Earth in the balance as New Mexico blunts Colorado cannabis commerce

Democratic then-Representative from New Mexico's First District, now-Governor Michelle Lujan Grisham worked with Republican-now-Libertarian former Gov. Gary Johnson to legalize cannabis for some patients but Gov. Bill Richardson, a Democrat, signed it into law in 2007. The Cannabis Regulation Act was signed by Governor Michelle Lujan Grisham and became effective June 29, 2021.

During the month of July, licensed retailers around the state reported over $40 million in cannabis sales. July adult-use cannabis sales alone topped $23 million. Cannabis sales totaled more than $39 million in April, the first month of legalized recreational sales and the previous record high, with April adult-use sales totaling just over $22 million. [Governor's office press release]

In January, Dope King and owner of Ultra Health, Duke Rodriguez, told the the Albuquerque Business Journal he wants to control 40-60% of all cannabis sales in New Mexico.

Colorado’s green boom is beginning to bust as more states legalize the sale and use of marijuana and inflation pinches spending. Colorado’s border communities are posting the steepest sales declines. New Mexico legalized recreational marijuana sales in April and sales in southern Colorado’s Las Animas County, for example, are in a free fall. [Colorado Sun]

The Picuris and the Pojoaque Pueblos have entered agreements with State of New Mexico to market cannabis product outside tribal borders. The Tewa words wõ poví translate to “medicine flower” and so far half of Pojoaque's clients are from Texas and other red states.

“I feel like we’re making history,” said the general manager of the Wõ Poví Cannabis shop in Pojoaque, which opened just over a month ago on the Cities of Gold Road adjacent to the busy U.S. 84/285. Because Native American tribes fall under federal rather than state oversight, and cannabis remains illegal under federal law, New Mexico had to find a way to include those pueblos. [Pojoaque is first pueblo in New Mexico to open cannabis dispensary]

Outdoor grower Fruit of the Earth Organics has again won the Santa Fe Reporter's "Best Of" in the budtender, cannabis product, topicals, CBD, CBD shop, edibles and best dispensary categories. 

Here in the Land of Enchantment supporters are lauding cannabis legalization as a way to diversify New Mexico’s economy, bring in tax income and address inequities left by the war on drugs while balancing the state's water crisis with growers. Groundwater is notoriously corrosive in much of New Mexico while prolonged drought bleeds supplies to critical and coveted acequia rights can literally be to die for but according to researchers at Colorado State University the industry's carbon footprint should be at least as worrying as tight water supplies.

The New Mexico Department of Health will continue to maintain the patient registry for the therapeutic cannabis program while ensuring those sales remain tax-free.