KOB 4 News (Albuquerque, NM) reports that the New Mexico Regulation & Licensing Department’s (“NMRLD”) Cannabis Control Division (“CCD”) is proposing requests totaling roughly $4 million dollars for consideration during the next legislative session, and is seeking authority to pursue criminal investigation and prosecution of violators.
Clay Bailey, Superintendent, NMRLD, tells KOB 4 News that with more than $1.3 billion in sales and more than 3,000 individual licenses awarded, New Mexico’s cannabis industry is growing and his team of 13 cannabis compliance officers is stretched too thin.
Accordingly, Bailey says the CCD will request $2 million for 10 additional inspectors; $1 million for the hiring of seven special agents to perform criminal law enforcement investigations and prosecutions; and an additional $1 million for new equipment to support the new employees and criminal investigative mission.
The KOB 4 News article may be read in full HERE.
My brothers and sisters, it should not escape notice, as previously reported by this FGGAM writer HERE, HERE, HERE, HERE, HERE and HERE, that New Mexico and many other states may have declared marijuana to be ‘legal’ for medicinal and recreational use, and established regulatory programs, but it is illegal under federal law because marijuana remains a Schedule I drug under the Controlled Substances Act (“CSA”), 21 USC 812(b)(1)-(5), Schedules of Controlled Substances.
According to the CSA, Schedule I drugs or substances: 1) have a high potential for abuse; 2) have no currently accepted medical use in treatment in the United States; and 3) lack accepted safety for use of the drug or substance under medical supervision. The CSA’s list of Schedule I-V substances may be reviewed HERE – which continues to list Tetrahydrocannabinols as a Schedule I drug.
Although what used to be well understood regarding marijuana – that growing it, possessing it and selling it was illegal, we now have a situation where state government has decided to declare what is detrimental to good health and federally unlawful to be a good thing. State government has decided to use this issue to increase the number of state employees, related statutes and regulations, and the tax burden upon New Mexico citizens to support the growth, manufacture, regulation, sales and use of marijuana and marijuana-related products – including edibles.
As believers and followers of Christ, we should place our trust in God and the hard-working men and women of New Mexico to provide for our state, tax funds and otherwise, without the evil, mind-altering and technically illegal manufacture and use of marijuana!
The bible makes it clear that we should seek and walk in the wisdom of God, not the wisdom of this world:
Proverbs 3:5-8 (NKJV)
“Trust in the Lord with all your heart, [a]nd lean not on your own understanding; [i]n all your ways acknowledge Him, [a]nd He shall direct your paths. Do not be wise in your own eyes; [f]ear the Lord and depart from evil. It will be health to your flesh, [a]nd strength to your bones.”
1 Corinthians 3:19 (NLT)
“For the wisdom of this world is foolishness to God. As the Scriptures say, ‘He traps the wise in the snare of their own cleverness.’”
Let’s also never forget that as believers, we are the temple of the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit lives within us. Why would we want to knowingly take a harmful drug that clouds our minds, inhibits good judgement, becomes an idol and is an affront to the Holy Spirit?
1 Corinthians 6:19-20 (NKJV)
Your Body Is the Temple of the Holy Spirit
“…[d]o you not know that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and you are not your own? For you were bought at a price; therefore glorify God in your body and in your spirit, which are God’s.”