New Mexico-$100 If Popped

New Mexico - $100 if Popped

New Mexico is well on the way to establishing the nation's most lenient marijuana laws - the penalty for simple possession of marijuana would be $100.

The bill which will authorize the liberalized enforcement has been passed by the state senate and will now go to the house and then to the governor. Sources at the state capital in Santa Fe say the bill will pass.

State Senator Otis Echols, the sponsor of the bill, said that he decided not to classify marijuana with hard drugs. "We felt that marijuarw had to be separate penalties, separate concepts and separate philosophies. It's more of a social phenomenon than it is a drug problem," Echols said.

The Federal Bureau of Narcotics has told Echols that if the bill passes the Bureau will recommend that New Mexico law be used as model legislation for the other 49 states.

For possession of one to eight ounces of marijuana a penalty of $50 to $100 could be assessed as well as a maximum of seven days in jail. Possession of more than eight ounces could get an offender a $100 to $1000 fine and up to a year in jail. Felony penalties still exist for the possëssion of hard drugs and for the sale of marijuana to anyone under 18.

Echols told Lloyd Covens at KRWG-FM in Las Cruces that he is not in favor of "outright legalization of marijuana." He said his bill will give law enforcement people more time to concentrate on the trafficking of drugs. "Nobody dies of an overdose of marijuana, but a lot of people die of overdoses from amphetamines and heroin.

Earth News