Pubdate: Tue, 31 Jul 2012
Source: Santa Fe Reporter (NM)
Copyright: 2012 Santa Fe Reporter
Contact: http://sfreporter.com/letters_to_the_editor/
Website: http://www.sfreporter.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/2645
Author: Joey Peters
Page 12

POT OF GOLD

Pricey marijuana and other problems plague medicinal users

Of the 16 states that allow medical marijuana, New Mexico is one of
only three that haven't experienced federal government crackdowns,
according to Washington, DC-based National Organization for the Reform
of Marijuana Laws. Medical marijuana advocates cite the state Medical
Cannabis Program's stringent rules.

"That seems to isolate it from attacks that are going on in medical
cannabis programs in other states," Stephen Farber, a Santa Fe
attorney and longtime member of the NORML legal committee, which
advocates for legalizing nonmedical marijuana, tells SFR.

But to some critics, many of the regulations come at a cost to the
nearly 7,000 active patients enrolled in the program. While other
states allow collectives for patients and caretakers to grow their own
marijuana in a community garden, patients in New Mexico are limited to
growing four mature plants in their own homes, often far less than the
amount they're prescribed.

A lack of variety and soaring costs also pervade the program, says MCP
patient Bill More, who's been frustrated with New Mexico's program
since moving here from Oregon last December, of the federal government.

Here, he smokes an eighth of an ounce of marijuana-roughly 3.5
grams-every week, whereas in Oregon he smoked about 2 grams a week.

"I'm smoking more here on account of quality," More, whose 15-year
history of chronic pain has led to surgeries on his back and knee,
tells SFR.

He adds that he pays almost double the price in New Mexico-between $40
and $50 for an eighth. Santa Fe-based producer New MexiCann Natural
Medicine sells eighths for $40, which Executive Director Len Goodman
says is cheaper than most other producers in the state.

Lack of supply has been an ongoing issue throughout the MCP's
five-year history. While the state hasn't approved new producers or
increased the amount of marijuana that producers and patients are
allowed to grow since late 2010, the MCP has still admitted an average
of 200 new patients per month since last November [news, July 11: "Dry
Market"].

Despite outcry from advocacy groups, the state Department of Health,
which administers the MCP, considers the current supply adequate to
meet patient demand. In an email to SFR, DOH spokesman Chris Minnick
says that if the department determines it needs more supply, DOH could
reconsider the roughly 100 producer applications that were rejected in
February. He adds that DOH rejected them because it "didn't want to
leave the nonprofit producer applicants in limbo."

Only 23 producers operate in New Mexico, and many of them are located
in Albuquerque and Santa Fe. Robert Pack, a founding member of the
SouthEast New Mexico Medical Cannabis Alliance, says rural patients
are often at a disadvantage and, when they're lucky enough to get
their medicine, have to pay delivery fees, which can cost between $2
and $5 per gram of marijuana.

"This is a pretty serious issue because our medicine costs more
money," Pack tells SFR.

Allen St. Pierre, NORML's executive director in Washington, DC, says
lack of quality and variety are the two biggest concerns his office
hears from New Mexico medical marijuana patients.

He stresses that patients' access to different marijuana strains is
important. While a strain with high levels of tetrahydrocannabinol
(THC), the psychoactive ingredient commonly associated with a mental
high, may be the key to helping a patient with a mental ailment like
post-traumatic stress disorder, a patient with a spasmodic disease
like multiple sclerosis might benefit more from high amounts of
cannabidiol (CBD), a component linked with relieving physical ailments
like convulsion, nausea and inflammation.

Goodman takes issue with the lack-of-quality argument, but he concedes
that New Mexico's variety of medical marijuana is limited. In other
states, he says, dispensaries are not cultivators and have access to a
wide variety of sources. But in New Mexico, individual producers must
stick to their own supply, which is capped at 150 plants.

"Dispensaries in other states can have 10-15 different strains,"
Goodman tells SFR. "We have three strains in a given week. Plenty of
times, patients can't get what they want."

While producers like Goodman advocate to be allowed to grow more
plants, Minnick writes that the original plant limit-95 per
producer-was set in consideration of federal government penalties,
which increase significantly when people grow more than 100 plants
illegally. Minnick attributes the MCP's success to its small size.

"When you look at states that tend to have a lot of negative
interaction with federal law enforcement, the running theme is that
they've failed to place significant caps on the production of medical
cannabis in their states," Minnick writes to SFR. "[DOH] does not want
the program to get out of control as it has in other states."

One answer to the shortage and variety problems, according to
Albuquerque lawyer and medical marijuana advocate Sharone Pomeranz, is
allowing patients and their caretakers to grow their own supply in a
community garden.

"Patients need to be allowed to grow at another location," Pomeranz
says. "Some people's homes just aren't appropriate."

Goodman says he endorses community gardens-as long as they're limited
to just patients and not caretakers. Both Oregon and California, which
allow patients' caretakers to grow marijuana in community gardens,
have been subject to federal raids.

"It opens up a can of worms," Goodman says, adding that not allowing
caretakers to grow may be "one of the reasons New Mexico so far is
being left alone by the feds."

But St. Pierre has a different explanation. Compared to states like
California, where nearly 1,000 medical marijuana dispensaries generate
a $1 billion industry, New Mexico is a low priority.

"New Mexico's retail access to medical marijuana is as limited as any
in the United States," he says.
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MAP posted-by: Matt