Dear friend,
At the beginning of this year, Big Pot was ready to shake off the litany of defeats it had been handed last year.
Marijuana legalization bills were defeated in close to a dozen states last year, but marijuana legalization proponents were certain they would be able to kick off 2020 with a bang by ramming a legalization bill largely written by the industry through New Mexico’s short, 30-day legislative session.
But today, we defeated them in Santa Fe for the second year in a row.
The industry-written bill failed to garner enough votes for passage in the Senate Judiciary Committee, meaning New Mexico and proponents of public health, safety, and commonsense can breathe a sigh of relief.
In a tireless effort, our broad coalition in New Mexico met with lawmakers, stakeholders, citizens, and even convinced the editorial board of the largest paper in the state, the Albuquerque Journal, to come out against legalization.
This is a tremendous win.
And now, we have points on the board and are ready to continue defeating legalization pushes across the country.
But we need your support.
While we were able to defeat this push in New Mexico, we still have a long hill to climb this year with bills being considered in New York, Vermont, New Hampshire, and Connecticut to name a few.
We are up against a massive, addiction-for-profit industry with deep pockets and its Big Tobacco and Big Pharma investors are willing to put everything on the line in order to spread legalization nationwide.
I am confident that, with your help, this win in New Mexico will only be the beginning of a long year of victories for public health.
Thanks for all that you do,
Dr. Kevin Sabet
President & CEO
Smart Approaches to Marijuana
