Rural locations being slighted, says Ultra Health

By Algernon D’Ammassa / Deming Headlight

Published on May 11, 2017

DEMING – More than half a year after the city of Deming approved a special use permit for a marijuana dispensary downtown, Ultra Health’s storefront at 117 E. Spruce remains empty. Despite an 86 percent increase in sales of medically authorized cannabis last quarter, and projected sales of $83.5 million in New Mexico this year, Deming’s dispensary has yet to open for business.

As far as the New Mexico Department of Health is concerned, it is going to stay that way.

Last September, Deming’s City Council unanimously approved a permit to the medical marijuana dispensary Top Organics, doing business as Ultra Health, which operates dispensaries in Albuquerque, Bernalillo, Santa Fe, Clovis and Hobbs. At the time, Ultra CEO Duke Rodriguez said he expected $600,000 to $1 million in revenue from Deming in the first year.

“We are experiencing difficulty getting our rural locations accepted by the Department of Health,” said Ultra spokeswoman Marissa el

el on Thursday. “They don’t want to license us any more locations due to the plant count.”

State regulations limit a producer to 450 plants. Ultra argues that this limit cannot keep pace with the growth in approved patients for medical cannabis, which surpassed 40,000 at the end of April. Ultra argues the plant limit not only forces New Mexican patients to pay more for prescription cannabis than patients in other states, but that patients in rural areas suffer reduced access.

New Mexico Department of Health spokesman Paul Rhien stated in an email, “Ultra Health consistently asserts that it can’t meet patient needs with the current plant count requirements. On the other hand, this same licensed producer says it can sustain additional locations and meet patient needs. That doesn’t add up.” He further claimed that the producer’s amendment adding the Deming location was rejected six months ago.

“We’ve provided memos of understanding, demonstrating we can stock these locations under the plant count rule, but the DoH is dragging its feet,” said Novel. “We filed our request for Deming on June 8 of last year. Some of our locations, like Alamogordo and Silver City, have been waiting a year. A large majority of the dispensaries approved in New Mexico are in the Albuquerque area, but more than 3,000 patients don’t have a provider within their counties.”

Ultra ran into trouble with the Department of Health last year after it put a potted marijuana plant on display at the New Mexico State Fair. The Department claimed the plant was a violation of the company’s production plan and ordered all of Ultra’s dispensaries to shut down for five days in addition to a $100 fine. In April, the First District Court blocked the suspension but let the fine stand.

The lack of a Deming dispensary puts medical marijuana cardholders in Luna County in a legal bind, forcing patients to carry marijuana through a U.S. Border Patrol checkpoint between Deming and the nearest dispensary in Las Cruces. Under federal law, marijuana remains illegal even though state law allows medical use of marijuana. At the Interstate 10 checkpoint east of Deming, patients risk having their medicine confiscated. In 2015, Deming resident Raymundo Marrufo filed a lawsuit seeking an injunction to prevent the Border Patrol from questioning travelers about marijuana where it is legal for medical use. The case was later dismissed in federal court.

“We’ve had a lot of people emailing us and asking on social media when we are going to open this location,” said Novel. “All we can tell them is to contact the Department of Health and make a complaint.”

By Royale Da / KOAT Action News

Published on April 25, 2017

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — Ultra Health a licensed medical cannabis developer and dispensary is sponsoring the Gathering of Nations. We sat down with Ultra Health’s vice president of business, Leonard Salgado.

Q: What will exactly will Ultra Health be doing at the 34th Gathering of Nations?

A: Folks will be there to pass out information like pamphlets, brochures that talk about the medicine and to talk about the program. They’ll also help people apply for a medical cannabis program if they qualify.

Q: Who do you hope to reach at this event?

A: People who have things like P.T.S.D., cancer, Parkinsons, chronic pain. There are a number of qualifying conditions and we want people to know there is an alternative to traditional medicine.

Q: How much is this sponsorship costing you?

A: Well, I can’t really disclose that but it’s a win-win situation for both parties… it could be well over hundreds of thousands of dollars in the future.

