NE New Mexico News

State Sen. Benny Shendo, D-Jemez Pueblo, resurrected a bill that would protect medical cannabis patients who currently live on tribal land.

Shendo said patients go from legal to illegal when they are off tribal land and then enter tribal land, which is federal trust land, according to The New Mexico Political Report.

“We have native patients that are under this program and so when they’re off the reservation they’re legal, but as soon as they get on the reservation, federal trust land, it’s illegal because the federal government still has that as a federal violation,” Shendo told The New Mexico Political Report.

Shendo wants Senate Bill 271 to protect medical cannabis patients from the scrutiny of federal law enforcement and even had a meeting with federal officials who agreed that some agreement with the state would be helpful in the matter. He said he hopes that an agreement between the state and tribal leaders will lower the chances of federal charges being brought against cannabis patients who live on tribal land.

“This is an issue that we probably should have taken care of when the [Lynn and Erin Compassionate Use] act was enacted, but it wasn’t so we’re just trying to make that correction,” Shendo told the news agency. 

While Shendo wasn't sure how many medical cannabis patients lived on tribal land, he believed the changes were "long overdue," the news agency reported.

Democrat Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham authorized the Senate to consider the bill earlier this month with an issue of an executive message. In the last session, Shendo introduced a similar bill but that bill only went through one committee before the session ended.

Currently, patients are allowed to purchase up to eight ounces in a three-month period, the news agency reported. The state government has very little control in what happens on the federal land, despite it being physically in New Mexico.