Medical marijuana patients in New Mexico are struggling to find a product — here’s why

Since New Mexico launched its adult-use marijuana market on April 1, dispensaries have made big bucks, generating about $8 million in revenue. And while this is great for the industry and the state, medical marijuana patients are having trouble finding the products to treat their ailments.

NBC affiliate KOB News spoke to several of these patients, most of whom feel forgotten and mistreated by their own state.

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Photo by Elsa Olofsson via Unsplash

“I’m not doing this to celebrate. I don’t do it to go out and dance. I don’t get high. I am not laughing. I do it because it makes my pain go away,” said one patient who uses medical marijuana to treat her anxiety. “They tell us to keep our cards even if it’s recreational. For what reason? what do we get What perks do we get? We don’t have to queue in front of anyone, we don’t pay lower prices, we don’t get better weed. No, we don’t get anything,” she said.

She explained that for medicinal purposes she could only use indica strains and that dispensaries were out of dispensaries as they sold them to recreational users. “If they’re supposed to withhold something for patients, they should withhold something for every single thing that they have per patient,” she said.

While there are only medical dispensaries, these locations are rare and will likely disappear over time due to the profitability of recreational cannabis.

Some pharmacies have circumvented this problem by separating medicinal products from recreational products. “We wanted, you know, to take into account that our loyal patients who didn’t want to deal with long lines might have been frustrated because they knew what they wanted,” said Ellie Besancon, managing director of Green Goods Pharmacies.

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Pharmacies should always have products for their medical patients, but the last two weeks have proven to be an awakening for most of these businesses, bringing them an unprecedented influx of consumers. The kinks will likely work out with time, but it’s important that the state establish rules to speed up the process and support the customers who need it most.