Officials in a New Mexico city near the Texas border – a prime location for successful cannabis retail – rejected applications for two marijuana stores seeking to operate in the city on Monday.
One reason the Sunland Park City Council rejected the special use permits for Station X Cannabis and Cronica Cannabis, according to ABC affiliate KVIA? Safety concerns voiced by lawmakers across the border in Texas.
Cannabis retailers have known for years that location matters – and few locations offer more reliable sales than within driving distance of a state without legal cannabis access, an effect that’s been felt particularly keenly in New Mexico.
Big cities in far western Texas within driving distance of the New Mexico border include Amarillo, Lubbock and El Paso. For the latter, Sunland Park is a suburb that directly borders El Paso as well as Ciudad Juárez across the Mexican border.
According to KVIA, both stores were rejected for special-use permits in a “quasi-judicial” hearing Monday. That hearing was the result of a judge’s ruling that found an earlier denial “failed to satisfy due process requirements,” the station reported.
Can Texas lawmakers influence New Mexico to reject cannabis businesses?
City planning staff had recommended that both projects be approved, noting that they adhered to zoning requirements in New Mexico state cannabis law, KVIA reported.
But the border-town issue loomed large.
Opponents harped on “customer access routes that could lead directly into Texas, where marijuana remains illegal,” KVIA reported.
In the case of Station X, the cannabis retailer proposed operating in an area adjacent to the border, where access was theoretically possible from a parking lot located in Texas.
That was a dealbreaker for one El Paso elected official, who demanded that access to cannabis retail should be limited to routes within New Mexico – and that the onus for creating any new limited access roads should fall on the cannabis retailer and its property developers.
“Our position on this side in El Paso is that this could potentially create a safety concern,” El Paso City Rep. Alejandra Chavez said, according to KVIA.
But existing cannabis businesses also opposed easy access for Texas customers, KVIA reported.
