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New Mexico Makes Gas Stations Liable for DUI

Okay, the New Mexico Supreme Court ruled on this……but the Governor and her team made home delivery of booze legal in New Mexico. Why did this become a new law? Why legalize pot? Pot heads can drive ‘high’ and cause accidents and can kill others. New Mexico is anti-life, abortions, assisted suicide and we we broke this news last week: New Mexico Fentanyl Death Rates on the Rise. Why do the voters in New Mexico keep electing anti-life politicians?

New Mexico is 2nd state to make gas stations liable for DUI

Fentanyl Death Rates on the Rise
Provisional 2020 data reveal substantial increase over 2019
SANTA FE – The New Mexico Department of Health reports provisional 2020 death data showing a rise in fentanyl-related deaths from 2019, surpassing both heroin and prescription-opioid-related deaths in the state.
Provisional 2020 data already show that overdose rates for fentanyl have doubled in 2020 over 2019, after almost doubling in 2019 from 2018. Fentanyl overdose deaths increased by 93% in 2019 compared to the year before. With 2020 data still coming in, there is already an additional increase of 129% over 2019, and the increase may be even higher when 2020 death data are finalized later this year.
The trend in increasing fentanyl overdose deaths in New Mexico mirrors trends in most of the United States. Beginning in the late 1990s, the United States has seen three waves of the opioid overdose crisis: prescription opioids, heroin, and now fentanyl. The fentanyl wave began around 2013 in the eastern U.S. and is now affecting New Mexico.
Fentanyl, which is 50-100 times more potent than morphine, is often mixed with heroin but is also often mixed into counterfeit opioids. Many overdose deaths are believed to be unintentional; a person may take what they believe to be heroin, not knowing that fentanyl is also present, and suffer an overdose because of the increased potency of fentanyl. In some cases, fentanyl has also been found in cocaine. Because many cocaine users are not accustomed to taking opioids, they are at even greater risk of overdosing than those who accidentally ingest fentanyl mixed with heroin.
“The increasing presence of fentanyl in the illicit substance supply in New Mexico means that people often don’t know exactly what they are using. People can’t use drugs safely if they don’t know that fentanyl is in their supply,” said Secretary of Health Dr. Tracie Collins. “We can combat this problem with evidence-based harm reduction and overdose prevention strategies.”
Those strategies include providing known substance abusers with fentanyl test strips to check for the presence of fentanyl in substances. Numerous studies have shown that distributing fentanyl test strips is an effective way to promote awareness of the risk due to fentanyl and can also lead to changes in substance-use behaviors. Some of those changes include people using more slowly or, after detecting fentanyl in their supply of substances, to use a drug from a different source.
In addition, the New Mexico Department of Health is using social media to inform people about how to check illegal substances to determine whether a substance is what it’s purported to be, in order to help users make more responsible consumption decisions and inform others of the risks of the tested substance. A list of substance use prevention, treatment and recovery resources can be found at Another Way NM – https://anotherwaynm.org/
In addition to fentanyl, the number of overdose deaths attributable to methamphetamine has also increased in 2020 over 2019. Provisional data indicate that deaths increased by 11% in 2020, after having increased by 36% in 2019. This percentage may also be higher once 2020 death data are finalized.
Over 93,000 overdose deaths occurred in the US in the 12 months ending in December 2020, the highest number of overdose deaths ever recorded in a 12-month period, according to recent provisional data from the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
For more information about fentanyl, visit https://www.cdc.gov/opioids/basics/fentanyl.html.

Past Posts:

 

So the Dems are moving now make pot legal in America. The morals of America are going down the toilet! Mark my word! This will bring nothing but more misery to our Country, and we are pretty sick the way it is.

MY HEART BREAKS: Drug Overdoses Killed A Record Number Of Americans In 2020

U.S. Senate Democrats roll out draft bill to legalize weed

New Mexico has legalized pot……

Past Past, this was written before pot became legal in New Mexico:

Our Dear Friend Chuck Akeley’s post from July of 2019 really hits a homerun for God!

“Legalization” Of Marijuana In New Mexico – Is This Really A Good Idea?

 

In our country and yes, our state, it has become almost fashionable to support the growth and use of marijuana, whether for medicinal use or recreational use.  So much so, that even our state executive and many legislators consider government sanctioned and controlled distribution of marijuana to be a worthy effort as means to acquire tax dollars.  Let’s consider some of the well-established issues facing New Mexico.  For many years, we’ve been rated at the bottom or almost the bottom for quality of education, children living in poverty, drug use (e.g., opioid use), drug trafficking (I-40, I-10, I-25 and the southern border corridors) and DWI offenders (including the associated deaths).  Is there really wisdom in enhancing these issues by creating a culture of “legalized” use of marijuana here in New Mexico?

