Cannabis Talk
The emerging cannabis industry offers immense potential for Northern New Mexico as well as the rest of the United States.
In 1848, California experienced a surge of migrants from across the continental U.S. via the California trail. Roughly 300,000 people came because they had heard the news. The California Gold Rush had begun.
Today, California as well as Nevada, Massachusetts and Maine may soon experience a similar phenomenon — the “green rush” — in response to the legalization of cannabis for recreational use that passed via ballot measure Nov. 8. These four states followed Washington and Colorado voters in 2012. In Washington and Colorado, the emerging cannabis industry has grown immensely and is estimated at billions of dollars a year, similar estimates are expected from California, Nevada, Massachusetts and Maine starting in January.
In New Mexico, recreational marijuana remains illegal in accordance with federal law. However, medical use of the plant has been legal since 2007. (Former Gov. Bill Richardson signed the bill into state law). Since then, New Mexico’s own cannabis industry has been booming in its own right.
The state’s medical cannabis program under its Department of Health has recorded 27,000 registered patients, and an estimated 138,000 New Mexicans use cannabis recreationally, despite the federal prohibition. In order to be an official distributor of cannabis in New Mexico, one must obtain licensure from the Department of Health and be registered as a nonprofit organization. Currently, the department has issued 35 licenses to nonprofits in the state. According to a quarterly report from the state’s medical cannabis program, the state’s licensed nonprofit providers are totalling sales receipts over $9.9 million. These organizations estimate profits in the hundreds of millions if the state were to legalize cannabis recreationally. Two previous attempts to get recreational cannabis on the ballot for voters failed. The first bill appeared in the New Mexico Senate during the 2014 Legislative Session, and it was resurrected in the 2015 session.
Taos County currently houses one licensed cannabis distributor — New Mexicann Natural Medicine — a nonprofit based in Santa Fe. The manager of New Mexicann’s Taos branch (located in Martinez Plaza on Paseo del Pueblo Sur) says that the store serves about 50 to 75 customers daily. The manager, Roni Stephenson, said they ask to see a medical card before selling a product to any customer.
A second distributor is scheduled to open this year in Taos, in partnership with the Taos County Economic Development Corp. The Southwest Wellness Center was previously in competition with 86 other applicants in a bid for licensure. Twelve of the applicants, including the Southwest Wellness Center, were chosen by the Department of Health in October to receive a license to distribute, bringing the total of licensed nonprofits to 35.
The U.S. Department of Justice under President Obama so far has been respectful of Washington and Colorado’s right to self-government, as evidenced by the DOJ’s 2013 Cole Memo, a guiding legal document to all federal prosecutors advising to not pursue litigation against licensed distributors in those two states. However, President-elect Donald Trump may be an obstacle to federal legalization of recreational cannabis.
Crabb is a graduate of New Mexico Highlands University living in Questa.
