Legal retail sales of cannabis are scheduled to begin by April 1, 2022.

“This is a significant victory for New Mexico,” Lujan Grisham said after the vote. “Workers will benefit from the opportunity to build careers in this new economy. Entrepreneurs will benefit from the opportunity to create lucrative new enterprises. The state and local governments will benefit from the additional revenue. Consumers will benefit from the standardization and regulation that comes with a bona fide industry.”

“And those who have been harmed by this country’s failed war on drugs, disproportionately communities of color, will benefit from our state’s smart, fair and equitable new approach to past low-level convictions,” she said.

New Mexico lawmakers approved a bill to legalize marijuana for adults during a special legislative session on Wednesday, sending the years-in-the-making legislation to the desk of Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham (D), who is expected to sign it into law. Lawmakers also passed separate legislation to expunge past convictions for low-level cannabis crimes.

Legal retail sales of cannabis are scheduled to begin by April 1, 2022.

“This is a significant victory for New Mexico,” Lujan Grisham said after the vote. “Workers will benefit from the opportunity to build careers in this new economy. Entrepreneurs will benefit from the opportunity to create lucrative new enterprises. The state and local governments will benefit from the additional revenue. Consumers will benefit from the standardization and regulation that comes with a bona fide industry.”

“And those who have been harmed by this country’s failed war on drugs, disproportionately communities of color, will benefit from our state’s smart, fair and equitable new approach to past low-level convictions,” she said.

The legalization bill, HB 2, passed the full Senate on a 22–15 vote Wednesday night following hours of contentious discussion throughout the day. It then returned to the House, which had approved it 38–32 earlier in the day, for consideration of Senate changes. That vote passed by a voice vote.

The expungements bill, SB 2, passed both chambers in identical form earlier in the day.

Provisions in the two bills were originally part of a single piece of legislation, HB 12, that passed the House during the regular session but stalled on the Senate floor. Going into this week’s special session, backers spun off the criminal justice matters in an effort to win support from Republicans and moderate Democrats who complained the proposal as a whole was too broad.

Before the full Senate vote, the body’s Committee of the Whole, consisting of all the chamber’s members, narrowly approved HB 2, voting 23–19. Lawmakers also considered a competing legalization proposal, SB 3, from Sen. Cliff Pirtle (R), who began circulating draft legislation last week. The Republican lawmaker’s bill took a simpler approach to legalization than HB 2, with lower taxes and a more streamlined licensing system.

The Committee of the Whole voted 36–6 not to advance the measure. Pirtle repeatedly complained that he had been cut out of the negotiation process dominated by members of the opposite party.

Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham called this week’s special session primarily to push legalization across the finish line.

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