Tag: new mexico

Federal Officials Are Suddenly Seizing Marijuana From State-Licensed Businesses, Leaving Industry Perplexed

Federal officials have been seizing hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of marijuana from state-licensed cannabis businesses in New Mexico in recent weeks—detaining industry workers in what appears to be a localized escalation of national prohibition enforcement even as the federal government has largely refrained from interfering with the implementation of state legalization laws in recent years.

New Mexico marijuana businesses report that the more than dozen U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) seizures, particularly at interior checkpoints around the Las Cruces area, are a relatively new phenomenon. Since adult-use marijuana sales launched in the state in 2022, the operators say they’ve generally been able to transport their products to testing facilities and retailers without incident.

Starting around two months ago, however, the agency has evidently taken a more proactive approach to enforcing federal prohibition, taking hundreds of pounds of cannabis at the checkpoints inside the state. CBP is able to carry out its activities within 100 miles of the U.S. border.

“There’s a lot of really successful important cannabis producers and cannabis manufacturers operating south of those checkpoints,” Ben Lewinger, executive director of the New Mexico Cannabis Chamber of Commerce, told Marijuana Moment. “Basically, every road that you could take from the southern to the northern part of the state, you have to go through one of these checkpoints—and it’s just bifurcating the industry and making it impossible for people in the southern part of the state to get their products to anywhere in the central or northern part of the state.”

CBP has made at least 13 stops and seizures of state-legal marijuana products since February, Lewinger, said adding that he “wouldn’t be surprised if it’s twice that number.”

“I’m certain that it’s underreported,” he said. “I think there’s lots of people who still have that fear and the stigma, and they don’t want to rattle cages.”

Keep reading

Judge Rules New Mexico Officials Violated Federal Law by Restricting Access to Voter Data

A federal judge has ruled that New Mexico officials violated the National Voter Registration Act (NVRA) by refusing to provide voter data to a conservative-backed group named Voter Reference Foundation.

In a 329-page ruling on March 29, Albuquerque-based U.S. District Judge James Browning said the New Mexico secretary of state’s office and the state’s attorney general had violated the Public Inspection Provision by denying the group’s request for voter data.

The court documents named New Mexico Secretary of State Maggie Toulouse Oliver and Attorney General Raul Torrez as the defendants.

The ruling states that the Voter Reference Foundation created a “searchable” database online that includes voters’ names, dates of birth, registration addresses, registration dates, party affiliations, registration statuses, precincts, and voting participation histories.

The group said that voter information is required to “provide public access to official government data pertaining to elections, including voter registration rolls,” according to the court’s ruling.

New Mexico election law bans the publication of voter registration data. It restricts the use of the data for political campaigning and noncommercial government purposes.

Keep reading

A 5th Albuquerque Cop Resigns Amid Widening DWI Corruption Scandal

Another Albuquerque police officer resigned last week amid a widening scandal involving cops who allegedly conspired with a local defense attorney to make drunk driving cases disappear in exchange for payoffs. Joshua Montaño, who had been employed by the Albuquerque Police Department (APD) for 19 years, is the fifth officer to quit after being placed on administrative leave. His March 20 resignation letter, which City Desk ABQ obtained through a public records request, sheds light on the extent of the alleged corruption within the APD’s DWI unit, the subject of an ongoing FBI investigation as well as an APD probe.

“When I was put on administrative leave, I thought there would be an opportunity for me to talk to the department about what I knew regarding the FBI’s investigation,” writes Montaño, who missed several scheduled interviews with APD investigators prior to his resignation. “I thought there would be a time [when] I could disclose what I knew from within APD and how the issues I let myself get caught up in within the DWI Unit were generational. I thought there would be a time where I could talk about all the other people who should be on administrative leave as well, but aren’t.”

Montaño says he ultimately decided against cooperating with APD investigators. “In order for me to talk to the City about what I knew,” he writes, “I needed to not be the City’s scapegoat for its own failures.” He complains that Albuquerque Police Chief Harold Medina, who has promised to “make sure that we get to the bottom of this” but is himself under investigation for causing a February 17 accident that severely injured a driver whose car he broadsided, “has made it seem like there are just a few bad officers acting on their own.” That is “far from the truth,” Montaño says.

Among other things, the FBI reportedly is investigating claims that officers deliberately missed court dates, resulting in the dismissal of DWI cases. But according to Montaño, “officers all know that our attendance, or non-attendance, at Court is watched over and monitored.” While “I take responsibility for my actions,” he says, the responsibility for the alleged misconduct extends up the chain of command and more than a few years back in time.

Medina “has made numerous public statements concerning APD’s knowledge of the FBI’s investigation of various APD personnel and made commitments to complete parallel investigations,” Montaño’s lawyer, Thomas Grover, writes in a separate letter to the department. “However, as is evident in the investigations of Ofc. Montano, the department responded to the FBI’ s inquiries in a manner that is haphazard at best and artificial at worst.”

