Ten-year old Anthony Brick can't do schoolwork without the help of medical marijuana, but his school won't let him attend class because of his medication, writes Calvin Hughes.

According to Representative Steve Pearce, New Mexico can't afford "to pay for more drug addiction, more jails, and more law enforcement."

In a statement last week, Republican Congressman Steve Pearce of New Mexico — a candidate in the state’s current race for governor — suggested that relatively poor states could not afford to legalize marijuana. "I do not see how in combating poverty you can put one more obstacle in front of people who are struggling to get out of poverty," he said, "so I don't see where I would support recreational marijuana."

This state now has over 50,000 medical marijuana patients, thanks to improvements making it easier for veterans and seniors to access treatment.

According to New Mexico’s Department of Health, the state’s medical marijuana program receives hundreds of patient applications each day.

But recent changes to the patient application process have made it even easier to apply for medical cannabis in New Mexico. And thanks to the more straight-forward application, this state now has over 50,000 medical marijuana patients.

The City of Albuquerque is one step closer to reducing the penalties for the possession of small amounts of cannabis.

City councilors voted 5-4 Monday night to replace the current ordinance that allows for possible jail time for cannabis possession with a $25 fine.

Now it’s up to Mayor Tim Keller to make it official.

Under current city law, possession of an ounce or less of cannabis could result in a $50 fine and up to 15 days in jail for a first offense and a possible $500 fine and up to 90 days in jail for repeat offenses.Councilor Cynthia Borrego was the only Democrat to vote against the proposal.

With Vermont just having legalized cannabis through its state legislature for the first time in the history of marijuana reform, the precedent has been set for other states without ballot initiatives to do the same.

New Mexico, however, has a system in place whereby legislators can legalize cannabis themselves, or they can vote to allow citizens to do it through a constitutional amendment.   

If New Mexico were to legalize cannabis through a constitutional amendment, the legislature would first have to approve a resolution that would go onto a ballot for consideration by the people.

This resolution for the ballot, however, requires a higher threshold of votes within the legislature than an ordinary bill.

One school of thought is that cannabis, or marijuana, is relatively benign and ought to be legalized, regulated and taxed to spur economic growth and end the harm caused by criminalization.

An opposing viewpoint is that it’s a dangerous drug that needs to re-main unavailable legally, with criminal punishment of those who break the law.

New Mexico could become the first state to officially recognize cannabis as an effective alternative to opioid painkillers – if activists succeed in getting opioid use disorder (OUD) added to the list of qualifying conditions for medical marijuana, that is, writes Tess Allen.

It’s a tall order. Several states – including Nevada, Maine and even New Mexico itself earlier this year – have rejected bids to have opiate addiction accepted as a condition for cannabis use.

A state-licensed medical dispensary, Ultra Health, is waiting to hear from the federal government after the wraparound bus ads it wanted to buy in Albuquerque were rejected.

The city says advertising an illegal drug is prohibited by federal law.

Medical marijuana use is legal in New Mexico, but the city's transportation department is worried that federal transit money will be withheld if the drug is advertised on city buses.

Now, a local city council member is asking the U.S. Justice Department for clarification.

Ultra Health CEO Duke Rodriguez says bus ads or not, medical marijuana sales are booming.

Cannabis might still be illegal in the UK, but new research has found that the leafy substance might not be the vilified "gateway drug" it’s widely thought to be.

In fact, in might be the key to discouraging users from progressing to "harder" drugs, such as cocaine and ecstasy, claim scientists at the University of New Mexico.

The five-year-long study involved 125 participants, all of whom were suffering from chronic pain.

High 5 Edibles uses proprietary technology, unique recipes and all organic ingredients (excluding the cannabis) to produce a variety of offerings.

Seth Oxhandler is no stranger to high-flying excitement.

The former IBM engineer has completed more than 3,000 successful sky-diving jumps, but he’s also experienced a few hard landings along the way and acquired a medical marijuana authorization along the way to treat the various injuries suffered as a daredevil.

However, when he brought home some cannabis-infused chocolate bars to show his wife, Brianna, she was appalled — not by the cannabis, but from the quality of ingredients being used in the treats. So she insisted on infusing and baking the edibles herself.