Truth is Rodriguez can't handle the competition

Back in 2016 Duke Rodriguez was flying high when New Mexico's Big Dope announced a partnership with the Las Vegas Paiute tribe to build a large growing facility and two dispensaries on tribal land in Nevada. 

Then again in 2017 as his Ultra Health crossed a threshold providing $1.1 million in therapeutic cannabis to some of the state's 47,000 patients with just eight dispensaries he gushed over New Mexico as forward looking. That same year Israel-based Panaxia Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd. and Ultra Health opened a facility in Bernalillo to manufacture cannabis oil, oral tablets, suppositories, pastilles, transdermal patches and topical creams. The collaboration came on the heels of a University of New Mexico resolution demanding the school divest from corporations that profit from human rights violations both in Palestine and at the US-Mexico border. It was later rescinded. 

Then-Speaker of the New Mexico House Brian Egolf not only supported legalization for all adults he served as legal counsel for the state's therapeutic cannabis leader, Ultra Health. Santa Fe's Mayor Alan Webber lobbied the New Mexico Legislature intensively to propel legalization. And in 2018, while calling itself "New Mexico's No. 1 cannabis company" Ultra Health broke ground in Clayton near the borders with Texas and Oklahoma. Big Dope Ultra had nine dispensaries in New Mexico with plans to at least double that in the coming year.

And, in reality competition is exactly what the governor and the legislature expected to happen in New Mexico's cannabis industry. Now 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 which Rodriguez chose not to sign.

Budtenders in the border town of Sunland Park are laughing all the way to the bank as millions in sales to Texans have boosted revenues for public safety. And today with over a $billion in sales, 40+ cannabis dispensaries in Santa Fe alone and some 1050 in New Mexico the competition has become a roaring donnybrook but Duke's whining is at full throat.

My preference for legal cannabis was for craft growers to also be marketers like vineyards and brewers subject to state inspections and that the revenue debate should have been done in committee in concert with tribal officials interested in forging compacts.

When I saw Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham’s March 5 press release proclaiming “Cannabis in New Mexico officially a billion-dollar industry” and referring to the “thriving business community” of cannabis licensees, I immediately thought of the movie “A Few Good Men.” Specifically, I thought of the classic exchange between Tom Cruise’s Navy JAG lawyer and Jack Nicholson’s Marine colonel. “I want the truth!” “You can’t handle the truth!” But I am like the character in “A Few Good Men.” I want the truth, and I think that all New Mexicans are entitled to it. [Duke Rodriguez]

The truth is readers will note the absence of solutions in Mr. Rodriquez' screed.

Santa Fe Craft Cannabis lured us in with $1 grams but sure as shit, underneath their display of top shelf flower is a row of black plastic containers in boxes emblazoned with the label, "Made in China." But they're hardly alone as Best Daze, PurLife, Sacred Garden, R.Greenleaf, Ultra Health and Southwest Cannabis all use plastic containers that are ineligible for refilling. 

Fruit of the Earth fell off the top of the 2023 Best of Santa Fe cannabis ratings except for a couple categories because other dispensaries were cheaper and had more strain variety but we have rounded back to them to avoid more plastic going into the municipal waste stream. Their 3.5 gram pouches are unbleached paper and while their 7 gram bags are bleached they're still superior to plastic.

So, Duke? Instead of complaining that your profits are being carved up because of competition maybe you should again become "New Mexico's No. 1 cannabis company" by being an innovation leader.

You’re selling a value-added product and not a commodity. Distribute your wares in hemp paper pouches. Encourage patients and patrons to refill their own containers at your dispensaries. Grow outside during the season and if stuck inside use electricity you generate yourself. Use harvested rainwater, recycled water and acequia exclusively. Offer employees profit sharing. And change the name of your company to something that more projects your commitment to New Mexico and to sustainability.