New Mexico has long been the site of a struggle regarding marijuana. The state historically is one of the big thoroughfares for the illegal smuggling of weed from Mexico, and curanderos have been using it for folk medicine in the Southwest for even longer.

One of the most vocal advocates for the legalization of marijuana, whether for medical, recreational or industrial use is Bryan Krumm.

Krumm, a licensed psychiatric nurse practitioner, said he recognized the benefits of marijuana and decided to become active in pushing for legalization when he got out of the Army in 1986.

“I’d like to see the full legalization of marijuana and hemp nationwide. For food, for medicine, for fuel, for fiber uses,” Krumm said. “It has industrial and medical uses.”

Krumm said hemp, a relative of marijuana that contains little to no THC — the psychoactive element of marijuana — has massive potential as a source of food oil, fuel oil and cellulose for industrial and commercial use.

“Anything you can make from petrochemicals, you can make from hemp,” he said. “Well, except for some of the fertilizers, but we shouldn’t be using petro fertilizers.”

As far as the progress of New Mexico legalization, Krumm is not optimistic in the short run.

“I think it’ll take a while,” he said. “We need some reasonable Democrats to get this to work.”

One Democrat ally is Jerry Ortiz y Pino, a state senator from Albuquerque. Ortiz y Pino said he became a strong advocate for legalization after seeing a documentary on the War on Drugs and realizing that the enforcement of drug laws was disproportionately targeting young people of color.

“I retired after nearly 40 years as a social worker and I saw young lives ruined by arrests for simple possession,” he said. “I worked with troubled kids who never had a chance. While a white teen may just get a slap on the wrist; Hispanic or black or native kids got long sentences, which often ruined their lives.”

Read more here: http://www.dailylobo.com/article/2015/04/23-legalizing-pot