Report: Revoke medical cannabis license

Hearing officer doubts Mother Earth Herbs’ claims that audits not falsified

A hearing officer has recommended the state Health Department move forward with its plan to revoke the license of a medical cannabis producer with dispensaries in Las Cruces and Albuquerque.

Mother Earth Herbs and its executive director, Vivian Moore, are accused of submitting falsified audits to the Health Department, which oversees the medical cannabis program.

Health Secretary Lynn Gallagher will make the final call on whether Mother Earth Herbs will lose its producer license and whether Moore will be banned from working for any other program licensee.

The license revocation, if upheld, would be the first for a producer since the state created the medical cannabis program in 2007, according to the Health Department.

Mother Earth Herbs is one of 35 licensed medical cannabis producers serving nearly 55,000 patients approved for the New Mexico program.

The department notified Mother Earth Herbs and Moore in January that it planned to revoke the producer’s license and ban Moore from the program for submitting falsified audits for 2014 and 2015.

Mother Earth Herbs and Moore protested the proposed actions.

The Health Department brought in an outside lawyer, Craig Erickson, to serve as the hearing examiner for the protest. He heard testimony in April and June.

The department last week released Erickson’s 133-page report on the case.

Moore denied falsifying the audits, saying they were prepared by an accountant who had done previous work for Mother Earth Herbs, according to Erickson’s report. The accountant said his signatures on the audits were forged.

“The Hearing Officer did not find Ms. Moore to be a credible witness,” Erickson wrote.

He also noted Moore had failed to produce any documentation that the accountant was hired or paid by Mother Earth Herbs for the audits.

“The complete failure of [Mother Earth Herbs] to produce those materials … is particularly damaging to their claims,” Erickson wrote.

The hearing officer also rejected arguments by attorneys for Mother Earth Herbs and Moore that the proposed actions against the producer and its executive director were too severe when compared to the alleged misconduct.

Licensed medical cannabis producers are required to submit annual audits to the Health Department.

The audits must be conducted by independent certified public accountants.

Mother Earth Herbs, which has been in business since 2010, is licensed by the department to produce 450 plants.

It began with a dispensary in Las Cruces and expanded to Albuquerque last year.

The hearing officer recommended Health Secretary Gallagher give Mother Earth Herbs a reasonable time to shut down if the secretary revokes the producer’s license.