Recent cannabis legalization could have a substantial negative impact on New Mexico's water supply, food security and quality of life, according to opponents.
The legislation could have "detrimental impacts," according to the New Mexico Business Coalition.
"Societal costs of marijuana use include paying for increased emergency room visits, medical care and addiction treatment, drugged driving accidents, increased crime and negative impacts on health. Since recreational marijuana was legalized in Colorado in 2013, traffic deaths where drivers tested positive for marijuana increased 135% while all Colorado traffic deaths increased 24%," NMBC reported.
On a different front, New Mexico ranks second behind Louisiana in food insecurity rates in children with a rate of 23.8%, according to a study cited in the state’s Health and Human Services Data Book for 2021. The study comes from Feeding America and shows rates across the country as of 2018, according to KRQE. And with chronic homelessness continually on the rise across New Mexico, the NMBC report also notes how marijuana legalization has coincided with a growth in homelessness in other states. After legalizing recreational marijuana in the state of Washington, the homeless population increased by 18.9%. Similarly, homelessness increased by 9.1% after legalization in Colorado.
Poki Piottin, co-founder and board member of Mil Abrazos Community Land Trust, has written extensively about the impact cannabis legalization will have on rural New Mexico.
"Being located in a food desert (38 miles from the nearest food store), with a population riddled with drug addiction and diabetes, we intend to offer traditional food to our neighborhood, and are currently growing two acres of blue corn, beans and squash," Piottin said. "Our project has also been very involved in the management and upkeep of our 13-mile long acequia for the past four years as I have been commissioner of the ditch association and have involved our interns in the Limpia (annual ditch cleanup) each year. We also received a state grant to teach local kids the history, upkeep and governance of our local acequia. Our main challenges have been COVID and being 90 miles from Santa Fe and Albuquerque. This year in particular, it has been difficult to attract interns and visitors."
According to its website, the Mil Abrazos Community Land Trust's mission is ultimately to repopulate New Mexico’s farmland and provide a space for affordable homeownership and sustainable farming practices.
Piottin said he has been in contact with many in other states who shared their stories on the negative impacts of cannabis growers.
"During the legislative session and the cannabis bill debate, I was contacted by people in California, Colorado and Oregon after an article I wrote was published in the ABQ Journal. These people shared how their agricultural neighborhoods were negatively impacted by large cannabis growers (legal and illegal)," Piottin said.
His article in the Albuquerque Journal detailed how cannabis legislation threatens the state's food security.
"It is legal in New Mexico to sell water rights attached to a property. This practice, however, can result in farmland being retired because water is no longer available for that piece of land. Also, a neighbor can file a protest claiming impairment of their water rights, but the defendant would be allowed to keep pumping water until the case is resolved, which can take multiple years," Piottin wrote.
"Water rights transfers from traditional farmland to cannabis production in other areas 'retire' this farmland acreage from food production, exacerbating an already neglected rural farming landscape," he said. "Money talks, and poor or elderly land owners with water rights are lured into selling (detaching from their land) their water rights, making their land unusable for farming to future generations."
The state will be changed and the permanent damage felt from cannabis, Piottin believes.
"Cannabis production, especially from heavily funded operations, risks to permanently damage New Mexico’s traditional way of life, and certainly jeopardizes food security in our region," Piottin said. "Just like fracking, it will bring fast money and corruption, drugs and even slave labor, and once the cannabis industry crashes from over production (like hemp), what will be left behind is more poverty, mistrust and wrecked rural communities."
As for the impact he foresees on the Mil Abrazos community, Piottin said, "Our main concern in our area, and in New Mexico in general, is regarding illegal water usages from acequias or wells. As an agricultural community of about 100 ranchers, we already have a lot of difficulties distributing water fairly, especially during droughts.
"Cannabis production requires a lot of water, in particular later in the growing season when water gets scarce. There are many reports of illegal pumping from domestic wells and rivers from hemp and cannabis growers in New Mexico, as well as intimidation from cannabis growers on local residents," Piottin said.
The Santa Fe New Mexican reported on just how much water is needed to grow cannabis, and in a state which has experienced a severe drought, it could be an issue.
One couple with plans to start farming cannabis in a rural area of New Mexico estimated a need for about 30,000 gallons of water each year for the growth, according to the artcle. With a backlog of applications for water permits and the utility already stretched thin, cannabis farming complicates the issues caused by the drought across the state.
In Mil Abrazos, Piottin says farmers have been lucky in 2021. "Fortunately this year, we’ve had plenty of monsoon rains so the drought has had very little to no impact on our crops," he said. "Once cannabis is actively farmed, the water situation will be worse."
Piottin said the fast-tracked cannabis legislation went through without consultation from many.
"The Cannabis Bill was fast tracked through the legislature without consultation with Acequia Commissioners, Tribes and even the Office of the State Engineer. There is a backlog of water rights transfer protests at OSE, so any protests from illegal water use from cannabis growers will add to OSE’s burden," Piottin said. "Protesting water rights transfers puts enormous financial pressure on local acequias having to fight cannabis growers with enormous financial resources.
"Just like oil and gas, cannabis legalization is about bringing tax revenues to a greedy state bureaucracy, without any regards on the impact on local communities. This is made evident by their fast-tracking the bill, and even breaking procedural rules to get their way," Piottin said.