After HB 12 failed to pass the Senate during the first regular session, Governor Michelle Lujan Grisham called congress back for a special session this week. As the week comes to a close, lawmakers have approved a few different bills and sent them to the governor’s desk. Each bill involves different New Mexico efforts to legalize cannabis. The governor pledges to sign them and get them rolling out for citizens soon. Let’s look at each bill currently on the governor’s desk.

House Bill 2

Once a part of HB 12, HB 2 primarily focuses on legalizing adult-use cannabis. Many of the provisions included and amended in HB 12 are present in HB 2. Major key points include:

• Adults over 21 can purchase and possess up to two ounces of cannabis. All products must be tested in licensed laboratories for THC potency and any potential contaminants.
• There can be a total of 12 plants in a household, with six being mature. Plants are for personal use only, must be out of public sight, secured from children, and not sold to others for profit.
• There will be no limit to the number of business licenses granted. However, market regulators can stop issuing new licenses if an advisory committee says that the “market equilibrium is deficient.”
• All legal purchases will include a 12 percent excise tax on top of the regular 8 percent sales tax, for a total of 20 percent sales tax. In 2025, the rate will go up by one percent each year until it reaches 18 in 2030. Medical cannabis products will not be affected by this tax. 
• Local municipalities and governments cannot ban cannabis businesses entirely. They can use their local zoning authority to limit the number of total retailers as well as how close businesses are to schools, daycares, and other cannabis businesses
• Tribal governments and sovereign nations can participate in the legal cannabis industry

These inclusions follow the social equity that HB 12 created and emphasized. Cannabis must become legal. But it needs to be done with social equity in mind. Specifically for those who have been affected the most by the war on drugs. HB 2 passed the House with a vote of 38-32 and then on to the Senate. There it received an approval of 22-15 and currently sits on the governor’s desk, where she will sign it. Legal retail sales will start on April 1, 2022.

Senate Bill 2

The other half of HB 12 that focused on decriminalization became SB 2. This would expunge certain criminal records including minor cannabis charges. Most of the charges dropped are for charges that will no longer be illegal under HB 2. SB 2 didn’t get as many amendments as HB 2 did. There were only small technical revisions involving language modifications.

SB 2 had an easier time with approval. In the Senate it received 23-13 votes in favor, moving it on to the House. In the House, the final vote was 41-28. Now, SB 2 sits on Governor Lujan Grisham’s desk and she took to Twitter to express her joy.

House Bill 183

While SB 2 and HB 2 originally were HB 12, another bill circulated the House and Senate. It received a unanimous vote in both chambers, making it the fastest moving bill of this special session.

HB 183 would remove from the criminal statue certain fees towards cannabis possession of minors. First, there will be no fees for minors, at all. There will also be no “application fee” for minors to have a public defender representative in a court case. Finally, the max number of community hours a minor can receive is 48. 

These changes became law this past week. Governor Lujan Grisham released a press statement about why this effort came forth during this special session. It’s not just about legalization. It’s also about social equity for races as well as age. Minors shouldn’t be punished so severely for something that will be legalized in the near future. Plus, things will be legal when they reach 21, so the consequences shouldn’t be extreme. 

Future

Legalization recently happened in New York. And it looks like New Mexico will be the next state to legalize adult-use at the end of this special session. New Mexico would be the 16th state to legalize adult-use cannabis.

Make sure to check back for more cannabis and hemp related news.