The governor’s Organized Crime Commission and New Mexico State Police recently served search warrants at two dispensaries accused of operating illegally.
According to a news release from the State Police, the Organized Crime Commission was notified by the state’s Cannabis Control Division (CCD) about two suspected dispensaries operated by The Cannabis Revolution Dispensary. Agents from the Tax Fraud Investigation Division assisted law enforcement in the investigation.
Authorities report that unlicensed products totalling around $1 million in retail value were seized between two locations.
The news release alleged that the dispensaries “are believed to have ties to international organized crime,” although it doesn’t specify those ties.
In October, the CCD revoked the license of Golden Roots—which was operating under the name Cannabis Revolution Dispensary—for illegally obtaining and transporting illicit cannabis and failing to enter data into the state’s marijuana tracking software. The next month, it was issued a Notice of Contemplated Action after the dispensary allegedly continued operations without a license.
Senators Call For Full Legalization From DEA
A letter signed by 12 U.S. senators is calling on the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) to publicly disclose its review into rescheduling marijuana and to fully legalize the drug at the federal level.
The letter was sent to Attorney General Merrick Garland and DEA Administrator Anne Milgram. The senators said the DEA and the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) should be fully transparent in their review process regarding rescheduling marijuana as Schedule III.
But it also said the drug should be fully descheduled instead.
“Rescheduling would do little to rectify the most severe harms of the current system,” the senators wrote. “Many of the [Controlled Substances Act]’s criminal penalties for marijuana will continue as long as marijuana remains in the CSA, because those penalties are based on the quantity of marijuana involved, not the drug’s schedule status.”
The DEA has not publicly responded to the letter.
Texas AG Fights Decriminalization
The attorney general of Texas is suing five of the state’s cities that have passed cannabis decriminalization ordinances.
Republican Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton filed the suit against the cities of Austin, San Marcos, Killeen, Elgin and Denton, claiming that Texas statute and the state’s constitutional provisions prevent cities from enacting local laws that conflict with state laws.
“I will not stand idly by as cities run by pro-crime extremists deliberately violate Texas law and promote the use of illicit drugs that harm our communities,” said Paxton in a news release.
New Mexico cities across the border from Texas have been selling recreational-use cannabis to Texans in droves. Dispensaries in the small border town of Sunland Park, New Mexico have sold enough weed to catapult the city to the second highest spot in statewide adult-use sales.
It’s believed that if more Texas cities near the border decriminalize marijuana posession, those sales will jump even higher.