By Rachel Sapin / Albuquerque Business First

Published on April 24, 2017

Not only will this year’s Gathering of Nations take place on the new powwow grounds at Expo New Mexico in Albuquerque, but for the first time, a medical cannabis producer will serve as the event’s title sponsor.

“The Gathering Of Nations Limited, a nonprofit organization accepted the sponsorship of Ultra Health, (an officially licensed cannabis grower and dispensary in the State of New Mexico, where medical cannabis is legal by New Mexico State law) for all of the positive and financial reasons as they have all other sponsors,” Gathering of Nations officials said in a statement. “Ultra Health has demonstrated the ability to provide an ever-growing medical need to all people and a potentially economic opportunity for Native American tribes within in the United States.”

Ultra Health CEO and President Duke Rodriguez said it was a natural fit for the nonprofit to support the event, and that Gathering of Nations like Ultra Health, promotes welfare and wellbeing.

“Cannabis in tribal country is likely to be the biggest economic driver and may surpass casinos,” Rodriguez said as what he sees as a future economic opportunity for Native Americans.

He said Ultra Health has been actively working with tribes who are in various stages of developing cannabis, though he said he could not disclose who those tribes are.

Ultra Health also sought to sponsor the Albuquerque International Balloon Fiesta but the event’s board denied Ultra Health’s sponsorship.

Gathering of Nations was estimated to have a $20 million economic impact in the metro area, with hotels, restaurants and tourism-related businesses taking in the biggest haul.

Organizers expect tens of thousands of visitors to attend this year along with more than 700 tribes from throughout the United States, Canada, and around the world. The three-day event will include more than 3,000 traditional Native American singers and dancers competing for prizes, and more than 800 Native American artisans, craftsmen and traders displaying and selling their work.

Gathering of Nations, the world’s largest gathering of Native Americans, will take place this year from April 27-29.

Ultra Health reported $4.9 million in total sales in 2016.

By Olivier Uyttebrouck / Albuquerque Journal

Published on April 11, 2017

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — After a medical cannabis grower displayed a seedling named Dorothy at the New Mexico State Fair last year, a state agency ordered the company to close its dispensaries for five days this month.
A Santa Fe judge this week overruled the New Mexico Department of Health sanction, ruling that the dispensaries can remain open for business from April 17-21.

DOH issued the sanction in November ordering Ultra Health LLC close its seven dispensaries that week.

First Judicial District Court Judge David Thomson of Santa Fe called Ultra Health’s decision to display a seedling at the fair “at the very best misguided,” but found little support for the five-day suspension.

“The seedling should be treated as medicine and not an item for show and tell,” Thomson wrote in an order issued Monday.

But Thomson also wrote that “the sanction imposed is excessive and without much support in law or regulation.”

Ultra Health had planned to show the seedling for 10 days at a booth the company rented at the fair, but the plant was ejected the first day, on Sept. 8, after fair officials and New Mexico State Police were notified. No arrests were made.

Health department officials told Ultra Health that removing the plant from the company’s Bernalillo production facility violated state law and regulations, which require that cannabis “be housed on secured grounds.”

Duke Rodriguez, owner and CEO of Ultra Health, said the closure coincided with “four-twenty” – the unofficial cannabis celebration on April 20 – which is the nation’s biggest sales day for cannabis.

Rodriguez estimated that the closure would have cost Ultra Health $200,000 in lost revenue had Thomson not ordered the stay.

“We’re very happy that the judge ordered this stay,” Rodriguez said. “Those are literally the five busiest days of the year.”

DOH responded Tuesday that the stay is only temporary until Thomson holds a full hearing, which had not been scheduled Tuesday.

“We feel the five-day suspension and fine is appropriate action for discipline based on the rules governing the program,” DOH spokesman Paul Rhien said in a written statement. DOH also fined Ultra Health $100, which Thomson approved.

“The primary role of the state Medical Cannabis Program is to provide patients with safe access to medicine and a regulated system,” the statement said. “We will continue to defend the sanctions as we allow the legal process to run its course.”