I am writing today to announce the closure of the New Mexico Independent. After three and a half years of operation in New Mexico, the board of the American Independent News Network, has decided to shift publication of its news…
While environmental activists played their part yesterday during demonstrations at the capitol building, going so far as to dress up as solar panels and to sing the tune of “You Are My Sunshine,” their counterparts, the anti-cap-and-trade contingency who has…
Roughly one quarter of University of New Mexico students are unimpressed with the state’s flagship public school, according to a survey that questioned college students about their higher education experiences.
Former New Mexico Governor Gary Johnson, a potential 2012 Presidential candidate, is again calling for the legalization of marijuana, saying it would help reduce crime and help the country fiscally.
An Associated Press/CNBC poll released today found that a majority of Americans, 55 percent, oppose legalizing marijuana while just 33 percent are in favor of legalization. But 60 percent agree that marijuana should be legal for medicinal purposes and 74 percent believe that marijuana has some medicinal value.
“The current prohibition laws are forcing drug disputes to be played out with guns in our streets. We need to put a stop to this criminal drug element in our country,” Johnson said.
As governor of New Mexico, Johnson gained national attention when he called for, unsuccessfully, for New Mexico to legalize marijuana.
Johnson has said that he used to smoke marijuana, but no longer does so.
“I don’t smoke marijuana anymore. I don’t drink. Marijuana is a handicap. So is alcohol,” Johnson told Reason magazine nearly 10 years ago. “Alcohol is a terrible handicap. But in spite of being a handicap, it shouldn’t be criminal.”
“This country would be a better place to live in if all the resources we currently put toward criminalizing marijuana were instead spent by law enforcement on protection from real crime, as opposed to victimless crime,” stated Johnson in a statement sent from the OUR America initiative, a non-profit group of which Johnson is the honorary chairman.