Although Montaño wanted to share “his knowledge of how widespread the issues of concern to the FBI are, how far up the supervisory chain they go, and other personnel they involve,” Grover says, he “could not provide such a statement because of the myriad of deficiencies APD plagued its investigations of him, and presumably others, with. From procedural errors concerning notice requirements to police officers, to timeline violations by APD, it seems at every turn, the department could not follow basic practices for internal affairs investigations.”

Keep reading

New Mexico Senate Passes Psilocybin Therapy And Research Resolution In Unanimous Vote

The New Mexico Senate has unanimously approved a bipartisan resolution requesting that state officials research the therapeutic potential of psilocybin and explore the creation of a regulatory framework to provide access to the psychedelic.

The body voted 37-0 to pass the measure from Senate Minority Whip Craig Brandt (R) and Sen. Jeff Steinborn (D).

The action came days after the Health and Public Affairs Committee had approved the legislation, also unanimously.

As “memorial” legislation, the proposal isn’t binding. Rather, it would represent a formal request for the state Department of Health to “study the efficacy of using psilocybin mushrooms for therapeutic treatments and the establishment of a program for psilocybin mushrooms to be used for therapeutic medical treatments.”

The whereas section of the resolution cites various studies supporting the therapeutic benefits of psilocybin for conditions such as major depression and substance misuse, while pointing out that the federal Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has designated the psychedelic as a “breakthrough therapy.”

To that end, the measure states that the health department should look into “necessary statutory or regulatory framework for developing” a state-level psilocybin program.

Keep reading

New Mexico Senate Committee Unanimously Approves Psilocybin Therapy And Research Resolution

A New Mexico Senate committee has unanimously approved a bipartisan resolution requesting that state officials research the therapeutic potential of psilocybin and explore the creation of a regulatory framework to provide access to the psychedelic.

The Senate Health and Public Affairs Committee voted 7-0 to pass the resolution from Senate Minority Whip Craig Brandt (R) and Sen. Jeff Steinborn (D) on Saturday.

As “memorial” legislation, the bicameral proposal wouldn’t be binding. Rather, it would represent a formal request for the state Department of Health to “study the efficacy of using psilocybin mushrooms for therapeutic treatments and the establishment of a program for psilocybin mushrooms to be used for therapeutic medical treatments.”

The whereas section of the resolution cites various studies supporting the therapeutic benefits of psilocybin for conditions such as major depression and substance misuse, while pointing out that the federal Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has designated the psychedelic as a “breakthrough therapy.”

To that end, the measure states that the health department should look into “necessary statutory or regulatory framework for developing” a state-level psilocybin program.

“This can help people very potentially, and so what we’re trying to do in a bipartisan way is ask the Department of Health to recognize that we want them to get going to start looking at this,” Steinborn said during Saturday’s committee hearing.

The measure “really seeks to expand therapeutic options for New Mexicans,” he said.

Keep reading

‘I’m sorry dude… I had to do that’: Horrifying moment cop shoots dead family’s beloved dog before grabbing it by the collar and tossing it on lawn

A New Mexico woman and her family have reached a settlement with the City of Texico after their beloved family dog Pepper was shot dead by the city’s police chief.

Beverly Bentley was at work on November 10, 2021, when Police Chief Douglas Bowman, a 16-year veteran of the force, paid her a visit to tell her that he shot her dog.

‘He said something about shooting my dog, and it took me a minute to figure out what he was talking about because he said he was being aggressive,’ Bentley said. ‘That dog is the least aggressive dog I have ever owned!’

The grim execution was caught on Ring video, where Bowman stood some distance away on the lawn, staring at the dog as it barked from the porch.

The officer glanced over his shoulder in both directions before pulling out his pistol and firing. Afterwards, he walked onto the porch and stood over Pepper’s body.

‘I’m sorry dude, but I had to do that,’ Bowman said.

Grabbing Pepper by the collar, he dragged the dog onto the lawn before retrieving a hose from the property and washing away its blood.

After seeing the footage of the incident, Bowman filed an incident report, writing that a man called the station saying ‘there is a damn dog that almost bit me.’

He arrived on the scene and saw Pepper, who matched the victim’s description, and said the dog began ‘barking and snarling.’

‘The victim then came up to me and told me that was the dog and that it had almost bit him and he was afraid the dog might bite someone else if something wasn’t done about him,’ Bowman wrote.

Pepper took off and Bowman trailed the dog to the home.

As Pepper allegedly continued to bark and snarl, Bowman wrote: ‘At this point, I did not want the dog to run away again and bite or harm someone. I made the decision to shoot the dog for my safety and the safety of anyone else in the community.’

Bentley insists that her beloved dog was not aggressive. 

‘That dog got me through a lot of hard times, and then all of a sudden, he was taken away,’ she said. ‘My mother was bedridden, and she would put her hand down, and he would let her pet him.’

Keep reading

Further evidence points to footprints in New Mexico being the oldest sign of humans in Americas

New research confirms that fossil human footprints in New Mexico are likely the oldest direct evidence of human presence in the Americas, a finding that upends what many archaeologists thought they knew about when our ancestors arrived in the New World.

