SUNLAND PARK, New Mexico (KTSM) – Legal recreational marijuana sales continue to grow in Sunland Park, New Mexico. The city has seen over $21 million in sales with $19 million of that coming from recreational sales.

Sunland Park Mayor Javier Perea says the city has seen major improvements, including occupying buildings that were once vacant.

“They are now being filled with new kinds of businesses, and new businesses that are coming in and needing traffic coming into the city. That’s a positive thing, we are running out of space,” said Perea.

New dispensary “Field of Dreams” is also hoping to see the impact in business. By operating as both a dispensary and an indoor grow house, they are able to offer consumers a one-of-a-kind experience.

Sunland Park does receive 3% of revenue from taxes from those dispensaries, creating millions of dollars in revenue. With Texas and other states still making recreational sales illegal, spokesperson from Field of Dream Ulises Duran is hopeful they can learn of the benefits from New Mexico.

“I think they can learn there are things in this industry that can be done right and not only that, but the tax dollars that they are missing out on, but until that happens, we are walking distance from the state lines so all the Texas customers can come visit us here,” Duran commented.

Even though there are no current plans in place, Perea wants to invest the revenue from the cannabis industry into Sunland Park. With quality of life top of mind, he is hopeful plans will be put in place soon.

“There’s a lot of need for infrastructure when it comes to roads, when it comes to quality-of-life infrastructure and things like that, so hopefully we can split some of that as well to diversify some of the funding to those particular areas,” added Perea.

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