Medical marijuana producer sees hole in report

Ultra Health leader worried outline for legal market doesn’t address plant cap

One of New Mexico’s largest medical marijuana producers and retailers sees a glaring omission in a state panel’s recommendations on how the state should regulate a legal cannabis market.

In a final report compiling broad suggestions after months of meetings on how a recreational marijuana market should take shape, a panel convened by Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham stayed silent on whether or how to cap the amount of marijuana on the recreational market if lawmak

ers vote to legalize it during the 2020 legislative session.

Duke Rodriguez, president of Ultra Health — which runs 23 medical marijuana dispensaries across the state — said the biggest problem facing medical marijuana patients is not the potential advent of recreational marijuana. It’s the state’s current limit of 1,750 plants per producer.

“Everything else is mental masturbation until the moment you can be honest with yourself and answer the question, ‘How many plants does it take to meet the demand?’ ” said Rodriguez, a former state Cabinet secretary.

For Rodriguez, the fact that Lujan Grisham’s group recommends the state subsidize medical marijuana through the recreational market — if one is approved — and supply the medical market first, doesn’t cut it.

The $180,000 in annual fees for growing the maximum amount is far too prohibitive for most growers, he said, and until medical marijuana is covered through Medicaid and private health insurance, patients will always be at risk of a supply shortage. But he sees the cap on plants per producer as the biggest problem.

Members of the advisory group couldn’t agree on whether there should be a government-set cap, or what the limit should be if there is one, said Pat Davis, an Albuquerque city councilor who chaired the panel. So they left that to lawmakers or state administrators to decide.

Rodriguez’s business was one of several that filed a lawsuit challenging the 1,750-plant limit the state Department of Health imposed on medical growers in August. The complaint argued that number isn’t based on accurate data and violates a court order that the agency ensure an adequate supply for medical patients.

A state Supreme Court justice in November 2018 ruled that a previous plant limit of 450 was too restrictive. The Health Department imposed an emergency rule allowing producers to grow up to 2,500 plants until a new rule could be ratified, which led to the cap of 1,750.

Some other growers, such as Daze CEO Len Goodman, have argued the current cap is more than enough to serve New Mexico patients. Goodman’s business in 2009 was among the state’s first to receive a state license to grow cannabis.

Although Democrats control the New Mexico Legislature, legalizing marijuana

remains contentious.

Last year, a legalization proposal passed the House but failed in the Senate. Lujan Grisham has said legalizing marijuana is one of her top priorities for the 30-day legislative session that convenes in January.

State Rep. Javier Martínez, an Albuquerque Democrat who’s drafting new legislation to legalize marijuana, said he doesn’t think there should be a cap. Martinez led the legalization effort last year, and that plan included most of the governor’s work group recommendations.

“Having said that, for some of my colleagues it might be imperative that we have a cap,” Martinez said.

State House Speaker Brian Egolf, a Santa Fe Democrat who supported the legalization effort last year, said he agrees the state shouldn’t limit supply.

“We should have strict regulation. We should have strict enforcement. But the state should let the market decide who does well and who doesn’t,” Egolf said. “We shouldn’t be in the business of, in effect, determining supply in a freemarket scenario.

“We don’t do that for cigarettes,” he added.

A handful of state sheriffs, including Sierra County’s Glenn Hamilton, have said they don’t think marijuana should be legalized at all. But if it is, they argue that local law enforcement should get at least some of the state revenue.

The governor’s work group urged lawmakers to not allow individuals to grow marijuana in their homes but recommended decriminalizing possession of up to six plants per person for personal use. The report says the program should provide $5.1 million for law enforcement programs, or about $1,000 per officer.

“As the sheriff of Sierra County, my opinion is it’s just adding another scourge onto our streets and into our communities,” Hamilton said. “If they’re going to put that out there, we’re going to need additional funds to combat some of the additional problems it’s going to bring with it.”