New Mexico bill to create state-run pot shops appears dead

SANTA FE, N.M. — A proposal that would make New Mexico the first U.S. state to set up government-operated marijuana stores appears dead in the current legislative session.

Sen. John Sapien, a Bernalillo Democrat, said Thursday lawmakers still have questions about the measure with only hours left before the session ends.

The bill passed by the state House would legalize recreational marijuana in New Mexico.

However, it has stalled in the Senate Finance Committee and it doesn’t appear that Sen. John Arthur Smith, chair of the panel, planned to give it a hearing.

Sapien says some private companies and medical marijuana providers have concerns over how the bill is written.

The idea for state-run pot shops came from a trio of GOP state senators who broke with party orthodoxy to embrace legal marijuana.