[420 Girl]

1,459 patients have enrolled in New Mexico’s Medical Cannabis Program since July 2007. 584 is the total number of ounces of medical cannabis produced since July 2007.

As the numbers above show, New Mexico’s Medical Cannabis Program is up and running when it comes to enrollment. But enrollment doesn’t mean much if patients can’t get marijuana.

“There is absolutely zero product available,” Larry Love, a registered patient who runs medicalmarijuanaradio.com, tells SFR. Love says it’s been that way on and off since last August, when the program’s first licensed producer, the Santa Fe Institute for Natural Medicine, ran out of product.

Of the four additional producers approved last fall, DOH numbers show three have total outputs ranging from 20 to 45 ounces, and one has yet to produce any.

Love says he uses approximately a quarter of an ounce per month (“I’m not a heavy user,” he says. “There’s plenty of people using more.”) At that rate, the second-highest producer could only have accommodated 180 patients a month.

But for the producers, this could be a good gig since demand far outweighs supply. And according to DOH data, most producers’ sales range from $300-$400 an ounce. On the street in Santa Fe, a source tells SFR, that’s the high end: $400 an ounce will get you “the good stuff,” whereas “schwag” sells for as low as $50 an ounce.

“It’s actually less expensive to go out on the street and buy the medicine,” Love agrees. But while the quality of black-market marijuana can vary, Love says he’s been impressed by the quality of New Mexico’s medical cannabis. When you can get it.

According to DOH Harm Reduction Program Manager Dominick Zurlo, 40 producers are awaiting approval, but the understaffed program is too swamped with applications to fast-track them.

“The governor, who championed this program, needs to kick [Health Secretary Alfredo] Vigil in the ass and get him going,” Love says.

Roll that up and smoke it.


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