For Immediate Release
Media Contact: Mikki Anaya 505-920-0021

New Mexico Legislature supports Hemp Industry initiatives Governor Richardson directs state agency to study the economic viability of a Hemp Industry for New Mexico The objective of introducing industrial hemp into New Mexico as a cash crop took giant steps forward in the recent legislative session as both the House and Senate passed Memorials requesting the New Mexico Department of Agriculture to investigate the feasibility of state incentives for commercial production of industrial hemp. Though biologically related to the hallucinogen marijuana, industrial hemp is not psychoactive and cannot be converted into any form of recreational substance. HM 47 sponsored by Representative Ray Begaye and SM 30 sponsored by Senator Cisco McSorley also request that Congress acknowledge the difference between Marijuana and Industrial Hemp and clearly legalize the commercial production of Industrial Hemp. Governor Bill Richardson gave a sympathetic ear to the industrial hemp effort when he assigned his Director of Policy and Issues, Bill Hume, to participate in advancing this initiative. Bolstered by this recent support, a citizens advocacy group which had worked on hemp legislation for New Mexico since 2000, has formally established the New Mexico Industrial Hemp Coalition to direct the momentum forward.

The NMIHC is established to include growers, manufacturers, and investors and is intended to represent the interests of various hemp industry stakeholders. The diverse group currently includes farmers who have expressed an interest in growing the cash crop, established retailers who have seen their sales grow exponentially in the past few years and interested investors who see the economic potential. The New Mexico Federation of Labor has expressed their interest in the potential job and workforce development opportunities this new industry will create within New Mexico. New Mexico Industrial Hemp Coalition interim Co-Director, Gloria Castillo states, “The hemp plant has been used for centuries. Many varied products can be created from hemp. These products include food for human and livestock consumption, oils for human and industrial use, textiles and green building materials. Hemp is a drought-tolerant plant that should thrive under New Mexico’s agricultural conditions.

To allow the cultivation of hemp in New Mexico will open the door for the creation of businesses to process the raw material. The processed products would then strengthen and expand the retailing of hemp-based products. Furthermore the harvested plant could be sold outside of New Mexico to other states in the Union. The positive economic impact on New Mexico could be significant and far-reaching in scope.” Because of the overbroad legal biological definition of marijuana, it remains illegal to cultivate the benign cousin industrial hemp in the United States. However, working in concert with similar organizations across the country, the New Mexico Industrial Hemp Coalition is hopeful of persuading the Obama Administration to refine the definition of the illegal plant sufficiently to legalize the production of industrial hemp. NMIHC will continue its efforts at the federal level to assure this happens.

For additional information contact Mikki Anaya at 505-920-0021