New Dispensary, Strip Club For Sunland Park? Not Yet

Sunland Park, New Mexico may add another dispensary to the current lineup along with a couple of other things like a smoking lounge and a strip club.

Sunland Park is already pretty well stocked when it comes to dispensaries including the largest dispensary in the land of enchantment. They already draw a lot of business from El Paso and now they want to put a dispensary practically ON the state line.

At a meeting on April 9th, the Planning and Zoning Commission said they would only approve the new dispensary if adult entertainment and outdoor consumption lounges were prohibited. The final vote has now been postponed.

Cronica Cannabis Dispensary would be located at 8301 Emory Drive, only a few feet from the Texas-New Mexico state line, close to the State Line Restaurant. The strip club would be operated by Bucks Cabaret who already have a location in east El Paso.

The two businesses are not affiliated and the dispensary is currently the top bidder for the land. Buck's started trying to buy the land about a year ago but the purchase is contingent on them getting a license they still haven't applied for.

Another proposed dispensary, Station X, would be located at 420 Emory ... great address, huh? ... and would include an indoor smoking area and sell alcohol.

Why Are Residents Against These Businesses?

Some concerns expressed by locals at that meeting included things like increased noise, traffic and overall public safety. Whether Texas or New Mexico officials have jurisdiction in the event of an accident, crime or other incident was also mentioned.

David Bingham, a representative of the Independent Nation project who are selling the land, thinks other businesses are just trying to drive away competition and hopes the public will not "overreact to a group of competitors trying to stop a high selling operation".

Sunland Park City Council has pushed their vote back 60 days to study the situation(s) and get more public feedback.