Artwork by Michael DiMilo
By Geoff Carter
On a recent trip to New Mexico, the Land of Enchantment, and as it turns out, the Land of Enlightenment (as a state which recently offered tuition-free college and legalized recreational marijuana), I was invited by my brother to accompany him on a visit to a local marijuana dispensary–to do a little research.
Being from Wisconsin, a less enlightened Republican-controlled state still mired in 1847 reproductive laws and 1940s reefer-madness paranoia (where not even medicinal marijuana is legal), I wasn’t sure what to expect. A dark smoky room at the top of rickety back stairway? A shady-looking dealer wearing reflective sunglasses and showing a gap-toothed grin from behind a shaggy beard? Armed thugs watching my every move? A hedonistic hallucinogenic-fueled orgy behind rows of bongs and sex toys? I closed my eyes and shook away these visions born of delusional propaganda—although I did hang on to the psychedelic orgy thing for a little while—and walked with my brother into the den of iniquity.
I grew up in the seventies when marijuana was a fixture of the hippie counterculture—and our high school culture. Most of my friends smoked. It was part of the lifestyle—the cool vibe that included albums, concerts, beer parties, and pot smoking. Going to the local head shop for screens and pipes and learning how to roll a decent joint was almost a rite of passage. Some of us even tried growing pot in our basements or our mothers’ flowerboxes. We read alternative publications like The Bugle American or High Times and hung black lights in our basement. Pot was cool—only partly because it was illegal.
As my brother and I entered the Santa Fe dispensary, two perpendicular clean well-lighted counters filled with paraphernalia, literature, edibles, and accessories greeted us. Similar to, but a lot slicker than the head shops of my youth. A huge board behind the counter listed available flowers (what we used to call buds back in the dregs of our post-sixties counterculture), oils, pens, concentrates. vapes, hashish, and waxes.
I recognized hash of course, but the rest of these items were somewhat new to me. I’d heard of vapes (they’re popular around some of the high schools I work in), and I knew that oils were a concentrated form of THC, but I wasn’t too sure about the others; however, I was more than ready to learn.
The young woman behind the counter at this dispensary was happy to explain the ins and outs of this brave new (new to me) world. She went over the differences between flowers, oils, concentrates, and wax, as well the differences in types of edibles. Carla, our “budista” (I love that name) was a young woman of thirty or so, very knowledgeable, articulate, and helpful. She was not at all, like so many of the paraphernalia authorities of my youth, condescending, arrogant, or shady. Quite the contrary.
Carla informed us that the sales board behind the counter was organized according to the two basic strains of weed, sativas—listed on the top followed by indicas—that trailed to the bottom (the positioning not meant to denote any sort of inferiority) with every sort of hybrid in between. Carla explained that the sativas generally provided more of an energetic giggly sort of head high while the indicas tended to provide a relaxing couch-potato experience.
I scanned the huge variety of hybrids and mixes in the middle with tongue-in-cheek (and groovy) names like “Ice Cream Man”, “Skywalker”, “Slap”, “French Bread”, and “Lemon Kush”. I was not only amazed by the variety—there had to be at least thirty or forty different types—but by detailed descriptions of their effects provided by Carla. The closest experience I had to this was being at a boutique wine store.
Of course, this was only a visit to a single provider in a state which now has over 500 working dispensaries—for now. But the recreational marijuana industry is not the Wild West. According to Andrew Vallejos, the New Mexico state cannabis director, “It’s a highly regulated market…. Any state that wants to go to a regulated adult use market or a medical market, it has to be that they have to grow it within the borders of the state and it cannot be transported out of the state.” (Out of Town Dope: Some cannabis dispensaries not playing by the rules”, Channel 7 KOAT Action News).
According to New Mexico law, the products must also be tested for potency, which is required to be clearly labelled on the product. This is clearly not like the seventies, buying an ounce of weed in the basement of your friend’s cousin’s house. It’s regulated, safe, and for adults only.
