SANTA FE New Mexico - Gov. Susana Martinez is no fan of New Mexico's medical marijuana law, but she said today that overturning it is not a priority.
"We have have bigger issues that we have to deal with," Martinez said during a wide-ranging news conference.
She cited the weak economy and a looming New Mexico state budget deficit that she estimated at $450 million as topics of more importance to taxpayers and politicians.
Martinez, formerly the district attorney in Las Cruces New Mexico, said marijuana is an illegal narcotic under federal law. She said she opposed the drug's use for medical treatment. Legislators approved a medical marijuana program in 2007.
But Martinez's position that she would not make medical marijuana an issue in the coming legislative session heartened Bobbie Wooten, a paraplegic for 32 years.
Wooten, 50, of Silver City New Mexico, said legalization of marijuana for pain relief had improved her quality of life.
"It's better than having to take a whole list of prescription drugs, which is what I was doing before," she said in a telephone interview.
While cocaine is most commonly snorted or smoked, it can also be applied orally, vaginally, or even rectally; or mixed with liquor.
According to the World Health Organization, 320,000 adolescents and young adults between the age of 15 and 29 die from alcohol-related causes every year, resulting in 9% of all deaths in that age group.
Some individuals who use the drug recreationally to get high seek to resist the sedative effects of the drug in order to experience the side-effect of euphoria, decreased anxiety as well as perceptual changes, auditory/visual distortions and hallucinations.