As the federal government lags behind the curb, states like New Mexico is about to create a new cannabis framework and by the looks of it, one of the more ‘freedom-focused’ structures to date. It seems that some of the lawmakers in New Mexico may have been reading my work as they are creating a scheme for “micro-groweries” as I outlined in this article.
We’ll be taking a closer look at what New Mexico is proposing and hopefully, help spread these values when it comes to legalization in the future. With so much money to be made within the cannabis industry, it’s sometimes difficult to remember that first and foremost cannabis is a “human rights issue”. Profits should come second to people in this industry.
Let’s take a closer look at what New Mexico has up its sleeve.
New Mexico Legal Weed Highlights
To start things off, New Mexico will be wiping off non-violent marijuana convictions off the books. While this doesn’t “pay back” what was lost, it does remove significant barriers for those who have a record. As you may know, a record can make getting simple things like loans or higher paying jobs incredibly difficult. By removing their records, you immediately make a whole slew of job opportunities available to previously afflicted individuals.
Additionally, New Mexico will allow the cultivation of up to 12-plants per household. I’m assuming this would be mature plants a house can have at a single time. Of course, once this law goes into effect, it would be very difficult to enforce these limits on every house. The government is taking it on good faith that citizens would respect the law.
To be honest, 12-plants is more than enough for personal cultivation. I’m sure there are going to be activists talking about “there should be no limit on personal cultivation”, however – this is something that will undoubtedly never happen. Especially if there are legal commercial grows, there will have to be a limit on home cultivation.
As of now, it seems that there will be no need to apply for home cultivation licenses under the new market rules.
Another important factor in the law that is different than most of the other states is that in New Mexico, counties and cities would not be able to ban cannabis businesses. In many other states that has legal cannabis – counties have outright banned weed businesses from operating within their jurisdiction. In New Mexico, cannabis will be equated with human rights, which would make it illegal for a county or city to ban a cannabis business.
The state will also have a specific license category that resemble that of bars and lounges. This is something that is also only now being introduced in these more “mature” cannabis markets like Colorado.
This means that New Mexico will have cannabis venues in the near future. Of course, this will most certainly spread to other states, but to see a state enact this from the “get go” is a breath of fresh air.
In order to help create a more equitable marketplace, New Mexico is taking a different approach than affirmative action – they are applying the “microgrowery licensing system”. Essentially, for a small fee, a person can be eligible to grow up to 200 plants and participate within the economy similar to how microbreweries can sell to local marketplaces.
200 plants will most certainly be a decent-sized crop that could be easily managed by smaller players within the marketplace. This will also be a significant for low-income individuals to participate in the marketplace.
It’s also a means of countering the monopolization of the cannabis market.
Another very interesting development is not placing a cap on cannabis licenses. Anyone who wants a license and passes the state’s requirements will be eligible to get one. This means that there will not be a scarcity in terms of licensing, meaning that licensing will have a single cost.
In places like Florida, licenses have said to have been “obtained” for tens of thousands, if not hundreds of thousands of dollars. By making licensing simple and easily obtainable – it diminishes the value and places the value on the actual businesses rather than milking entrepreneurs of their investment dollars.
The Country Should Pay Attention
While it’s nice to want to repair the damages that have been caused by the War on Drugs – the best move forward is to follow in New Mexico’s footsteps. This is the most equitable way of legalizing cannabis since you are not giving some people “special privileges” but rather empowering entrepreneurs with the opportunity to start their own businesses and help their communities.
Too many lawmakers are trying to squeeze as much money from the cannabis industry as they can, however – this doesn’t help the industry or the people negatively affected by the prohibition of the substance. What we need more of now is to empower people, to make it easy for them to start new businesses.
This has even more weight post-Covid where thousands of businesses closed and the economy is taking a whipping. Now more than ever do we need to give the “go getters” the tools and permission to swing big to help revive the economy.
New Mexico seems to have created the freest cannabis marketplace in the United States and we will have to see how this plays out against the other models available. For the individual living in New Mexico, this bill will give you access to some of the best grown cannabis on the market due to the competition the market creates. Big businesses will not be able to simply mass grow and outsell craft growers – in fact, based on the culture of New Mexicans…the craft market will probably be a significant factor.
Finally, we are seeing some sense being made in this madness we call life. Let’s hope this helps establish a strong and authentic cannabis market that will endure for years to come.
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