Santa Fe cannabis market saturated; buyers rejoice

With forty dispensaries Santa Fe is nearing "cannabis retail oversaturation."

Some retailers are offering penny pre-rolls or even free grams with purchases but nearly a hundred New Mexico cannabis vendors signed a letter to Regulation and Licensing Superintendent Linda Trujillo and Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham to slow the issuance of new licenses.

In some ways the letter tracks with what Ultra Health President and CEO Duke Rodriguez has been warning about for months: A low barrier to get a cannabis business license would create a flood of stores and a subsequent market oversaturation. While Rodriguez blames the state for making it relatively easy to get a license, making it easy was an intentional plan by the regulation department to ensure industry equity and equality. [Andy Lyman, Santa Fe Reporter, Green Out]

As of March New Mexico's 606 dispensaries had sold some $440 million worth of cannabis since April, 2022 when sales began for all adults and the state is lauding boosts to the economy, burgeoning revenues, erasing the inequities left by the war on drugs and balancing the state's water crisis with growers. In February, combined therapeutic and "recreational" sales topped $41.6 million where therapeutic purchases were nearly $14 million through 262,000 transactions and other sales were almost $28 million through 626,000 transactions. 

Today, total transactions are smoking to way over 10 million and dispensaries number over a thousand.

A new downtown outpost of Santa Fe cannabis mainstay Best Daze opening this month may be the last dispensary in the Plaza area. That’s because a city ordinance requires that new cannabis retail spots be no closer than 400 feet to each other. Tai Bixby, a director at Real Estate Advisors LLC, tells SFR rent rates on and around the Plaza range from about $40 to $60 per square foot. [Andy Lyman, Santa Fe Reporter, Plaza Encroachment]

The Picuris and the Pojoaque Pueblos have entered agreements with the 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. 

Picuris is striving to open a dispensary in August.