In Santa Fe, NM a state district judge has made permanent the previous ruling on litigation that state officials must issue medical cannabis identification cards to qualifying patients regardless of where they live. This will now clear the way for out-of-state residents such as those in West Texas to tap into New Mexico’s medical cannabis program.
Recently New Mexico Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham had successfully requested a motion to intervene in a lawsuit which challenges the New Mexico health department’s position on assigning medical cannabis cards to out-of-state residents. The basis for the motion filed argued that the lawsuit attends to issues such as the possible interstate transportation of marijuana – which the governor believed will exceed the scope and authority of Kenny Vigil, the state medical cannabis program’s director. This move was made citing that he lacked the authority authority to address law enforcement concerns, approve regulatory action or direct health care policy for the state of New Mexico.
Judge Bryan Biedscheid issued the ruling following a hearing on August 29th, but Matthew Garcia, the attorney that is representing the Governor’s Office, said they are disappointed with the judge’s decision and plan to file an appeal.
This follows from our previous reporting that the law was being changed, lawsuits may ensue and that in a statement to NM Political Report, the New Mexico Department of Health (DOH) clarified that “Persons who are not residents of New Mexico cannot be enrolled in the NM Medical Cannabis Program.”
One of the plaintiffs in the case is Duke Rodriguez, an Arizona resident who is president and CEO of Ultra Health LLC and a prominent licensed medical marijuana producer. Rodriguez and two other plaintiffs from Texas had attempted to apply for medical cannabis cards as out of state residents. When “effectively” denied, Rodriguez filed an emergency petition through his lawyer Brian Egolf, an attorney for medical cannabis producer Ultra Health. Egolf is also the New Mexico Speaker of the House.
Initially in the case Biedscheid sided with those filing the court challenge and gave the Health Department until later in August to prove why the ruling should not be made permanent. The plaintiffs did not oppose the motion by Grisham and allowed a one week extension for the state to respond.
“Although we believe the governor has the right to intervene on broader views on public policy, we still contend the plain language of the law is clear and this plain language will be tough to overrule,” Rodriguez said.
The residence dispute is focused on a new law signed by Grisham that changed the definition of qualified patient by removing a requirement that an enrolled or enrolling member of the medical cannabis program be a New Mexico resident. The DOH has maintained that the change was aimed at providing reciprocity to residents of other states with valid medical marijuana cards and only that issue.
Egolf has also argued against a previous explanation from DOH that the change from “resident of New Mexico” to “person” referenced allowing reciprocity with other medical cannabis states.
Health Department officials have stated that the intention of the change was not to allow non-New Mexico residents to obtain medical marijuana cards, putting forward that such a shift would encourage the transport of cannabis across state lines, in violation of both federal and state laws. DOH argued that Rodriguez’s reading of the law would imply that the state approved of patients crossing state lines with cannabis. Egolf argued though that allowing non-residents to obtain a medical cannabis card and purchase cannabis in New Mexico is not the same as encouraging patients to break the law.
New Mexico launched its medical marijuana program in 2007. There were 76,032 active patients as of July and the number may be expected to grow with the change in the legislation.
