DemingNonProfit
10-22-2010, 04:04 PM
Every Medical Patient I current know is voiting for denish, and has told everyone they are close with to also vote for denish.
Looking at the poll Martinez is ahead, I do not wish to see her win, but if she does, in all honestly she will have a very hard time trying to repeal the law.
Here is a great article from NMI, explaining why.
Republican Susana Martinez has said she would work to repeal New Mexico??s medical marijuana program if she??s elected governor. But undoing the state??s three-year-old medical marijuana law would represent a major undertaking. There are only two routes ?? through the Legislature or voter referendum ?? and neither would be easy.
Repealing the law through the Legislature is unlikely
Collecting enough votes among state lawmakers to overturn the law is a long shot. The New Mexico State Senate approved the 2007 bill by a vote of 32- 3. And although state Sen. Vernon Asbill, R-Carlsbad, one of those three ??no? votes, said Monday he??d vote for repeal, he also said it didn??t seem likely to happen.
There??s been no dramatic shift in lawmakers opinions on the medical marijuana program and there probably won??t be, ??unless there is some large-scale abuse??and that hasn??t been reported,? Asbill said.
The bill passed the New Mexico House of Representatives by a smaller margin, a vote of 36-31, but changing a few votes in the House wouldn??t do the trick either: Repealing a law requires approval from both the House and Senate.
Sen. Rod Adair, R-Roswell, offered a possible explanation why a repeal would prove difficult.
??Our law was drafted very differently than in California,? said Adair, who was among a broad spectrum of bipartisan supporters of the legislation.
Unlike California, which is generally seen as much more lenient, Adair noted, New Mexico??s law is much more strict, licensing marijuana producers only after they clear several hurdles.
Repeal is possible??though unlikely??through voter referendum
An even rockier path for overturning a state law than the legislative route is through a voter referendum. But the last time New Mexico voters successfully repealed a law using a referendum was in the 1930s, according to the Legislative Council Service. Referendums in the 1950s and 1960s failed.
Talk of a voter referendum is moot anyway. Opponents missed the narrow window allowed by the state constitution. In order to repeal the law by referendum, petitions should have been filed prior to the general election immediately following the legislative session during which the law passed; in other words, in 2008.
The governor could tighten program regulations
If elected governor, Martinez could appoint a secretary of health hostile to the program, officials said. Because governors control executive branch agencies, the state??s chief executive could direct an agency to make regulations so strict that they effectively stop a program??s day-to-day operations. The Martinez didn??t answer our questions about whether she might choose such an option if elected governor.
But gutting a program to the point where producers couldn??t grow plants and patients couldn??t buy from them could pose its own challenges, one medical marijuana advocate said.
??It would really be an abuse of an agency??s authority to thwart the law by regulating medical marijuana away,? said Tamar Todd, staff attorney of the Drug Policy Alliance. ??That might be subject to a legal challenge.?
??The New Mexico Department of Health has really embraced the problem and tried to work with people,? Todd said. ??I don??t know if the governor would have the power to come in and change it.?
New Mexico??s program, intentionally strict, has grown slowly
New Mexico??s law is considered among the most restrictive of the 14 states that have medical marijuana programs. New Mexico licenses marijuana dispensaries, but only after they clear several hurdles.
The state Department of Health then regulates how the cannabis is distributed to patients, but only after they present doctor-certified documents proving they suffer from one of several qualifying illnesses.
So far, the state has licensed 11 nonprofits to produce and distribute the cannabis to 2,250 active patients, according to Deborah Busemeyer, spokeswoman for the New Mexico Department of Health.
Roughly 1,022 of those patients are licensed to grow cannabis, but only for themselves. ??They cannot distribute and sell it,? Busemeyer said.
Because the program relies on ??available resources,? meaning it doesn??t benefit from a dedicated stream of revenue, cost-saving measures aimed at shutting down the program also would hurt other programs at the Department of Health, already the target of deep cuts over the past two years.
The state health agency announced some proposals it hopes will make the medical marijuana program more financially self-sufficient.
Candidates for governor disagree on medical marijuana
Martinez has not said exactly how she might repeal the program, or if a repeal proved unworkable, what measures she might take to reduce or scale back the program. Martinez??s campaign didn??t respond to those questions from The Independent on Monday.
But Martinez reiterated her opposition to The Daily Lobo last week.
??I do not support distributing marijuana for any purposes, which is in violation of federal law,? Martinez told University of New Mexico??s student paper. ??There are many other treatments for patients in need that do not break federal law.?
Her rival, Democratic Lt. Gov. Diane Denish, approves of the law, telling the Daily Lobo that ??No one with a chronically painful or terminal illness should be denied a treatment option that has been clinically proven to reduce pain and suffering.?
