DAVID SALMAN, 1936-2010: Former legislator pioneered law on medical marijuana

DAVID SALMAN, 1936-2010: Former legislator pioneered law on medical
marijuana

Salman was member of 'Mama Lucy Gang' of liberals who ran House in 1970s

The New Mexican and wire services
Posted: Wednesday, March 03, 2010 -

http://www.santafenewmexican.com/Local%20News/David-Salman--1936-2010-Fo\
rmer-legislator-pioneered-law-on-medi

A private funeral service will be held at the Salman Ranch in Mora
County for former Democratic state Rep. David Salman, who died Sunday at
age 74.

Salman's nephew, who owns Santa Fe Greenhouses, said Wednesday that the
family also is trying to arrange a public memorial service for Salman in
the next two weeks.

The state House of Representatives, which convened in a special budget
session Monday, held a moment of silence for Salman.

Salman, who had lived in Santa Fe for the past 10 years, died in
Albuquerque, said his wife, Marilyn. She declined to release a cause of
death but said he had not been ill.

Salman, known for his interest in education, was in the House from 1969
to 1978, serving as majority floor leader from 1971 to 1978.

According to the Legislative Council Service, he was the primary sponsor
of the Public Schools Financing Act in 1971, the School Equalization
Fund in 1972 and the measure that established the International Space
Hall of Fame in Alamogordo.

He also was the main sponsor of New Mexico's first medical-marijuana
legislation, the 1978 Controlled Substances Therapeutic Research Act.

Salman told a New Mexican reporter in a 2000 interview that his proposal
got the "charity vote" because Salman himself was still in bad shape
from a head-on car crash that nearly killed him in 1974. But the vote
also reflected the tenor of the times. "There were people in the
Legislature smoking dope in those days," Salman said.

Salman was part of the so-called "Mama Lucy Gang," a coalition of
Bernalillo County liberals and largely Northern New Mexico
representatives that controlled the House until the late 1970s.

In a 1977 moment of passion, Salman labeled some members of the press as
the "illegitimate, ignorant progeny of warthogs."

Salman was born Feb. 11, 1936, in Houston and graduated from high school
in Las Vegas, N.M. He graduated from Princeton University in 1958 and
served in the Army Field Artillery in 1958-59.

He was president of the Salman Ranch near Mora from 1960 to 2002.

He is survived by his wife, of Santa Fe; sons Jeff Salman of Las Vegas
and Zachery Lovelady of Albuquerque; daughter Bree Bornemeir of Denver;
four grandchildren; a brother, William Salman of Santa Fe; and a sister,
Frances Koenig of Albuquerque.