Therapeutic cannabis surging in New Mexico

Revenues from therapeutic cannabis in New Mexico during the first quarter of 2017 reached $19 million, an 86 percent increase over the first quarter of 2016. Total receipts for 2017 are projected to exceed $83.5 million.

“New Mexico is really expanding,” Gina Lucero said. Cannabis patients in the state have nearly doubled in the past year to more than 44,000 according to new June numbers from the New Mexico Department of Health. “I think people are becoming more and more aware of cannabis,” Lucero said. She is the president of Grow for Vets New Mexico, a new local chapter of a nationwide organization. “We feel that veterans, of all people, they should get it for free, they shouldn’t have to pay for their card,” Lucero said. “As they grow, they’re also looking to hire new people,” said Shanon Jaramillo, Cannabis NM Staffing. [KQRE teevee]

Under term-limited earth hater Governor Susana Martinez New Mexico unemployment rates are the worst in the United States.

No earth haters have the courage to enter the 2018 race but Democrats Jeff Apodaca, Peter DeBenedittis, Joseph Cervantes and US Representative for New Mexico's First District, Michelle Lujan Grisham have announced runs in next year's primary to replace Martinez. They all laud the state's cannabis initiative.

Travel in the state is breaking records, too. According to State Tourism there were an estimated 34.4 million trips in New Mexico last year, up about 3 percent from 2015.

In defiance of sabre-rattling from the Trump Organization threatening to end tribal sovereignty the Nevada Tribal Cannabis Alliance, the New Mexico-based Acoma Pueblo, Montana's Blackfeet, the Yankton Sioux Tribe and others are all exploring the economic benefits of grow/ops.