10/22/20

From 50 plants for seed stock to a $25 million operation, industrial cannabis still a gamble in New Mexico

According to Duke Rodriquez, CEO of Ultra Health, New Mexico has more patients in its therapeutic cannabis program than Colorado does. Speaker of the New Mexico House Brian Egolf not only supports legalization for all adults he serves as legal counsel for the state's cannabis volume leader, Ultra Health. 

Industrial cannabis (hemp) seeds with decent CBD-producing genetics are a buck apiece costing about $50,000 to sow 20 acres. One grower gets $5 a seed, a pretty spendy investment for any farmer but putting any cannabis industry into the hands of a few oligarchs is stupid policy. 
This year, another high-profile entrepreneur also came on board, former gubernatorial candidate Jeff Apodaca, who had been operating a business that provided harvest, finishing and marketing services for hemp producers. They've scraped up what they say is $6 million and are working on another $25 million they plan to invest in a large facility for drying and processing hemp at the Mesa Del Sol development southwest of Albuquerque. The topmost flowers are cured for smoking. Of the 169 outdoor growing permits granted this year, the average number of acres of hemp per grower is 12, for a statewide total of an estimated 2,037 acres. [Hempire, Santa Fe Reporter]
As New Mexico's therapeutic cannabis program nears 100,000 patients the legislature is poised to legalize cannabis for all adults despite the state being the most water-stressed in the entire US. 

With the help of an Indigenous firebrand a Chinese syndicate had been growing cannabis on the Navajo Nation so the tribal council has changed the definition of marijuana to include the entire plant, industrial or otherwise.
Matt Rankin is a firm proponent of the hemp industry and its potential to revolutionize Wyoming in several ways, but he says that growing hemp in 2020 would be disastrous for many farmers who might be looking at hemp as their financial salvation. 

1 comment:

larry kurtz said...

"The New Mexico Highlands University Board of Regents approved a new program in Emerging Business Markets Entrepreneurship. The program’s initial concentration will offer students a certificate in industrial hemp entrepreneurship." press release