New Mexico Governor Michelle Lujan Grisham Creates Recreational Marijuana ‘Working Group’; Patients Are Not Happy.

Last week, New Mexico Governor Michelle Lujan Grisham issued a press release stating that she is creating a working group to focus on marijuana legalization for the 30-day session that starts in January 2020. The Cannabis Legalization Working Group will be led by Albuquerque City Councilor Pat Davis, who will be joined by at least 19 state lawmakers, Cabinet secretaries, law enforcement officials and medical marijuana executives. The group will also consist of the following members:

State Rep. Javier Martinez, D-Albuquerque;
State Sen. Cliff Pirtle, R-Roswell;
Environment Secretary James Kenney;
Health Secretary Kathy Kunkel;
Regulation and Licensing Superintendent Marguerite Salazar;
Senior Economist James Girard of the Taxation and Revenue Department;
Chief Counsel Matthew L. Garcia of the Office of the Governor;
Senior Counsel Matt Baca of the Office of the Attorney General;
Sheriff Kim Stewart of Doña Ana County;
Finance Director Les Rubin of Picuris Pueblo;
Rachael Speegle of the Verdes Foundation;
Ryan Gomez of PurLife Management Group;
Jim Griffin of Everest Apothecary;
Emily Kaltenbach of the Drug Policy Alliance;
Shanon Jaramillo of Cannabis New Mexico Staffing;
General Counsel Grace Phillips of the New Mexico Association of Counties;
Lorin Saavedra of Southwest Capital Bank;
Sam Baca, construction industry representative; and
Representatives of Presbyterian Healthcare Services, United Food, Commercial Workers.

“This group will ensure we begin the next session with a credible, equitable and cohesive legalization proposal that will incorporate all public safety concerns, workplace regulations, labeling requirements that protect underage children and all manner of other issues,” Gov. Lujan Grisham said. “There are open questions about how legalization can work best for New Mexico. This group will answer those questions, and we will arrive at the next session prepared.

Some may cheer and rejoice when they hear that the Governor of New Mexico is wanting to make legalization a priority for the 2020 mini session (especially those in West Texas). Some may think creating this working group is a good idea, so that by the time session comes around, it will be more of a chance that legalization will be passed and implemented.

Then there are those we consider patients; patients in New Mexico that have been qualified under the New Mexico Medical Cannabis Program (“NMMCP”). After speaking to a handful of them, these patients are not all that happy. They feel there are issues surrounding the make-up of the Cannabis Legalization Working Group, as there are no patient advocates, doctors, or nurses in the Cannabis Legalization Working Group.

Mel Loomis, a patient that has been in the NMMCP for 8 years and was the operations manager at the dispensary MJ Expresso from 2012 to 2016 and is currently the Executive Director of the Sweet Foundation, an opioid recovery group in New Mexico, stated her concerns when she said “What concerns me, and most of the patients who view this whole issue of a new task force, is this: there is not one seat held by a patient, or a medical professional, medical advisory board liaison, or anyone who interacts with the front line of the NMMCP, the patients. We are very concerned as to the agenda of this new task force, and would like to know where is the patient’s representation?”

Another patient advocate, Chad Lozano, who is the Secretary for the New Mexico Medical Cannabis Patients Advocacy Alliance as well as the Director of Vets 4 Cannabis, shared his concerns by saying “This task force is obviously pro-business because there literally is zero patient representation [in the Cannabis Legalization Working Group], which tells us we will get the green weenie and have no say on what they do, or input at that. Some politicians think that recreational cannabis and medical cannabis are one in the same, but the two are very different programs. Patients will suffer if we don’t have a voice on that task force.”

Richard Davis, a New Mexico cannabis patient also voiced his frustrations. “We need to focus on ensuring that medical patients have accesses, I spent the entire weekend with many individuals that are worried with regards to access issues. It seems like out governor MLG [Michelle Lujan Grisham] has switched focus from the patients to revenue.”

I can see why they feel this way with no patient representation in the new “working group”. We’ve seen patient medical programs crumble in other states that have legalized.

Over the course of the last few months, one mother has taken the fight for her son to Gov. Grisham – even as far as holding a civil protest at the Governor’s office where she was arrested for not leaving – over the use of his recommended medical cannabis at school. Tisha Brick has been fighting the State of New Mexico and Estancia School District over the course of this school year to allow her son Anthony to be able to use his doctor recommend medical cannabis at school. Ms. Brick has been in the Governor’s office multiple times this year because the school district her son is supposed to be in, will not allow him to take his doctor recommended medicine. One of the times that she sat in the Governor’s office, she sat down with one of the Governor’s staffers and had a conversation. At this time, Ms. Brick was told that the Governor would be forming a ‘task force’, and that Ms. Brick would be on said task force. That wasn’t the case when the list of people in the Cannabis Legalization Working Group was released. I spoke with Ms. Brick who stated that her “ultimate goal is to have medical cannabis treated no differently than any other medication in school, at home, work, and any other place a patient might need it.” Ms. Brick has fought for the last 3 years for the patients in the NMMCP as a whole, not just her son.

Which is commendable and shouldn’t be any other way? Right? It should be all about the patients.

Hopefully Governor Grisham will listen to her patients in New Mexico and have patient representation within this new Cannabis Legalization Working Group to ensure that patients and the NMMCP are protected. Time will tell, and that time is coming soon. The second part of New Mexico’s Legislative Session starts in January. It is only 30 days long.

* I have reached out to the Governor’s office for questions, with no word back.