(Santa Fe Reporter) New Mexico’s Medical Cannabis Program coordinator has resigned and, due to budget constraints and a hiring freeze, the state Department of Health has not refilled the position yet.
Melissa Milam, who had served as the program’s administrator since the Lynn and Erin Compassionate Use Act went into effect in 2007, left the position in mid-July.Milam cites the recent birth of her daughter as one reason for leaving her position. Another is she hopes to form a nonprofit to produce and dispense medical cannabis.
So far, 540 patients have received licenses, but only one nonprofit—Santa Fe Institute for Natural Medicine—has been approved. As a result, the majority of patients can only acquire cannabis through illicit means.
This is part of Milam’s motivation to form a nonprofit.
“The program has been slammed so hard, but I really am proud of it,” Milam tells SFR. “I want to make it better and that’s why I’m interested in taking care of patients on the nonprofit side. I feel like I’ve done all I can do for them on the government side.”
While proud of the structure of the program, Milam says she is disappointed in the practices exhibited by the single licensed producer.
For one thing, Milam says, SFINM’s prices are comparable to what would be paid on the street. More disturbing, she says, are reports that SFINM requires patients to meet delivery drivers in parking lots in order to obtain their medication.
“Asking people to meet you in a parking lot, I mean, how is that any different from a drug deal?” Milam says.
Las Vegas, NM-based cancer patient and medical cannabis license-holder Robert Jones tells SFR he agrees with Milam’s evaluation of SFINM.“They said it’s going to cost $400 an ounce and they won’t be delivering to Las Vegas, so you’d have to meet them somewhere else,” Jones says. “I’m not capable of driving to Santa Fe and I can’t afford $400.”
Dispensaries exist in California, Colorado, Washington, Rhode Island, and New Mexico, operating collectives, co-ops, and in the case of the latter two states, state-licensed non-profits. Dispensary supporters often proclaim they are providing safe access to patients to acquire medicine without dealing with the dangerous and unpredictable black market. For that, they should be commended.
However, if you can’t afford $400/ounce for plant material that costs $1-$2 to produce outdoors or $10-$20 to produce indoors when grown in volume, it doesn’t matter if it’s sold by the Santa Fe dispensary or Sam the weed dealer in the park, you have no access to medicine.
To be fair, the dispensaries’ economics are dictated by the black market. They can’t sell marijuana at less than street value, or buyers will sell it on the street for profit. They can’t buy the marijuana at less than street value, or the sellers won’t sell to the dispensaries when they can make more on the street. The notion that more dispensaries will lead to more competition is also ludicrous, not only based on the evidence of 600+ Los Angeles dispensaries not leading to a reduction in price there, but also because no matter how many dispensaries and patients there are, there are ten to twenty times that many black market buyers and sellers.
Only when marijuana is fully legal; when all sellers are in open competition; when all buyers can avoid high prices by growing their own; when all growers are able to grow huge outdoor fields; only then will patients truly have safe and affordable access to medicine.
I am interested in growing and would like more info. You seem to be informed concerning growing in new mexico. I do not smokw myself ,but do have a cronic pain condition and know that it helps others. My youngest daughter was recently diagnoised with lupus and I worry about her taking prescriptions for pain later in life.
SINCE I RECIVED MY CARD IN MARCH 09 I HAVE HAD THE CHANCE TO USE IT ONCE BECAUSE OF LACK OF PROVIDERS, OF PRODUCTION..WILL WE HAVE TO REAPPLY OR WIIL WE BE ALLOWED AN EXTENTION?
?? COULD WE RECIVE OUR MED. FROM ANOTHER STATE???WHAT WOULD BE THE DIFFERENCE AS LONG YOU HAVE YOUR QUALIFACATION THAT MEETS WHAT THE HEALTH DEPARTMENT ASKS. WHAT ARE THE DIFFERENCES
Whatever the true costs of indoor production (my grower’s small indoor medical garden produces at $50/ounce for expenses), they are inflated by the prohibition of marijuana for the healthy. Medical marijuana laws limit either the canopy space or the number of plants that can be grown indoors and often the number of people who can be grown for. A large scale indoor operation unencumbered by these constraints should be able to produce for $10-$20 per ounce.
There is always the saffron comparison… even that’s only $90/ounce retail.
The cost of outdoor production of Marijuana is significantly higher than stated here… Even TRIMMING an ounce costs around 12 dollars, and it is also unstated that the farmers still have ZERO protection. Decent medicinal grade marijuana, organic and grown by hand shouldn’t cost 400 dollars an ounce, but it will never drop below 100, and as long as there is federal and rogue state pressure, or states without medical laws, the out of state illicit demand will keep the prices high.
“However, if you can’t afford $400/ounce for plant material that costs $1-$2 to produce outdoors or $10-$20 to produce indoors…”
Thank you. I am so looking forward to the day that we knock the legs out from under this market and this plant is priced more like heirloom tomatoes rather than gold bullion.