Issue Position: Public Safety

Issue Position

Rep. Maestas is a member of several Standing Committees of the House, including the Judiciary Committee and the Voters & Elections Committee. He is also a member of several Interim Committees, including the Criminal Justice Reform Subcommittee, Legislative Council, Indian Affairs Committee and the Courts, Corrections & Justice Committee. Rep. Maestas has been passionate about justice and civil rights since his early days as a community organizer at El Centro de la Raza, a Seattle community-based civil rights organization. As a former prosecutor and current criminal defense attorney, he also believes strongly in criminal justice reform in New Mexico, including alternatives to incarceration for non-violent offenders and addressing the failed war on drugs.
Among the many bills he has sponsored are:

HB146 Sale of Methamphetamine Precursors in the 2013 Legislative Session
http://www.nmlegis.gov/Sessions/13%20Regular/final/HB0146.pdf

Rep. Moe Maestas is concerned about the accessibility of certain products that are used to make methamphetamine. He sponsored HB146 in the 2013 Session, which restricted the per-person purchase amount of non-prescription ephedrine and pseudoephedrine to no more than 3.6 grams per day or no more than 9 grams per thirty day period. Nonprescription products containing pseudoephedrine or ephedrine were also required to be kept behind the retailers counter. The bill also implemented a "real-time stop sale system" administered by the board of pharmacy, which was to be available to retailers free of charge beginning January 1, 2014. Rep. Maestas worked hard to pass this legislation and succeeded in getting it passed through the House and Senate, but it was vetoed by the Governor.

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