Our new District Attorney Yvonne Rosales recently asked City Council to give her office $72,000 for a machine that can tell the difference between legal hemp and marijuana.
“The letter specified anything that is going to be prosecuted by the DA’s office would require this level of testing,” [Deputy City Manager Dionne Mack] told the City Council on Tuesday.
Police chief Greg Allen echoed Mack’s answer to the council saying any charges related to marijuana would require testing.
Currently the District Attorney can send any large quantities of the suspected weed to the Department of Public Safety for testing, but the DPS won’t waste their time on smaller quantities.
We all know which way the legal status of cannabis is heading. City Council has already adopted a policy of Cite and Release. Recreational pot is legal in New Mexico and twenty other states, and Medical Marijuana laws have been adopted by 36 states, the District of Colombia, Guam, and Puerto Rico, and the U.S. Virgin Islands.
So why would our local constabulary want to buy the technology necessary to distinguish bunk grass from primo? Why would local law enforcement waste what they claim are scarce resources on a victimless crime?
Well, the cops have to look busy. Taking down a teenager with a joint is a whole lot safer than talking down a drunk, or showing up for a domestic disturbance call.
If the point of enforcing a law is to keep the bureaucracy busy, then maybe we have a bureaucracy that’s too large.
Legalized MJ in TX seems inevitable. The machine’s cost (72k) is to be offset by the volume of arrests?? Had a discussion w a friend who works for the gov. Says MJ has sucked the life out of many cities. Some news said Colorado or Washington State has warehouses jammed w excess MJ harvests. NM wants to avoid that by regulating MJ growth. Bookoo bucks for those with the permits. Tighten supply equals a high non market price. (as in our soaring inflation). Maybe we can export to Russia, China or Mexico…. Some issues are clearly black & white. Others are as muddy as our Rio Grande by the border. Who should get the user’s money?? Mexico’s entrepenuers, our states, the feds? Reminds me of not being able to tax Bingo in El Paso……