State to allow patients to grow own pot

Starting Sunday medical marijuana will be legal in New Mexico. But now the Department of Health has dropped a bombshell: It will allow people who qualify for medicinal pot to grow it in their own homes. It�s a decision that has made a lot of state law enforcement officials upset. The legislature passed the medical marijuana bill into law earlier this year after a decade of lawmakers rejecting the idea. The law allows people suffering from AIDS, cancer, glaucoma and epilepsy to use marijuana for pain relief. Now, just days before the law takes affect, the New Mexico Department of Health announces it will allow patients to grow their own marijuana because the state still hasn�t figured out how it is supposed to grow and distribute pot. �This is about providing access now, and we are going to work on the next step,� said Health Department spokeswoman Deborah Busemeyer. The move has stunned law enforcement agencies statewide who say it flies in the face of what was agreed upon in the legislative session. �It caught me off guard,� said Captain Gary Johnson of the New Mexico State Police. �I mean, I thought this was going to be very strict in the way this was going to be handled.� �I really can not believe the state has decided to do this,� said Santa Fe County Sheriff Greg Solano. �Personally, I do support medical marijuana with strict regulation, but the biggest problem with this new change is that it pretty much takes a lot of the regulations away.� The state has asked the Attorney General�s Office for guidelines on how to proceed since federal law still classifies marijuana as an illegal drug. �It may stop local law enforcement from knocking on somebody�s door who�s growing marijuana,� said Captain Johnson. �But certainly, I don�t believe it will stop the DEA or federal agents from doing the same.� If the feds do come knocking, neither the Health Department, police or sheriff�s office say they can do anything to stop them from making arrests for marijuana possession. Under the new rule, patients will only be allowed to have four mature marijuana plants and three seedlings. Until the Health Department comes up with its distribution plan, patients will have to buy pot on their own wherever they can find it.