Lujan Grisham: A pied piper for recreational cannabis

When Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham penned her name to legislation legalizing recreational marijuana in New Mexico, her signature ended a personal mission to see that such a bill passed.

The governor finally got her way with weed as lawmakers blindly accepted this unnecessary pursuit.

We must remember that the governor got this done after she forced lawmakers back into a special session during Holy Week.

Lawmakers couldn’t get it done last year, or even during the recent 60-day session, so our authoritarian in chief ordered legislators back to ram the bill down our throats.

As expected, the governor’s pot pet project prevailed.

This was a sad display of government.

Pot sales won’t even begin until April 2022, so what was the rush?

To call back lawmakers to focus on pot ignites a serious question: Was marijuana a top priority for New Mexico? The state faces a shattered economy, high unemployment and sluggish job growth, and New Mexico ranks at the bottom nationally in education, economic opportunity and a host of other categories.

All this is shelved so progressives can please the governor.

It’s truly heartbreaking to see our left-leaning Democrats possess such tunnel vision. Their obsequious behavior at the Roundhouse is a disappointment and shows a true disconnect message to New Mexicans who are starving for sensible government to change their lives for the better.

And the public paid the price during the ridiculous special session, footing the bill for this two-day travesty to the tune of more than $100,000.

Is this fair? Is this good government?

The governor and supporters of recreational marijuana contend such a law will raise millions of dollars, but there’s no convincing proof this amount of revenue will be generated. The governor’s revenue raiser from marijuana sales is a mere pipe dream.

Again, our chief executive is ignoring the real needs of her constituents, hit hard by her authoritarian public health order.

But it’s worse than that. She even squanders opportunity.

While she was pushing to allow people to legally get high for fun, the governor also allowed the high-tech space industry to slip through her fingers. New Mexico failed to capture the new Space Command, losing that to Alabama. And Florida gleefully took private spaceflight from us.

Can the governor really see clearly through her marijuana haze of hope?

It’s time for the governor to focus on reality, the damage she’s created this past year and how to address a state that faces multiple crises. The buzz in Santa Fe should be about how to truly improve New Mexico and not marijuana.

To our governor, marijuana means high hopes, but she needs to come down to earth.

David Chavez is a member of the executive board of the New Mexico Republican Party.