Taos dispensary manager talks the future of medical cannabis
The recent expansion of medical conditions that can qualify state residents for a cannabis prescription and the increase of plants dispensaries can legally grow – from 450 to 2,500 – have major implications for businesses on the cusp of a growing industry that is still in its nascent stage here in New Mexico.
To get a sense of what state dispensaries are doing to adapt to those changes, The Taos News visited this week with Maria Fernandez at New MexiCann, a medical cannabis dispensary she manages at 1033 Paseo del Pueblo Sur in Taos.
Q: Medical cannabis was recently approved for treatment of six new conditions, including opioid use disorder, Alzheimer’s disease and autism spectrum disorder. How do you expect those changes will impact your business?
A: It’s definitely a step forward. There are so many underlying conditions that are out there that haven’t been recognized but cannabis has helped. But I think the big coming off of opiate abuse deal with a lack of sleep, lack of appetite, anxiety. It’s about pinpointing what they feel themselves, because no two people are the same. If they aren’t sleeping well, then I’d say ‘Let’s find you a good Indica tincture or an edible to help you sleep at night. Your anxiety is a little high? Let’s up your CBD intake because one, so it was spreading the medicine pretty thin. There were people coming in who are dependent on this medication for sleeping and eating and we weren’t able to supply them. Even with the increase, we’re still down because it takes a while to grow the plants and to make the medicine, to get the oil. But we’re finally seeing the upside of it.