SENATE MEMORIAL 80

51st legislature - STATE OF NEW MEXICO - first session, 2013

INTRODUCED BY

Gerald Ortiz y Pino

A MEMORIAL

REQUESTING THE ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT DEPARTMENT TO CONDUCT A STUDY OF THE BUDGETARY IMPLICATIONS OF LEGALIZING AND REGULATING MARIJUANA AND IMPOSING TAXES AND FEES ON EVERY PHASE OF A LEGAL MARIJUANA ECONOMY.

     WHEREAS, in 2012, voters in the states of Colorado and Washington decided to permit the legal regulation of marijuana sales, cultivation and distribution to adults; and

     WHEREAS, in Colorado, Amendment 64, which outlined the new Colorado marijuana policy, won with fifty-four and eight-tenths percent of the vote, and in Washington, I-502, which initiated Washington's new marijuana policy, won with fifty-five and seven-tenths percent of the vote; and

     WHEREAS, the tenth amendment of the United States constitution allows states such as Washington and Colorado to remove all state law penalties for all commercial marijuana activity within the state; and

     WHEREAS, Harvard university professor of economics Jeffrey Miron concluded in his 2010 study, The Budgetary Implications of Drug Prohibition, that the United States would save approximately eight billion seven hundred million dollars ($8,700,000,000) per year by ending marijuana prohibition; and

     WHEREAS, according to Professor Miron, using 2008 data, marijuana tax revenues in New Mexico would be nineteen million dollars ($19,000,000) to twenty million eight hundred twenty thousand dollars ($20,820,000) annually; and

     WHEREAS, in 2006, according to the taxation and revenue department, New Mexico collected ninety-seven million dollars ($97,000,000) in alcohol excise and gross receipts tax revenues and approximately thirty-three million dollars ($33,000,000) in cigarette tax revenues; and

     WHEREAS, marijuana, if monitored, taxed and regulated like alcohol and tobacco, would reduce crime and allow taxpayer dollars that are currently being used for marijuana prohibition enforcement and prosecution to be redirected to health, education, drug treatment and other state programs; and

     WHEREAS, Professor Miron calculated that, by ending marijuana prohibition, New Mexico would save over thirty-three million dollars ($33,000,000) annually on police, courts and corrections costs of enforcing existing marijuana laws; and

     WHEREAS, the responsible regulation of marijuana cultivation, distribution and sales would generate considerable additional revenue from excise and sales taxes, as well as from licensing fees; and

     WHEREAS, far greater revenues will be realized if the state imposes taxes and fees on every phase of a legal marijuana economy, including permitting and licensure fees for cultivation, production, manufacture, transportation and sale; inspection fees on crops; regulation and taxation of distributors; local and state licensing of retail outlets; state sales and use taxes; excise taxes; and income taxes on legal workers at every level; and

     WHEREAS, in 2005, more than five hundred leading economists, including three Nobel laureates — the late Dr. Milton Friedman, Dr. George Akerlof of the university of California, Berkeley, and Dr. Vernon Smith, research scholar at George Mason university — signed an open letter to the president, congress, governors and state legislatures urging an open and honest debate about marijuana prohibition, which would likely "favor a regime in which marijuana is legal but taxed and regulated like other goods"; and

     WHEREAS, the federal bureau of investigation's uniform crime reports drug arrest data show that, in 2010, three thousand two hundred seventy-seven New Mexicans were arrested solely for possession of marijuana; and

     WHEREAS, thirty-four percent of all drug arrests in New Mexico in 2010 were for nothing more than marijuana possession; and

     WHEREAS, according to the federal substance abuse and mental health services administration, two hundred five thousand New Mexicans, roughly thirteen percent of the state's population, age twelve or older report using marijuana in the past year, and one hundred twenty-six thousand report using marijuana in the past month; and

     WHEREAS, African Americans and Latinos are far more likely to be arrested for marijuana offenses than their nonminority counterparts despite lower rates of marijuana use; and

