McDonald: Pot issue approaching critical mass

Last week, nearly two-thirds of Ohio’s voters rejected a measure that would have legalized marijuana. That doesn’t mean the move toward legalization has hit its peak; instead, it signals another battle on the horizon, over control of this burgeoning legal industry.

Gallup polls have been showing for three years now that a majority of Americans favor full legalization of pot — 58 percent support the idea in the latest survey completed last month.

Undoubtedly the national trend is toward legalization.

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But in the Ohio vote, the issue wasn’t so much legalization as it was with the setup. A proposed constitutional amendment, dubbed Issue 3, would have legalized pot while also limiting commercial production to 10 sites supported by the initiative’s biggest financial backers. The ballot itself stated that the measure would “grant a monopoly” and a lot of voters turned out to reject it based on that alone.

Even the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws (NORML) held its nose while endorsing the Ohio measure — referring to it as “a bitter pill to swallow” because of its capitalistic cronyism.

Here in New Mexico, full legalization may be years away, in part because Gov. Susana Martinez is so adamantly opposed. Even if lawmakers move a legalization bill to her desk, her veto would prevent it from becoming law.

That’s why state Sen. Gerald Ortiz y Piño has, for two consecutive sessions, tried to advance the issue with a constitutional amendment that would send the legalization question directly to the voters instead of the governor’s desk. His resolution didn’t pass in either session, but he has said he’ll keep bringing it up.

Meanwhile, medical marijuana has been legal in New Mexico since 2007, and it’s a booming industry. According to health department numbers reported in The Taos News last week, the number of medical cannabis cardholders has more than doubled in three short years, from 8,206 at the end of 2012 to 18,628 at the end of October this year.

That’s why, in August, the state Department of Health more than doubled the number of growers’ licenses around the state — so supply can keep up with demand.

Even communities that oppose the advance of medical and/or recreational marijuana are at a loss to stop it.

One state at a time, the nation is moving toward full legalization. Twenty-three states have legalized medical cannabis and four states, along with Washington D.C., have legalized recreational pot.

And after next year’s election cycle, when five more states will vote on the issue, that number may indeed double.

The legalization issue, I think, is about to hit critical mass.

Then the debate will center on how to control it.

At some point I think we’ll see a showdown between big-money interests and local entrepreneurs — not unlike the battles fought between federal agents and moonshiners before and after Prohibition.

Tom McDonald is editor of the New Mexico Community News Exchange. Contact him at:

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