By Marissa Higdon / Albuquerque Business First
Published on June 20, 2016

Ultra Health, a regional medical cannabis company with six locations in New Mexico, has been denied a sponsorship at the Albuquerque International Balloon Fiesta this year.

“We didn’t fit the profile of what they wanted in balloon sponsorship,” Duke Rodriguez, CEO and president of Ultra Health, told Business First. “They didn’t feel it’s appropriate for a family-style event.”

According to an official statement by the Balloon Fiesta, the Fiesta’s board and Ultra Health discussed sponsorship, and the company submitted an application to be a sponsor for the event. The board decided that Ultra Health “would not be a good fit,” the statement said.

The statement added that Balloon Fiesta would be willing to revisit having Ultra Health as a sponsor in the future — a sentiment echoed by Rodriguez, who says he hopes to work with the organization again.

Rodriguez says Ultra Health has 65 employees in the Southwest region, and brings in $5 million in revenue from its five New Mexican dispensaries and single cultivation site in the state. The company’s corporate headquarters are in Arizona, and it plans on opening new locations in Nevada sometime soon.

“It really surprised me,” he said of the Balloon Fiesta’s decision to deny sponsorship. “It’s not street marijuana.”

In a press release, Ultra Health cited a letter written by the board of the Albuquerque International Balloon Fiesta stating that the majority of board members believed medical cannabis “should be considered a mainstream pharmaceutical.”

Rodriguez says Ultra Health was hoping to give back to the community through the sponsorship and raise awareness about medical marijuana in the state. According to the New Mexico Health Department, there are almost 25,000 medical marijuana cardholders in the state, and Rodriguez says the industry has seen almost 70 percent growth in the last year.

According to the Albuquerque Journal, New Mexico’s medical marijuana industry brought in $10 million in total receipts from sales of medical cannabis in the first quarter of 2016, which is almost double the amount brought in during the first quarter of 2015.

Ultra Health had proposed a balloon design for this year’s Balloon Fiesta (see accompanying image). While that balloon won’t be taking off this year, perhaps you’ll see it in years to come.