A lack of direction on what can be enforced is the major issue surrounding the legalization of recreational marijuana in New Mexico, San Juan County Sheriff Shane Ferrari said this week. 

“What we want is direction,” Ferrari said on the New Mexico News Podcast, with hosts Chris McKee and Gabrielle Burkhart. “What we’re looking for is what can we enforce? What can we start training our people on?"

Ferrari said the law legalizing recreational marijuana was passed last March, though it provides no standards for enforcement of problems. He compared the situation to alcohol, where there are DWI laws on the books and a .08 standard for determining impairment. No such standards exist for marijuana.

"With no standards and no testing ability, what are we going to do?" San Juan County Sheriff Shane Ferrari said of legalized marijuana. | Twitter

“When it comes to marijuana, we have nothing,” Ferrari said on the podcast. “We don’t have a standard like .08 for alcohol. For marijuana, how do we test for that? There’s no Breathalyzer. With no standards and no testing ability, what are we going to do? Write them careless driving tickets? Unless we get a standard, we’ll just have to issue careless driving tickets.”

Ferrari is a board member of the New Mexico Law Enforcement Association. Farmington, the state’s sixth-largest city, is located in his county and is close to Colorado, which was the first state to legalize recreational marijuana. The sheriff said lessons learned in Colorado will eventually impact New Mexico.

He pointed out that Colorado has endured increases in homelessness, break-ins, and violent crime. Legalization has also created a black market for marijuana users who don’t want to pay the high taxes that come with buying recreational marijuana in licensed stores.

“Sex, drugs, and rock-n-roll are the three things you can’t control,” Ferrari said. “I don’t know where this is going to hit. We have a runaway horse right now. There’s already people who have set up shop and they don’t have a license to set up shop.”

Ferrari discussed how the smell of cannabis in a car is no longer grounds to search a car. “We don’t know if he has four ounces or four pounds in the car,” Ferrari said.

Lawmakers have suggested the tax revenue from marijuana sales will help fund law enforcement, but Ferrari doubts that, saying the money will be allocated to other areas like infrastructure  “We’ll be using all our resources trying to control the black market,” he said. “I think we’ll be spending more resources than we’re making.”

Ferrari’s interview is part of a four-part series by the New Mexico News Podcast, which has new episodes available on Tuesdays. Listeners can find the New Mexico News Podcast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts, Stitcher, Podbean, and several other popular podcast players.