The Legal Process Surrounding Same Sex Marriage, Physician-Assisted Suicide and Beyond in New Mexico.

It’s January 14, 2014 and at this moment I’m looking out of my office window towards the District Attorney’s building and at the New Mexican flag that is dancing in the cold breeze. In spite of the frigid winter weather, legal progress is in full bloom across the state of New Mexico.

Less than one month ago the New Mexico Supreme Court ruled that it is unconstitutional to deny a marriage license to same-sex couples – making New Mexico one of only sixteen states that presently allows gay marriage. In it’s ruling the Supreme Court held that: “. . . baring individuals from marrying and depriving them of the rights, protections, and responsibilities of civil marriage solely because of their sexual orientation violates the Equal Protection Clause under Article II, Section 18 of the New Mexico Constitution. [Therefore] . . . New Mexico is constitutionally required to allow same-gender couples to marry and must extend to them the rights, protections, and responsibilities that derive from civil marriage under New Mexico law.”

Well played, New Mexico.

New Mexico’s legal progress continues to move forward after the Supreme Court’s decision in late 2013. Yesterday afternoon, Second Judicial District Court Judge – Nan Nash – delivered a landmark ruling that mentally competent, and terminally ill patients have a constitutional right to end their lives.

Judge Nash’s ruling was made in response to a lawsuit filed by the ACLU and

Compassion & Choices, on behalf of two New Mexico doctors and a 49 year-old, terminally ill cancer patient. The lawsuit and the resulting two day trial centered around a woman from Santa Fe with advanced uterine cancer. The woman petitioned the court, requesting the court’s blessing to allow the two doctors to legally prescribe medication that would end the woman’s life without the doctors being prosecuted under the assisted-suicide law – a law criminalizing suicide as a fourth degree felony.

In response, Judge Nan Nash ruled that mentally competent and terminally ill patients have a fundamental right to seek aid in dying because the New Mexico Constitution prohibits the state from depriving a person from enjoying life, liberty or seeking and obtaining safety and happiness. According to Judge Nan Nash: “This court cannot envision a right more fundamental, more private, or more integral to the liberty, safety, and happiness of a New Mexican than the right of a competent, terminally ill patient to choose aid in dying.”

The New Mexico Attorney General’s Office is considering the possibility of appealing Judge Nash’s decision, but needs to fully analyze Judge Nash’s opinion before issuing a formal statement.

If Judge Nash’s ruling is finalized, New Mexico will become one of only five states that has legalized physician-assisted suicide. The New Mexico Psychological Association applauded Judge Nash’s decision, stating that: “The practice of good professional psychology in New Mexico requires [New Mexico law] . . . [to] recognize that aid in dying is not a form of suicide.”

New Mexico’s recent and progressive rulings causes one to wonder when New Mexico will go one step further –  following Colorado’s lead and legalizing the sale of marijuana. Earlier this year our neighbor to the north became the first state in the nation that permits the sale of recreational marijuana to anyone 21 or older. Individuals with a valid Colorado ID are now permitted to purchase up to one ounce of marijuana, with individuals outside of the state permitted to buy one quarter of an ounce.

Colorado’s marijuana will be heavily taxed with a 25% state tax, in addition to the state’s existing sales tax of 2.9% – making marijuana one of the most heavily taxed consumer products in Colorado. Recent studies estimate that Colorado’s legalization of marijuana will generate revenue of $67 million a year – $27.5 million of which is earmarked for Colorado schools.

Talk amongst yourselves.

Presently New Mexico is one of twenty states that has enacted laws legalizing marijuana for medicinal uses. Colorado legalized medical marijuana in 2000, with New Mexico following its lead in 2007.