Copyright © 2014 Albuquerque Journal
Voters in Bernalillo and Santa Fe counties have a chance this fall to offer their advice to policy-makers on state and local efforts to decriminalize possession of an ounce or less of marijuana.
The election results won’t enact a specific ordinance or otherwise require the counties to take action.
Supporters say it’s a chance for voters to weigh in ahead of next year’s session of the state Legislature and to encourage local policy-makers to respond. Critics say it is disingenuous, misleading and a transparent effort to encourage pot-smoking advocates to vote rather than stay home.
Emily Kaltenbach of the Drug Policy Alliance, an advocacy group, said the ballot question “is the purest form of democracy. This is the best way to communicate your feelings on this to local and state representatives.”
“There’s momentum across the country,” she said. “People want to see marijuana laws reformed.”
Opponents aren’t convinced. They say cities and counties have little authority over marijuana laws, and they question whether the election results will have any practical effect.
Trudy Jones, a city councilor in Albuquerque, said voters shouldn’t be misled into thinking the ballot question actually changes the law on marijuana possession.
“I think it’s blatantly disingenuous and misleading,” Jones said of the ballot question.
Santa Fe City Councilor Ron Trujillo said the key for him is that state law still prohibits the recreational use of marijuana.
“I’ve never condoned drugs, and I never will,” he said.
In New Mexico, marijuana use is legal only for medical purposes.
Republican members of the Albuquerque City Council have been particularly critical of the marijuana question.
They point out that the city of Albuquerque wanted three questions added to the ballot – including redevelopment bonds and a new process for selecting a police chief – but the County Commission opted instead for its own questions, including the one on marijuana.
“It’s a shame that the County Commission made room for a political survey but not for policy questions that would have put hundreds of thousands of dollars at work in our economy,” said City Councilor Dan Lewis, a Republican.
Bernalillo County Commissioner Debbie O’Malley, a Democrat who pushed to have the pot question added to the ballot, said the reality is that marijuana penalties are “an important policy issue for us.” There’s broad interest in the topic, she said, not just from young people.
The marijuana question took an odd path to the ballot. Petition drives launched in Albuquerque and Santa Fe this summer aimed to gather enough signatures to get new ordinances on the ballot to reduce marijuana penalties.
In Santa Fe, city councilors went ahead and just approved the ordinance without an election. It makes possession of an ounce or less of marijuana a civil infraction punishable by a fine of no more than $25.
Police officers, however, can still cite people under state law, which has a maximum penalty of a $100 fine and 15 days in jail for a first offense.
In Albuquerque, the effort failed to gather enough signatures, though supporters say the city clerk improperly rejected some of the signatures they turned in. Bernalillo County commissioners eventually stepped in and, on a party-line vote, Democrats approved the question for the ballot.
Santa Fe County also voted to put the question on the ballot, even though the city of Santa Fe had adopted an ordinance on the topic.
Advisory marijuana question on ballot fanning political flames
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