© 2024 KRWG
News that Matters.
Play Live Radio
Next Up:
0:00
0:00
0:00 0:00
Available On Air Stations

New Mexico Senate tightens rules on medical marijuana

LAS CRUCES - With two bills to legalize marijuana sales stalled in the Senate Judiciary Committee, the New Mexico Senate turned its attention to the state’s medical marijuana program Monday, March 15.

With Senate Bill 340, the Senate voted to prohibit sales to out-of-state residents who do not have a medical marijuana card issued in New Mexico, after first rejecting an amendment that would have increased the daily sales limit for medical cannabis patients from three grams to two ounces.

The amendment was introduced by Sen. Jacob Candelaria, D-Albuquerque, who identified himself as a medical marijuana patient suffering from PTSD as the result of childhood rape. He blistered the state Department of Health (NMDOH) for its handling of the program, saying there is no scientific basis for the current limit.

“There is a lot of information that is being provided by the Department of Health on this bill that is untrue,” he said. “The department’s rules that limit the amount of medical cannabis that I can purchase to about three grams a day is arbitrary and capricious, and it’s not really based on a doctor or medical science or research. It’s based on a political rule that was put in place years ago.”

Candelaria said he has a card from California because he can’t purchase enough cannabis to meet his needs with just the New Mexico card.

The cap of 1,750 plants per producer has not been increased in years, Candelaria said, creating an artificial shortage that has resulted in higher prices and less availability than in other states. He said the cap is based on politics, not science.

“The plant caps were put in place when the governor was secretary of health. It’s politics at its best,” he said. 

Sen. Cliff Pirtle, R-Roswell, who is the sponsor of one of the two legalization bills awaiting a hearing in the Judiciary Committee, supported the amendment. He said patients living in rural areas of the state need to drive long distances, just to get three grams at a time.

Bill sponsor Sen Gerald Ortiz y Pino, D-Albuquerque, said the amendment would remove the safeguards to prevent abuse and would result in more marijuana being sold on the black market.

“It basically converts our carefully regulated medical cannabis program into a come-and-get-it free-for-all; whatever you need, whatever you want, just come and get it,” Ortiz y Pino said. “It would create an enormous shortage immediately, and it would force the department to change the plant count, which is what the real purpose of this amendment is about. If we do that, the fear is it increases the supply for the black market,” Ortiz y Pino said.

The purpose of Senate Bill 340 was to prevent people from out of state – mostly Texans – from getting medical marijuana cards in California and using them to purchase marijuana in New Mexico. It would change the definition of “reciprocal participant” to only include state residents.

“People who live in Texas get online and get a California doctor to authorize a medical marijuana card, and then they come into New Mexico and use the card to purchase cannabis here,” Ortiz y Pino said.

Sen. Jeff Steinborn, D-Las Cruces, said he has sympathy for those in Texas who need medical marijuana but do not qualify under the stringent laws in place there.

“I’ve come to understand just how lifesaving and miraculous the effects of cannabis can be for people who are undergoing a lot of different medical conditions, and just how restrictive some other states can be,” Steinborn said, adding that it is only allowed in Texas for those with a terminal illness. “So, for me, people in other states taking advantage of New Mexico’s medical marijuana program is really humanitarian in nature.”

Sen. Stuart Ingle, R-Portales, noted that when the bill was originally passed 14 years ago, it was sold as being for those dying of cancer. “We’ve come a long way since then,” he said.

Candelaria, a practicing attorney, represented cannabis supplier Ultra Health in a lawsuit against NMDOH when it attempted to remove reciprocity by rule. First Judicial District Court Judge Matthew Wilson originally ruled that NMDOH failed to justify an emergency rule change, but later clarified that it could make the change through the normal rulemaking process.

SB 340 passed on a 28-11 vote, and now moves to the House with just five days left in the session, which ends Saturday, March 20. Sen. Craig Brandt, R-Rio Rancho, said after the vote that legislators could resolve a lot of issues with the medical marijuana program by passing the legalization bill.

“We need to get Pirtle’s bill down to the floor so that we don’t have to mess with this,” Brandt said.

The Judiciary Committee did not meet Monday and was not expected to hear the marijuana bills Tuesday, pushing them to Wednesday at the earliest.