Growth of Personal Production Licenses in urban areas significantly outpaces total enrollment

(Albuquerque) – Patient enrollment in New Mexico’s Medical Cannabis Program reached 70,109 patients as of February 28, 2019, according to data released by the New Mexico Department of Health (NMDOH).

While patient enrollment has seen a dramatic increase over the last year of 44%, access to dispensaries in rural areas has also grown. Today, 95% of enrolled patients in the program have at least one dispensary in their county, and 87% of all cardholders have access to more than one dispensary.

The county with the highest density of dispensaries is Bernalillo County, with 35 dispensaries alone. Along with having the most dispensaries, Bernalillo County also has the highest concentration of patients with Personal Production Licenses (PPLs) at 3,423 total, according to data released by NMDOH via an information request.

The number of PPLs in Bernalillo County has grown exponentially by 70% since December 2017, while the experience in a majority of other counties is substantially the opposite. Five counties were flat and 23 counties experienced significant decreases in PPLs over the same period. Bernalillo, Santa Fe, Sandoval, and McKinley counties experienced PPL increases of 45% or higher.

By regulation, each PPL holder is allowed to cultivate 16 total plants for personal use. If all 7,590 PPLs were cultivating 16 plants, a total of 121,440 plants would be cultivated for personal production statewide, with nearly 73,000 PPL plants allowed in the Albuquerque metro. Total PPL plants allowed is dramatically more than what the 35 licensed producers may collectively cultivate under a new emergency rule adopted March 1, 2019. Commercial producers are allowed a collective maximum of 87,500 plants to serve 90 dispensaries statewide.

While NMDOH has expressed their concern over plant count and diversion of cannabis into the black market, the department has made little effort to secure PPL plants or regulate PPLs in a similar fashion as commercial licensed producers.

“It has been consistently proven, as Ultra Health enters an underserved, rural community, the number of patients choosing the local dispensary increases and the PPL enrollment decreases rapidly,” said Duke Rodriguez, CEO and President of Ultra Health®. “The department should be alarmed that the opposite effect is happening in the Albuquerque and Santa Fe metro areas, which is home to half of all dispensaries in the state.”