In a move that shows no compassion to patients outside the imaginary boundary of the state lines, New Mexico has ended the acceptance of patients from out-of-state.
Last July, the Lynn and Erin Compassionate Use Act (“LECUA”) was amended in a way that it changed the definition of what a qualified patient was. The amendment that went into effect changed the definition of a qualified patient from having to be “a New Mexico resident” to need to be just a “person.”
Shortly after it went into effect, patients from out of the State of New Mexico started applying to be excepted into the New Mexico Medical Cannabis Program (“NMMCP”). At the time, the New Mexico Department of Health (“NMDoH”) was declining to process and issue cards to patients that qualified under one of the 28 approved conditions.
Once the NMDoH started violating the law by declining to issue cards to any ‘person’ that qualified under one of the approved conditions, a lawsuit was filed to try and force the NMDoH to comply with the written law. During the court proceeding, a judge upheld the word of the law and ordered the NMDoH to start processing and issuing cards to those out-of-state patients that qualified under the LECUA approved conditions.
After the ruling, the NMDoH started complying and issuing cards to out-of-state patients as ordered by the court.
Ahead of the 2020 session, Senator Ortiz y Pino filed Senate Bill 139. A simple bill that amended the definitions to the LECUA. At the time the bill was filed, the definition for a qualified patient was “a person who has been diagnosed by a practitioner as having a debilitating medical condition and has received written certification and a registry identification card according to the Lynn and Erin Compassionate Use Act.”
The bill made it through the legislature rather quickly as it was pre-filed and introduced into the Senate on January 17, a few days before the 30-day session started. It passed the Senate on February 15th and the House 2 days later on February 17th.
On February 20, Governor Michelle Lujan Grisham signed Senate Bill 139 into law. The bill took effect immediately as it had an emergency clause attached to it. Upon the bill being signed into law, the New Mexico Department of Health has stopped processing applications for patients that are not residents of the State of New Mexico.
Those out-of-state patients that were issued cards during the time the law allowed for it will be allowed to keep the card until the expiration date. Upon that date, you will have to re-apply and must have a New Mexico ID to qualify.
New Mexico has successfully snuffed-out patients that are non-residents from their cannabis program.