The footprints were discovered at the edge of an ancient lakebed in White Sands National Park and date back to between 21,000 and 23,000 years ago, according to research published Thursday in the journal Science.

The estimated age of the footprints was first reported in Science in 2021, but some researchers raised concerns about the dates. Questions focused on whether seeds of aquatic plants used for the original dating may have absorbed ancient carbon from the lake — which could, in theory, throw off radiocarbon dating by thousands of years.

The new study presents two additional lines of evidence for the older date range. It uses two entirely different materials found at the site, ancient conifer pollen and quartz grains.

Keep reading

Federal judge blocks suspension of right to carry firearms in public ordered by New Mexico governor

A federal judge has blocked part of a public health order that suspended the right to carry guns in public across New Mexico’s largest metro area, as criticism mounted over the actions taken by the governor and political divides widened.

The ruling Wednesday by U.S. District Judge David Urias marks a setback for Democratic New Mexico Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham as she responds to several recent shootings that took the lives of children, including an 11-year-old boy as he left a minor league baseball game in Albuquerque.

Lujan Grisham imposed an emergency public health order Friday that suspended the right to open or concealed carry of guns in public places based on a statistical threshold for violent crime that applied only to Albuquerque and the surrounding area. The governor cited recent shootings around the state that left children dead, saying something needed to be done.

U.S. District Judge Urias agreed Wednesday with plaintiffs in several lawsuits who said the order violates constitutional rights and he granted a temporary restraining order to block the governor’s suspension of gun rights. It’s in place until an Oct. 3 court hearing.

Speaking of Lujan Grisham’s actions, Urias said “I don’t blame her for wanting to take action in the face of terrible acts.” But he said he was faced with a much more narrow question regarding the rights afforded to citizens.

State police had authority under the order to assess civil penalties and a fine of up to $5,000. The local sheriff and Albuquerque’s police chief had refused to enforce the firearms ban.

The rest of the public health order, including directives for monthly inspections of firearms dealers statewide, reports on gunshot victims at New Mexico hospitals and wastewater testing for illicit substances, remains intact.

Advocates for gun rights filed a barrage of legal challenges to the order in U.S. District Court in Albuquerque alleging infringement of civil rights under the Second Amendment of the U.S. Constitution. Republicans in the legislative majority have called for impeachment proceedings against the governor.

Keep reading

New Mexico Lawmakers Call For Governor’s Impeachment Over 2A Authoritarian Overreach

New Mexico State Representatives Stefani Lord (R-22) and John Block (R-51) called for the impeaching of Governor Michelle Lujan Grisham (D) after she issued a public health emergency to strip the right away for law-abiding citizens to carry firearms in public in and around Albuquerque, the state’s largest city.

“This is an abhorrent attempt at imposing a radical, progressive agenda on an unwilling populous. Rather than addressing crime at its core, Governor Grisham is restricting the rights of law-abiding gun owners,” Lord wrote in a press release shared on X.

🚨PRESS RELEASE: @RepBlock & I are calling for the impeachment of @GovMLG. New Mexicans won’t stand by as she disregards her oath to uphold our Constitution.

Read the full press release below! 👇 pic.twitter.com/r5kt9nOSvI

— Rep Stefani Lord (@Lord4NM) September 9, 2023

While impeachment calls grow, Erich Pratt, Senior VP of Gun Owners of America, told us: “The Governor’s actions are evil and tyrannical. GOA’s attorneys are already preparing a complaint. So heads up to the Governor: ‘We will see you in court.’”

Keep reading

Strange Phenomena and Mysterious Vanishings at the El Malpais National Monument in New Mexico

Sprawled out over an expanse of withered parched desert in western New Mexico, in the Southwestern United States, is the El Malpais National Monument. Known for the dramatic volcanic field covered with a barren moonscape of treacherous sharp-edged rubble, tangled lava flows, cinder cones, pressure ridges, complex lava tube systems, caves, caverns, and other volcanic features and formations that cover much of the park’s total area, all surrounded by sandstone bluffs and mesas, the name “Malpais” itself means “badlands” in Spanish, and it is popular with hikers and cavers. It is also known for being one of the eight candidate sites considered by the Manhattan Project to test detonate the first atomic bomb, as well as for its important archeological sites surrounding the various peoples who have inhabited the area for thousands of years, to whom it was a sacred place full of spirits and magic. A lesser known and more sinister aspect of the park is that it has also had its share of strangeness surrounding it, and may possibly be hungry in a sense, drawing people in to vanish off the face of the earth. 

In June of 2002, James Chatman, 46, and his daughter Crystal Tuggle, 20, came to El Malpais for a day hike among the rugged lava beds. A National Park Service archaeological team saw them late on the afternoon of June 20 going off along a simple half-mile walk that would take them from the parking area to an attraction called Big Tubes, which is composed of around 17 miles of tunnels and troughs created by the lava. It was thought to be pretty odd that they were going out there into the perilous unstable terrain without hiking boots or gear, but the trail was well worn and the destination close and so nothing much was thought of it at the time. Little did they know that this would be the last time anyone would see Chatman and Tuggle alive.

Keep reading