Rick Nathanson / The Albuquerque Journal
Published on December 16, 2017

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — The medical cannabis industry in New Mexico grew by about 77 percent from November 2016 through November 2017, an indication that the industry is strong and expanding, according to updated numbers released earlier this week.

The New Mexico Department of Health’s Medical Cannabis Program Patient Statistics report shows there were 45,374 active patients in the program at the end of November 2017, an increase of more than 19,600 over November 2016, when there were 25,697 patients in the program.

Patient enrollment is on track to reach nearly 50,000 by the end of this year and generate $85 million, significantly more than the $50.6 million generated by the industry last year, said Duke Rodriguez president and chief executive officer of Ultra Health, the largest cannabis company in the state.

The current DOH monthly patient numbers were calculated after thousands of patients were disenrolled.

The program transitioned in December 2015 from an older database to a new “seed-to-sale tracking system” called BioTrack, explained DOH spokesman Paul Rhien.

“With the transfer of data, some patients were being counted twice – they were being counted in the legacy data and in the new system,” he said. “We worked with BioTrack to merge any duplicate records so that a patient is only counted once.”

Also removed were people who were no longer in the program but were still being counted in monthly DOH patient reports.

Each of the state’s 35 non-profit producers of medical cannabis, the only people licensed to cultivate the plant on a commercial level, must adhere to a limitation on the number of plants – 450 – that can be grown at any given time.

“Even with the state topping $85 million for the current year, based on the number of enrollees that number should be $100 million,” Rodriguez said, but because of the 450 plant limitation patients are seeking additional products outside of New Mexico. The limit for growers needs to be increased, he said.

Further, Rodriguez pointed to research conducted by University of New Mexico economist Kelly O’Donnell, indicating that if recreational cannabis were legalized in New Mexico, it would create 11,000 new jobs and generate $415 million the first year and $600 million the second year, not including the medical program.