New Mexico Medical Marijuana Industry Expo Coming Soon

Lawmakers and medical marijuana producers in Las Cruces are looking forward to the 2016 Southern New Mexico Cannabis Expo, which will be held at Hotel Encanto on June 24th.

The industry is growing and improvements to the state’s system are expected as the industry grows and marijuana-related businesses achieve financial success.

The expo will include educational presentations to inform the public more about medical marijuana. There will also be a consultation area for patients that are interested in obtaining a medical marijuana recommendation, Las Cruces Sun-News reports.

First quarter medical marijuana sales in New Mexico were calculated at $9,964,932. Receipts taxes from the medical marijuana industry totaled payments of $768,605. Some patients in New Mexico report issues making it past border patrol checkpoints with their medication in-tow.

Vivian Moore of Mother Earth Herbs recognizes the issues some patients have experienced and agrees that changes need to be made. She said, “It changed considerably. We’ve gone from relatively minor regulations that were working well.”

The cost per gram of marijuana flower in New Mexico ranges between $8 and $15. In Dona Ana County, roughly 50-percent of the registered patients have permission to grow their own medical marijuana. There are two dispensaries available in the county, and sales have declined with competition and patients growing their own medicine to avoid the border patrol checkpoints.

Additional regulations being put in-place have raised operations costs for producers and dispensary owners.

Moore commented that, “Our license fee is $30,000 for the first 150-plants and $10,000 for every additional 50 plants to a maximum of $90,000. And who pays that fee? Patients.”

Continuing on, she said, “If all 35 (state-wide) producers go to 450 plant count that is over $3 million on the backs of patients. Why does the poorest state in the nation with a medical cannabis plan have the highest per-plant fee?”

Representative Bill McCamley said, “We can do a better job at the state level of making this program more accessible and keeping people from dying from (opioid) overdoes. The feds need to let states do this on their own.”

Many of these concerns will be touched on at the expo.

Tickets for the event are $20/day for non-patients and $10/day for registered patients. Fees to see on-site doctors vary from $150 to $300.