New Mexico Court Rules State Owes Marijuana Producers Millions of Dollars

Millions might be owed to New Mexico’s marijuana producers according to the state’s Court of Appeals. A new ruling says that gross receipt taxes should be deductible because pharmacies can do it. It’s challenging because medical marijuana isn’t actually “prescribed.”

The Lynn and Erin Compassionate Use Act includes language saying that patients are “recommended” for medical marijuana, the New Mexico Political Report reported.  Court of Appeals Judge Monica Zamora did her homework and cited the Food, Drug and Cosmetics Act where the language says “shall be dispensed only”. Medical marijuana has limitations in which it can be dispensed just as prescription medications do.

The Lynn and Erin Compassionate Use Act also states that medical marijuana should be treated the same as pharmaceuticals.

In her decision, Judge Zamora wrote that New Mexico’s medical marijuana law didn’t take tax revenue into consideration.

Zamora said that it “suggests that the Legislature intended receipts from the sale of medical marijuana to be deductible from gross receipts. It is reasonably self-evident that the deduction from gross receipts for prescription drugs was similarly intended to make medical treatment more accessible, by lessening the expense to those who require it.”

The other 2 sitting Court of Appeals judges agreed with Judge Zamora’s opinion.

Should this opinion come to fruition, the state could owe medical marijuana producers millions of dollars.