Medical marijuana patients in New Mexico may soon be able to purchase a larger amount of cannabis. 

State legislators are rekindling efforts to open New Mexico to recreational marijuana production and sales, with an emphasis on economic opportunity amidst the turmoil of the coronavirus pandemic.

State Rep. Javier Martinez told a panel of lawmakers Tuesday that he will introduce legislation in 2021 to regulate and tax recreational marijuana, hewing closely to a proposal that won House approval earlier this year but died in the Senate without a floor vote.

Elections this year ousted several conservative-leaning Democratic state senators who opposed past legalization efforts. Democratic Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham last week reiterated her support for recreational marijuana as an opportunity to expand and diversify the state economy.

After a flurry of activity, 27 US states now have hemp plans approved by the US Department of Agriculture.

The passage of the 2018 Farm Bill saw hemp no longer classified a Controlled Substance, and the USDA was directed to approve hemp production plans submitted by states and Indian tribes to ensure hemp would be grown in harmony with the Bill and regulations set by the Department.

The USDA approved the NMDA’s hemp production regulatory plan on Oct. 16 as required by the 2018 U.S. Farm Bill. Although New Mexico’s hemp statutes, rules and policies implemented for the 2019 and 2020 growing seasons already closely aligned with the 2018 U.S. Farm Bill, the newly-approved state plan provides clarity and uniformity among states. The plan includes indoor hemp cultivation as pictured in this photo. Photo Courtesy NMDA

DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE NEWS

The United States Department of Agriculture approved the New Mexico Department of Agriculture’s state hemp production regulatory plan last week. NMDA aims to implement the new plan for growers licensed after Oct. 31.

Problematic cannabis cultivation on Navajo Nation lands has led to a new resolution to clarify the Nation’s stance.

The Navajo Nation is an American Indian territory covering more than 17.5 million acres of north-eastern Arizona, south-eastern Utah and north-western New Mexico.

The Navajo Nation doesn’t allow for hemp or marijuana to be grown on its land, with the exception of a pilot project being carried out in partnership with New Mexico State University. However, at least one unauthorised party has been cultivating hemp, claiming passage of the 2018 Farm Bill that legalised it at a federal level allows this to occur – and there was no Navajo Nation penalty in place for growing hemp.

Amid the COVID-19 pandemic the New Mexico Department of Health approved rules that put into practice a state law allowing medical cannabis patients from other states to buy, possess and use medical cannabis in New Mexico. 

The law was passed in 2019 as part of a massive statutory change for medical cannabis. That law also included a separate provision that many have argued would have allowed non-residents of New Mexico to become a New Mexico medical cannabis patient. 

But in 2020 lawmakers, backed by Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham and the DOH, passed a law that made sure that only those who were medical cannabis patients in other states already could qualify for New Mexico’s program. 

The medical cannabis industry is booming in New Mexico. The industry says the effects of COVID have dramatically increased demand and they’re trying to keep up.

“What we learned was it wasn’t just a New Mexico thing, in fact, the number of transactions have doubled in New Mexico, prices have gone up and the supply is pretty much in a very dire situation, very short,” said Duke Rodriguez, President, and CEO of Ultra Health.

A second medical cannabis company has filed a petition asking a state district judge to invalidate rules recently enacted by the New Mexico Department of Health. 

Pecos Valley Production, a medical cannabis company with dispensaries in the southern part of the state, filed a petition Monday in state district court calling for an annulment of regulatory rules that lawyers for the company called “arbitrary and capricious.”

The petition from Pecos Valley argues similar points as one filed last week, on behalf of cannabis producer and manufacturer Ultra Health. Both petitions are filed under the same case.

A New Mexico medical cannabis provider has filed a suit in state district court that seeks to invalidate regulations recently adopted by the state Department of Health. The new rules governing aspects of the department’s Medical Cannabis Program such as lab testing, facilities standards, and product labeling went into effect earlier this month.

In a filing for the lawsuit, attorneys for medical cannabis producer Ultra Health wrote that the rules are “arbitrary and capricious” and would place a significant burden on providers and medical cannabis patients, and are not based on sound science.