3/12/20

Contamination concerns threaten New Mexico's therapeutic cannabis patients

New Mexico has more patients in her therapeutic cannabis program than Colorado has: 82,147 - 81,871 but according to Duke Rodriquez, CEO of Ultra Health, Colorado has 286,000 plants being produced while New Mexico only has about 26,000 in production.

Speaker of the New Mexico House Brian Egolf not only supports legalization for all adults he serves as legal counsel for the state's therapeutic cannabis leader, Ultra Health. A failure to reach a consensus on legal cannabis in New Mexico last session was due in part to Rodriguez' objection to home growing.

Contaminated dietary supplements, vapes, ointments and edibles are unacceptable in a country with a long history of snake oil salesmen. If people want to grow commercially that’s where the state is paid to conduct inspections for purity and standards through a tax on sales. Cannabis vaporizer cartridges from China have become a source of concern as a novel virus sweeps the globe.
“So for a 30-day supply in New Mexico, we’d have to have 13,862 pounds of product,” Rodriguez says. “But the entire state sold 23,000 to 24,000 pounds through all of last year. Our fear is not completely based on coronavirus, but on the low canopy policy by the Department of Health. February was our biggest month ever, and that was a little bit of a surprise,” Rodriguez said. “And March has continued that trend upward.” Another big issue for the dispensary industry is the cash nature of the business. Cash is notoriously dirty, often carrying traces of fecal matter and cocaine, and it’s just as easy for coronavirus to hitch a ride from somebody’s dirty hand into the cash drawer. [Santa Fe Reporter]

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