Voters will have their voices heard on marijuana laws this November after all.
In a special meeting Monday morning, the Bernalillo County Commission voted 3-2 in favor of allowing an advisory measure to be presented to voters on the upcoming ballot regarding the decriminalization of marijuana.
The move comes after Albuquerque Mayor Richard Berry vetoed a similar measure that would have gone before city residents.
The county’s measure itself does not have the potential to change current marijuana laws, but Commission Chairwoman Debbie O’Malley, who voted in favor of the ballot initiative, said putting the measure before voters is the right thing to do.
Voters in Bernalillo County should at least have the opportunity to voice their opinions in a poll that will be taken into consideration by local policy- and lawmakers, O’Malley said.
“To put it in very succinct terms, let the people speak,” O’Malley said. “Let’s hear what the people have to say.”
If the measure, which seeks to reduce the penalty for possession of marijuana from a criminal charge to a civil infraction with only a $25 fine regardless of prior offenses, is passed by voters, changes to current laws may then be presented to the Albuquerque City Councilors, who vote on whether to enact the laws.
Commissioner Wayne Johnson, who voted in opposition to the initiative, said he doubted the authority of the commission to make a decision on letting the issue go to voters because of the lack of precedent.
O’Malley countered that it was ultimately the decision of the Commission to pass these questions on to the voters in a move that would ensure policy was put in the hands of those whom it affects: the voters.
UNM law student Caleb Beck attended the meeting as a representative for the UNM chapter of Students for Sensible Drug Policies and said he was pleased with the result of the vote.
Even though there is much support for decriminalization among voters, Beck was surprised that the measure passed so narrowly, he said.
“I thought it was interesting how much certain people are trying to stop these things from going to the ballot,” Beck said. “There seems to be a lot of entrenched opposition. It will be interesting to see where it goes.”
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The commission called the special meeting following Berry’s Sept. 1 decision to veto five voter initiatives, one of which was the marijuana initiative. Berry said he vetoed the initiatives because he did not want to approve the decriminalization of marijuana or raising taxes in Albuquerque.
In a video uploaded to social media, Berry exercised his veto authority on the initiatives because of the last-minute provisions added by the City Council that lacked detail and circumvented state and federal law, he said.
“This is a bill that has the potential to raise the taxes on the citizens of Albuquerque without any clear or concise plan as to how those tax resources will be spent,” Berry said. “It also has the potential to decriminalize an illegal drug in our city.”
Berry was disheartened to have been put into a position to have to veto an entire bill because he did not agree with certain aspects of it, he said.
Per the City Charter, he did not have the ability to veto only portions of the resolution, and therefore decided to veto it in its entirety, he said.
The bill reached Berry after the Albuquerque City Council on Aug. 18 voted 5-4 in favor of allowing the measure to be put on the ballot, following a petition initiated by ProgressNow NM that collected over 16,000 signatures in support of the proposed changes.
Santa Fe has already adopted a similar citizen-led ordinance advanced by the same campaign. Possession of small amounts of marijuana will be decriminalized in that city later this year.
Tomas Lujan is a freelance writer for the Daily Lobo. He can be reached at culture@dailylobo.com or on Twitter @TomasVLujan.
