From Friday in New Mexico, anyone aged 21 and over can buy up to 2 ounces (57 grams) of marijuana – enough to roll about 60 cigarettes or cigarettes – or comparable amounts of liquid marijuana concentrates and edible delicacies. New Mexico has grown a medical marijuana program since 2007 under strict restrictions. Friday’s launch still represents a radical change for local law enforcement, tax officials, commercial growers and residents who believed that full legal access to a flowerpot would never come. At a Santa Fe clinic, recreational cannabis consumers said they were excited to buy open local pots and sever ties with the black market. “When they legalized it here, I no longer needed my husband,” said Devin Killoy, a painter and craftsman in white. Antonio Rodriguez, a 38-year-old grocery store worker, said he was happy to pay new taxes on recreational cannabis: “I want everyone to be legal, even if it’s more expensive.” Across the state, aspiring marijuana farmers are claiming water rights and learning to grow their first cannabis crops as experienced medical cannabis growers increase production and add new retail showrooms. New Mexico is among the 18 states that have legalized the pot for recreational use, with consequences for cannabis tourism and conservative Texas, where legalization efforts have made little progress. In Clovis, New Mexico, a city with high plains of about 40,000 people, less than 10 miles (16 kilometers) from Texas, Earl Henson and two business partners have raised funds to turn a former weapons store and shooting range into a store. cannabis and companionship. room on Main Street. “I can not explain how happy I am,” said Henson, a former real estate agent who says his love for marijuana has been a burden in the past. This week, he began harvesting the first crop for a cannabis store called Earl and Tom’s. “I think these cities near Texas will change their economies for the next two years.” In the capital city of Santa Fe, marijuana is sold across from the newly built city visitor center in a square full of galleries, clothing boutiques and restaurants. LeRoy Roybal, manager of the Minerva Canna cannabis store in the city center, said he hoped the cannabis stigma would disappear quickly. “I think we are liberating many hearts and souls,” he said. “It ‘s like getting a cup of joe at Starbucks.” Proponents of her case have been working to make the actual transcript of this statement available online. Consumers will initially rely heavily on supplies from 35 old-fashioned marijuana companies that have taken root over the past 15 years. Cannabis regulators have issued more than 230 new marijuana licenses to growers, retailers and extract and edible plants. Governor Michelle Lujan Grisham said Thursday that the widespread legalization of marijuana meets popular demands and creates opportunities for small businesses. “This is what consumers want,” said Lujan Grisham, a candidate for re-election in November. “We have the potential for 11,000 more employees, jobs in places where young people can work and stay, such as County Torrance and Texico and Tucumcari and Raton.” Local governments can not completely ban cannabis businesses, although they can limit locations and opening hours. Public consumption is prohibited under the threat of a $ 50 fine for first-time offenses. No new business licenses have been applied for cafes or cannabis lounges – letting people indulge in their homes or designated hotels, casinos and cigar shops. In southern New Mexico, Sunland Park Mayor Javier Perea says marijuana retailers can be located anywhere in the small town bordered by the Rio Grande and fenced along the U.S.-Mexico border. He said about 30 marijuana companies had applied for permits in the city of just 17,000, supporting tourism from nearby El Paso, Texas, and Ciudad Juarez in Mexico. Perea hopes the industry will create financial opportunities and tax revenue to boost the city’s services. Local governments will receive a minority stake in the state excise duty of 12% on marijuana sales for recreational purposes, along with a share of the additional sales tax. Medical cannabis remains tax-free. “The only thing we will fight with is that we will run out of buildings” for new businesses, he said. Legal experts warn that people who buy cannabis in New Mexico and choose to return home to other states may risk criminal sanctions, arrest and imprisonment – especially in Texas. Paul Armento, deputy director of the NORML Drug Policy Group, said Texas was among the top states for marijuana seizures and that possession of marijuana concentrates, legal in New Mexico, punishable by up to two years in prison in Texas. . and a $ 10,000 fine. Possession, use or sale of marijuana also remains illegal under federal law – a standard that applies to vast expanses of federal land and India to New Mexico. New Mexico cannabis industry, which still relies on cash to avoid violating federal law, is gaining access to banking through an alternative certification system for credit unions and banks backed by attorneys general. The state also plans to take out $ 5 million in low-interest loans to small cannabis businesses that do not have access to traditional credit. New Mexico lawmakers have sought to reverse the damage caused by marijuana criminalization in minority communities and poor households by automatically rejecting or deleting previous cannabis convictions, encouraging social and economic diversity in employment, and reducing employment for young people. . The state-owned small business license to grow up to 200 plants with a fixed fee of $ 1,000 is attracting commercial growers for the first time, such as the recently retired US Marine Kyle Masterson and his wife Ivy, a Spanish Army veteran with business advice. They raise three children and turn to cannabis in the middle of their lives. The Mastersons, a suburb of Rio Rancho, searched more remote areas for a budget building to grow high-quality marijuana under the lights, set up in an empty former movie theater in tiny Cuba, New Mexico, at the base of the Jemez Mountains. “I felt right, I felt good and beyond the vision of what we could do,” said Kyle Masterson, who has served on four combat missions in Iraq and Afghanistan. “We are used to working in harsh environments without much direction and doing our best.”
