New Mexico approves 6 new medical marijuana dispensaries

From The New Mexico Independent:

The state of New Mexico has approved six new medical marijuana non-profit dispensaries located in Harding, Doña Ana, Lea, Catron, Cibola and Bernalillo counties, adding to the current set of five that operate in Santa Fe, Cibola and Bernalillo counties. The first non-profit was approved in March 2009 and four more came on-line in November 2009, when the patient group had grown to about 800 and the sole provider was consistently running out of marijuana.

The new operations announced today bring the total number of non-profits to 11. Since last November, the number of patients has grown to 1,952, with 865 being licensed to produce their own supply of marijuana. Each non-profit is allowed to have 95 mature plants plus an inventory on hand of marijuana. Based on New Mexico’s regulations, the Drug Policy Alliance has estimated that each non-profit at full production can supply about 100 patients.

To be approved for the medical cannabis program, patients must have a physician certify that they have one of the 16 qualifying conditions that is debilitating and cannot be helped by standard treatments. Certain conditions require additional medical certifications or medical records detailing the condition.

Qualifying conditions for medical cannabis: severe chronic pain, painful peripheral neuropathy, intractable nausea/vomiting, severe anorexia/cachexia, hepatitis C infection currently receiving antiviral treatment, Crohn’s disease, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder, Inflammatory Autoimmune-mediated Arthritis, Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (Lou Gehrig’s disease), cancer, glaucoma, multiple sclerosis, damage to the nervous tissue of the spinal cord with intractable spasticity, epilepsy, HIV/AIDS, and hospice care.