Cannabis license in New Mexico causes a stir

A lucrative cannabis producer license issued on short notice by the New Mexico Department of Health just days before the loss of regulatory authority raises eyebrows. Some insiders in the state’s marijuana industry are calling for an investigation into the affair on allegations of favoritism.

The license granted to Albuquerque-based GH LLC came less than a week before the Department of Health ceded authority over the state’s Medical Cannabis Program (MCP) to the state’s new Cannabis Control Division, which was established after legalizing cannabis for Adults through New. Mexico’s legislature was founded in April. The license, the first to be granted by the health department in six years, was granted in June after a short, unannounced application period.

“This new licensee process must have raised some suspicions, raised eyebrows and asked questions,” Duke Rodriguez, president and CEO of New Mexico’s Top Organics-Ultra Health, the state’s largest medical cannabis company, told the Santa Fe New Mexican last week.

“There are a number of good people who put the time, effort, and resources into without knowing that there might have been an expressway,” he said.

License granted in New Mexico after an unannounced application period

On June 23, just days before the cannabis control department of the state regulator and licensing agency took over marijuana regulation, the Department of Health posted a notice on its website entitled “Instructions for Use for Medical Cannabis Licensed Nonprofit Manufacturers.” However, no official notice of acceptance of applications was issued, despite a deadline of June 28 given in an online application.

According to documents received as part of a public inquiry, GH LLC filed a 731-page medical cannabis license application on June 25, just two days after the application instructions were posted. On Sunday June 27, Dominick Zurlo, director of the MCP, and Billy Jimenez, general counsel and assistant secretary of the Department of Health, visited GH LLC’s Alburqueque facility for an inspection. A day later, the “Legacy” manufacturing license was issued by the department for a fee of $ 10,000.

“I think it was a dirty business,” said Willie Ford, general manager of Reynold Greenleaf & Associates, a cannabis company consultancy. “That was obviously someone who made it possible for someone else.”

The health department answers questions

Health Department spokeswoman Baylee Rawson said the department “often publishes announcements through the website,” adding that the website is frequently visited by medical cannabis license holders and patients.

“It is also one of the key ways to present information and updates about the program, including meeting announcements, patient statistics, training materials, and other reports and documents,” Rawson wrote in an email.

Rawson also wrote that the Department of Health worked for several months to “open licenses to additional licensees to ensure patients have additional options for obtaining their medication.” When asked about the Sunday inspection during the tight application window, Rawson said, “It’s not uncommon for MCP employees to work on weekends due to the heavy workload and demand for services.”

Emails received regarding the request for public records indicate that after the transfer of responsibility for the Medical Cannabis Program, decisions regarding the GH LLC application were made by senior officials in the Cannabis Control Division. In August, Nicole Bazzano, assistant director of business operations for the division, asked Health and Safety Specialist Joshua Wilson for an update on the status of the application.

“I got the impression that they are just waiting for your inspection to start production / manufacturing, is that right?” She wrote. “What can we do to put it into operation properly and legally?”

The next day, Wilson replied that he “had to go back and do some research” and that he “largely” had no information about the approval of the license.

“Processing, inspection, and approval was done at a level above the MCP licensing and compliance staff,” he wrote. “After looking at the permit letter, it appears they have been granted some form of conditional permit that allows the infrastructure to be completed and requires re-inspection before they can be grown, manufactured, or marketed.”

The “Mack Daddy of Licenses”

Rodriguez of Ultra Health described the license awarded to GH LLC as a “mack daddy of licenses”.

“You’re the vertically integrated license that allows you to do anything – produce, produce – you can do all of these things,” he said. “The new approach under the [Cannabis Regulation Act] exposes you to this silo effect. You need to get a license to manufacture it. You need to purchase a retail license. You have to get a license for the production. “

Larry Love, a medical marijuana attorney who hosted and produced Santa Fe-based Medical Marijuana Radio, said he knew “many people” who would have applied for a medical marijuana license if the health department announced the application period in advance would have been.

“It just doesn’t seem fair to the public to know that someone could get a license before anyone else,” said Love.

But in a brief interview last week, GH LLC founder Vance Dugger apparently shook the license controversy and said, “We filed an application like everyone else.”