With New Mexico’s 30-day 2018 legislative session moving quickly along, it’s unlikely legislation related to cannabis will get much traction. Mainly because the short session is crammed full of budget related items. Nonetheless, one state representative-–Bill McCamley, D-Mesilla Park-–has introduced a House Memorial that makes a statement about recent federal actions related to cannabis.
U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions “reinstated a policy of imprisoning medicinal cannabis users,” McCamley’s House Memorial 5 states. The memorial calls for the legislature to make a formal request of New Mexico’s congressional delegation to create legislation that protects New Mexico medicinal cannabis users from federal prosecution.
“We in the legislature should advocate as strongly as possible that our federal representatives uphold our laws to protect our medicinal patients and move in to the 21st century,” McCamley said. “That’s what this memorial is trying to do."
New Mexico legalized marijuana for medicinal use in 2007, and 61 percent of New Mexicans support recreational legalization of cannabis today, according to a 2016 Albuquerque Journal poll. Currently there are more than 40,000 medicinal patients enrolled in the state’s medicinal program.
Top image: © Zack Frank | Adobe Stock