Looking at the poll Martinez is ahead, I do not wish to see her win, but if she does, in all honestly she will have a very hard time trying to repeal the law.
Here is a great article from NMI, explaining why.
Republican Susana Martinez has said she would work to repeal New Mexico??s medical marijuana program if she??s elected governor. But undoing the state??s three-year-old medical marijuana law would represent a major undertaking. There are only two routes ?? through the Legislature or voter referendum ?? and neither would be easy.
Repealing the law through the Legislature is unlikely
Collecting enough votes among state lawmakers to overturn the law is a long shot. The New Mexico State Senate approved the 2007 bill by a vote of 32- 3. And although state Sen. Vernon Asbill, R-Carlsbad, one of those three ??no? votes, said Monday he??d vote for repeal, he also said it didn??t seem likely to happen.
There??s been no dramatic shift in lawmakers opinions on the medical marijuana program and there probably won??t be, ??unless there is some large-scale abuse??and that hasn??t been reported,? Asbill said.
The bill passed the New Mexico House of Representatives by a smaller margin, a vote of 36-31, but changing a few votes in the House wouldn??t do the trick either: Repealing a law requires approval from both the House and Senate.
Sen. Rod Adair, R-Roswell, offered a possible explanation why a repeal would prove difficult.
??Our law was drafted very differently than in California,? said Adair, who was among a broad spectrum of bipartisan supporters of the legislation.
Unlike California, which is generally seen as much more lenient, Adair noted, New Mexico??s law is much more strict, licensing marijuana producers only after they clear several hurdles.
Repeal is possible??though unlikely??through voter referendum
An even rockier path for overturning a state law than the legislative route is through a voter referendum. But the last time New Mexico voters successfully repealed a law using a referendum was in the 1930s, according to the Legislative Council Service. Referendums in the 1950s and 1960s failed.
Talk of a voter referendum is moot anyway. Opponents missed the narrow window allowed by the state constitution. In order to repeal the law by referendum, petitions should have been filed prior to the general election immediately following the legislative session during which the law passed; in other words, in 2008.
The governor could tighten program regulations
If elected governor, Martinez could appoint a secretary of health hostile to the program, officials said. Because governors control executive branch agencies, the state??s chief executive could direct an agency to make regulations so strict that they effectively stop a program??s day-to-day operations. The Martinez didn??t answer our questions about whether she might choose such an option if elected governor.
But gutting a program to the point where producers couldn??t grow plants and patients couldn??t buy from them could pose its own challenges, one medical marijuana advocate said.
??It would really be an abuse of an agency??s authority to thwart the law by regulating medical marijuana away,? said Tamar Todd, staff attorney of the Drug Policy Alliance. ??That might be subject to a legal challenge.?
??The New Mexico Department of Health has really embraced the problem and tried to work with people,? Todd said. ??I don??t know if the governor would have the power to come in and change it.?
New Mexico??s program, intentionally strict, has grown slowly
New Mexico??s law is considered among the most restrictive of the 14 states that have medical marijuana programs. New Mexico licenses marijuana dispensaries, but only after they clear several hurdles.
The state Department of Health then regulates how the cannabis is distributed to patients, but only after they present doctor-certified documents proving they suffer from one of several qualifying illnesses.
So far, the state has licensed 11 nonprofits to produce and distribute the cannabis to 2,250 active patients, according to Deborah Busemeyer, spokeswoman for the New Mexico Department of Health.
Roughly 1,022 of those patients are licensed to grow cannabis, but only for themselves. ??They cannot distribute and sell it,? Busemeyer said.
Because the program relies on ??available resources,? meaning it doesn??t benefit from a dedicated stream of revenue, cost-saving measures aimed at shutting down the program also would hurt other programs at the Department of Health, already the target of deep cuts over the past two years.
The state health agency announced some proposals it hopes will make the medical marijuana program more financially self-sufficient.
Candidates for governor disagree on medical marijuana
Martinez has not said exactly how she might repeal the program, or if a repeal proved unworkable, what measures she might take to reduce or scale back the program. Martinez??s campaign didn??t respond to those questions from The Independent on Monday.
But Martinez reiterated her opposition to The Daily Lobo last week.
??I do not support distributing marijuana for any purposes, which is in violation of federal law,? Martinez told University of New Mexico??s student paper. ??There are many other treatments for patients in need that do not break federal law.?
Her rival, Democratic Lt. Gov. Diane Denish, approves of the law, telling the Daily Lobo that ??No one with a chronically painful or terminal illness should be denied a treatment option that has been clinically proven to reduce pain and suffering.?