 

A wise man once told me that if you have any doubt as to whether to do or say something, then ask yourself, would you look to Jesus and say “Lord, I do this thing as unto You” or “Lord, I give You thanks for this which I am about to do.”  If the answer is no, then why are you doing it?  Would you ask Jesus to bless your firing up of a joint or bowl or eating of a laced edible so that you would experience a high?  The scripture says we should seek His wisdom.  According to Proverbs 4:7, “[w]isdom is the principal thing; [t]herefore get wisdom [NKJV].”  Ephesians 5:15-21 instructs us to walk in wisdom:  “[s]ee then that you walk circumspectly, not as fools but as wise, redeeming the time, because the days are evil.  Therefore do not be unwise, but understand what the will of the Lord is.  And do not be drunk with wine, in which is dissipation; but be filled with the Spirit, speaking to one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody in your heart to the Lord, giving thanks always for all things to God the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ [NKJV].”  Just because we CAN do something doesn’t necessarily mean we SHOULD do something.

 

My background includes a few years as a Special Agent with the USAF Office of Special Investigations, during which much of the training involved drug enforcement.  I spent the first year after completing the initial academy leading the Travis AFB, CA Joint Drug Enforcement Team and subsequently worked for several years at Holloman AFB, NM participating in drug enforcement operations with the other agents.  Once you have strapped on the equipment and executed a few warrants, you tend to develop a very different perspective about “low level drug use,” as the small amounts of drugs came from someone who was probably not your next door neighbor, and that person’s drugs came from a trafficker – a very dangerous person.  The perspective that I’m not hurting anyone is a big lie.  It is not surprising to me that the military and local or state police have had to lower standards in order to acquire acceptable cadets.  Today, our children and youth often do things as a result of cultural or peer influences which can devastate future employment opportunities.  How much worse it is when our children’s parents are the ones modeling this behavior?  I thank God that our Lord is forgiving and merciful, and am reminded that we are called to forgive others and to help guide our friends, family and others unto salvation and into their God-given destiny!

 

It’s interesting to hear discussions about “legalizing” recreational use of marijuana at the state level.  If a state allows something that is forbidden at the federal level, it is not really legal, but what is happening is that the federal government has elected, as a matter of enforcement discretion, to refrain from seeking prosecution under certain circumstances and the state has elected to ignore existing federal code or statutes.  The federal Controlled Substances Act (“CSA”), 21 USC 812, establishes five schedules of controlled substances, identified as Schedules I, II, III, IV and V.  Schedule I lists substances that have been determined to have:  1) a high potential for abuse; 2) no currently accepted medical use in treatment in the United States; and 3) a lack of accepted safety for use of the drug or substance under medical supervision.  The psychoactive substance in marijuana, tetrahydrocannabinol (“THC”), remains to this day a listed Schedule I substance.  Because of this, many states have struggled with the medicinal and recreational use of marijuana and declare legality, when in point of fact, what is occurring is simply enforcement discretion at the federal level and a glaring lack of willingness of the federal government to take a solid position one way or the other.

 

There is MUCH remaining to be said about this issue, including the increasing levels of THC in modern-grown marijuana plants provided by dispensaries and technologically-advanced illicit grows, the lack of clear means for law enforcement to easily determine the degree of driving impairment compared to determining alcohol impairment, the effect that such has or may have on us developmentally, mentally and physically, the wisdom and procedure for assuring sound regulatory controls at the federal and state level – and assuming this issue isn’t going away quickly, the spiritual implications of encouraging, yet another mind altering substance for use by our residents, demonstrating yet again, the wisdom of man in the face of the wisdom of God.

 

Father, in the name of Jesus, I ask that You would speak to the hearts of those in a position to encourage, allow, regulate and/or spend tax dollars on marijuana matters in our beautiful State of New Mexico (and across this nation).  Give us ears to hear and eyes to see what is the will of God.  May wisdom guide our discussions and determinations, with a mighty hedge of protection over all who are doing Your will and serving Your people, in light of this challenge.  But regardless, help us to always love.  Always.  Amen.

 

Chuck Akeley

Albuquerque, New Mexico

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