Northern New Mexico (dangerous, move to, driving)

[GregW]

Bootlegging whisky has been a rural tradition since 1792. Making and selling dope is not so very different. All that is needed is a poor rural area near a city with relatively affluent customers. Around here they try to grow pot in rented rural houses but the electric company that notices the high electric use and the unpaid bills tips off the cops. Adding a demand (maybe?) for cheap illegal farm labor just adds to the problem.

[Vinegaroon]

I don't see marijuana as much of a problem, and I really wonder about communities that waste police on it. I probably would not want to live in that community anyway. The real problem in NM is cheap heroin. While marijuana has not been proven to be addictive, and I rarely if ever read stories of someone robbing a liquor store to get a bag of marijuana, the same cannot be said for heroin.

[Devin Bent]

Originally Posted by Vinegaroon

I don't see marijuana as much of a problem, and I really wonder about communities that waste police on it. I probably would not want to live in that community anyway. The real problem in NM is cheap heroin. While marijuana has not been proven to be addictive, and I rarely if ever read stories of someone robbing a liquor store to get a bag of marijuana, the same cannot be said for heroin.

My impression is the problem varies in different parts of the state. In some, it may be meth -- in others prescription drugs, and of course, in some it is heroin.

[jsc23]

Originally Posted by Pintada Kid

Read the Book.. North From Mexico by Carey McWilliams taught in some colleges to teach the True History of the Southwest to learn about Northern N.M. and Latinos in the Southwest. Northern N.M. is Spanish Country and some places towards the center of N.M. and lots of Spanish Grant Lands and people are not that Friendly because over half of their Grant Lands have be Stolen by Bad Surveyors,False Government Imposed Taxes, Bad Lawyers and Rich Wealthy Landowners. If your not from There your not from There. Especially if you try to take over their way of Life or be Rude or interrupt their space they dont like it. el pintada kid

I wish to clarify some specifics. Las Vegas and environs are not Spanish Land Grant country, they are Mexican Land Grant areas: grants established between 1822 and 1847. A major problem east of the Sangres was overlapping grants issued by the Mexican government. Las Vegas Pueblo Grant (now City of Las Vegas, 1834 grant) fought the Rio Gallinas Acequia Grant (1832 grant) for primacy of water rights for over 100 years, a fight brought on by overlapped grants. The Acequia won (for now).

The story of the Americas is one of outsiders moving in and changing the place. Nonetheless, El Pintada Kid is right, if you like a place enough to move there, why try to turn it into the place you left?

[GregW]

People try to turn the place they moved to into the place they left because it is more comfortable and easier than changing themselves.

[backslacker]

Little towns are slow to welcome newcomers but I am not treated badly in Las Vegas. I disagree with you on that one. Drugs are everywhere. US has more people in prison for drugs than any other country. Once people get used to you they forget you look anglo.

[backslacker]

When I lived in Arroyo Seco the cops used to come up to the communes when they ran out of pot.

[backslacker]

That's why solar or wind has possibilities.Live in a town next to a rez that has 60% or higher unemployment and it is illegal to drink and wonder why it is not hard to find pot. Meth is a problem in comparison. I much rather have people stay home and smoke pot than drink and drive. I had Scottish ancestors that moved moon shine during the depression. Pot should be legalized and regulated not prosecuted. Other drugs a way different story.

Originally Posted by GregW

Bootlegging whisky has been a rural tradition since 1792. Making and selling dope is not so very different. All that is needed is a poor rural area near a city with relatively affluent customers. Around here they try to grow pot in rented rural houses but the electric company that notices the high electric use and the unpaid bills tips off the cops. Adding a demand (maybe?) for cheap illegal farm labor just adds to the problem.

[backslacker]

You are so right and yet there is no changing NM & it will change you.

Originally Posted by GregW

People try to turn the place they moved to into the place they left because it is more comfortable and easier than changing themselves.

[catman]

Originally Posted by GregW

People try to turn the place they moved to into the place they left because it is more comfortable and easier than changing themselves.

That is exactly what makes the people who are already there dislike outsiders moving in. I can understand it. If one doesn't think he/she can live happily in the way that the people who are already there do, why move there?