     WHEREAS, arresting casual marijuana users creates criminals out of otherwise law-abiding residents, which, in turn, substantially limits their ability to find jobs, pay taxes and procure federal student loans and other public benefits; and

     WHEREAS, minority and working-class Americans are disproportionately affected by marijuana prohibition; and

     WHEREAS, available research shows that policing strategies that stringently enforce marijuana prohibition do not produce reductions in violent or property crimes; instead, they divert limited resources from more effective strategies; and

     WHEREAS, the considerable resources that are expended to enforce New Mexico's marijuana laws could be better spent to prevent and investigate serious and violent crimes; and

     WHEREAS, marijuana prohibition creates a violent, multibillion-dollar criminal industry that fuels drug trafficking organizations and organized criminal groups in Mexico and New Mexico; and

     WHEREAS, according to the federal bureau of investigation and the federal drug enforcement administration, "Marijuana is the top revenue generator for Mexican drug trafficking organizations — a cash crop that finances corruption and the carnage of violence year after year."; and

     WHEREAS, the safe regulation of marijuana would undermine these criminal enterprises on both sides of the border, while boosting New Mexico's economy and protecting New Mexicans; and

     WHEREAS, doctors and medical researchers agree that marijuana is far less harmful than alcohol and tobacco, which the federal centers for disease control and prevention estimates have each contributed to more deaths than all illicit drugs combined; and

     WHEREAS, unregulated marijuana poses a risk to the health of consumers by forcing them to interact with a criminal network and consume a product that may be contaminated; and

     WHEREAS, reports by the institute of medicine of the national academies and other scientific and medical institutions have demonstrated that physiological dependence on marijuana is highly unlikely and marijuana consumption, whatever the amount, does not result in overdose; and

     WHEREAS, only six percent of all people who entered substance-abuse treatment in New Mexico were referred for marijuana use, while almost one-half were referred for alcohol problems; and

     WHEREAS, of the small fraction of people who were admitted to treatment for marijuana use, over forty-three percent of them were mandated by the criminal justice system and likely did not have a drug problem; and

     WHEREAS, according to the federal department of health and human services, "Most marijuana users do not go on to use other drugs."; and

     WHEREAS, rigorous regulation would reduce the availability of marijuana to minors, while the current prohibition regime has failed to substantially limit access to marijuana among minors; and

     WHEREAS, the national monitoring the future study has consistently found that roughly eighty percent of twelfth grade students in the United States report that marijuana is either "fairly easy" or "very easy" to obtain; and

     WHEREAS, the 2011 New Mexico youth risk and resiliency survey found that marijuana use is more prevalent than cigarette use among New Mexico high school students and that students are more likely to use marijuana on school property than they are to use alcohol or cigarettes;

     NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED BY THE SENATE OF THE STATE OF NEW MEXICO that the economic development department be requested to convene a working group to study the budgetary implications of legalizing marijuana and imposing taxes and fees on every phase of a legal marijuana economy, including licensure fees for cultivation, production, manufacture, transportation and sale; inspection fees on crops; regulation and taxation of distributors; local and state licensing of retail outlets; state sales and use taxes; excise taxes; income taxes on legal workers at every level; and potential savings to the state's criminal justice system, including law enforcement, state prison systems, court systems, district attorneys, public defenders and the probation and parole system; and

     BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that the working group consist of the secretary of economic development, or the secretary's designee; the secretary of public safety, or the secretary's designee; the secretary of taxation and revenue, or the secretary's designee; the secretary of finance and administration, or the secretary's designee; the executive director of the New Mexico association of counties, or the director's designee; the secretary of corrections, or the secretary's designee; the chief public defender, or the chief's designee; the director of the administrative office of the district attorneys, or the director's designee; the president of the university of New Mexico, or the president's designee; and the director of the administrative office of the courts, or the director's designee; and

     BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that the working group consult with community stakeholders and interested parties who might either support or oppose the legalization and regulation of marijuana; and

     BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that the economic development department report the working group's findings to the legislative finance committee and other appropriate interim legislative committees by November 1, 2013; and

     BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that a copy of this memorial be transmitted to the economic development department.

- 8 -