transactions have generated more than 127 million dollars in sales revenue. Albuquerque is the city with the most revenue, earning more than $350 millions.
A 2024 Pew Research Center report shows that Oklahoma is the state with the most marijuana dispensaries, 36 for every 100,000 people. Cervantes estimated New Mexico at 30 dispensaries per 100,000 residents, which is far above early adopters California and Colorado.
In June 2023, a coalition of around 100 cannabis business owners asked the Governor to halt new licenses. They said they were facing too much chaos and competition from an “emerging” black market.
It is still a problem. The issue is still a concern for several lawmakers. They want it addressed during the 30-day session of next year. New Mexico’s Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham could find this topic relevant.
Cervantes said to the cannabis regulators, “I’m hoping you ask him to make the necessary changes and we can do it in this remaining 30-day session.”
Late Monday afternoon, the Governor’s Office did not respond immediately to a comment request. However, in a town hall meeting in July in Española, the governor did acknowledge that the state needed to fix its process for licensing, in response to a resident’s complaint about the number of dispensaries.
The governor, who was applauded, said that licensing had “not gone as planned.”
Source NM was the first to publish this story.
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Side Pocket Images. Photo by Chris Wallis.