It’s also a money-maker. According to the Schedule 6 Foundation, a pro-legalization advocate group, New Mexico sold over $300 million dollars’ worth of cannabis, garnering more than $27 million in tax revenue. This is on top of the thousands of jobs created by the fledgling industry. In Colorado, the first state to legalize recreational cannabis, medical and recreational sales for 2022 topped $1.8 billion dollars, and tax revenue brought in $353.7 million dollars. Of course, a good part of this money comes in from out-of-state consumers.
It’s estimated that Wisconsin consumers—who cannot purchase medicinal or recreational weed in their home state—paid over $36 million dollars in tax revenue for cannabis products in Illinois, where flowers bloom just across the border. This is not counting Michigan, another Wisconsin border state, which also has legalized weed.
Cannabis is now fully legal in twenty-one states. Eighteen more have legalized medicinal marijuana because of its proven medical worth. According to the Mayo Clinic, cannabis can help relieve symptoms of glaucoma, nerve pain, and mitigate the side effects of chemotherapy. Some advocates believe its known medicinal properties are only the tip of the iceberg of its potential benefits.
According to the website Five Thirty Eight, although nearly 70% of Americans favor legalized marijuana, a number of Republican lawmakers have failed (or are unwilling) to recognize the wishes of their constituents. Many oppose legalization based on religious grounds or base their opposition on what they term as family values, morality, and law and order. While there are indeed some health risks associated with using marijuana, they pale in comparison the health risks linked to alcohol use—like liver disease, cancer, addiction, high blood pressure, and mental health problems. Yet booze is legal everywhere.
Legalizing marijuana makes a lot of sense. It is a known medical palliative. It is a popular recreational drug that is not nearly as harmful as alcohol. The regulation of legalized weed ensures that it will not be sold to minors—a guarantee not recognized by street dealers—and that its THC content is strictly monitored and posted. It can provide states with a very healthy chunk of tax revenue and provide employment opportunities for thousands of people.
The business of marijuana should be allowed to come out of the shadows. It is a controlled substance that has been and will continue to be used by millions of Americans, no matter what the laws say. Regulating the product will reduce risks to users. Legalizing it will control distribution and provide huge tax revenue to states strapped for funds. In every sense, it makes sense.
Visiting the New Mexico dispensary was quite an eye-opener. The store was clean, modern, well-lit, and secure. We had to provide ID. The products were labelled according to strength and place of origin. I felt relaxed, safe, and well-informed by a very capable staff.
It was weird, but under the bright fluorescent lights of the store, I began feeling a little nostalgic for the old days buying weed on the sly. There was a certain thrill in stepping outside the law to get our pot. We were rebels—rebels without a clue. We were cool. Now anyone can step inside a store, buy their joints, and be on their way. This is safer, smarter, and more predictable than buying it in your friend’s cousin’s basement. And, really, despite my faded memories of the sixties, it’s just as much fun
Sources
- https://www.koat.com/article/new-mexico-dispensaries-breaking-rules/42791769#
- https://www.marijuanamoment.net/new-mexico-governor-touts-300-million-in-adult-use-marijuana-sales-in-the-first-year-since-market-launched/
- https://mjbizdaily.com/colorado-2022-marijuana-sales-down-more-than-20-from-2021/#
- https://www.marijuanamoment.net/colorado-and-washington-got-more-tax-revenue-from-marijuana-than-from-alcohol-or-cigarettes-in-fiscal-year-2022-report-finds/
- https://www.wsaw.com/2023/03/16/wisconsinites-paid-over-36m-taxes-illinois-cannabis-2022/
- https://www.axios.com/2023/04/20/weed-pot-april-20-medical-marijuana-legal
- https://www.mayoclinic.org/drugs-supplements-marijuana/art-20364974
- https://fivethirtyeight.com/features/why-do-gop-lawmakers-still-oppose-legalizing-weed/
- https://www.ebpsociety.org/blog/education/525-the-effect-of-marijuana-legalization-on-crime-rates
That was a great read. I too grew up in your timeframe and remember the head-shops. Those were some great days to grow up in. Wisconsin needs to get with the program and legalize the weed, agreed!