“They drive law enforcement vehicles and they are equipped with guns, but these trained police officers are laser focused on one mission: stymieing the illicit marijuana market in a state awash with cannabis.”
Couldn’t resist copying the above from an article in the daily New Mexican. It concerns a newly-formed team charged with enforcing the law around cannabis sales, on behalf of the New Mexico Regulation and Licensing Department.
Currently it’s a three-officer outfit, with a plan to expand to seven with a budget over $1 million.
Yes, they’re armed . We take our tax violations seriously here in the Great Southwest.
I got the impression the team is going to spend most of its time rooting out illegal sales operations and busting large illicit grow outfits. They’re on the trail of violators of our state’s many regulations around cannabis production and sales.
I’ve read that it’s not uncommon to find illegally-produced cannabis products mixed in with the legal variety on the shelves of a cannabis store.
From the cannabis industry perspective, this represents unfair competition, the kind that can easily undercut prices on their own (taxable) products. From the government’s viewpoint, it’s about badly needed revenue that should rightfully go into the public coffers.
But as we’ve mentioned before, there’s always the challenge of enforcement. It won’t be easy.
For one thing, there are 23 tribes in New Mexico, including Navajo and Apache along with 19 separate Pueblos, each one “… a sovereign nation with its own government, life-ways, traditions, and culture.”
This as you might imagine is a challenge for any statewide law-enforcement agency.
The best-publicized instance of a large-scale black market operation to date involved Dineh Benally, who was “accused of operating more than 30 farms on land obtained from members of the Navajo Nation.” Apparently Benally, a real entrepreneur,had even sought investors from China.
Penalties for major offenses can result in a fine or suspension of a license to sell cannabis (if the vendor happens to have one in the first place.) It’s also possible that the contraband crop itself will be condemned (and then destroyed).
People can also go to jail, of course.
In the end, will this higher level of enforcement be enough? Will the black market finally disappear, to be replaced by a happy, productive, extremely profitable vision of Big Pot?
Your guess is as good as mine. Probably better.
