I am writing today to announce the closure of the New Mexico Independent. After three and a half years of operation in New Mexico, the board of the American Independent News Network, has decided to shift publication of its news…
While environmental activists played their part yesterday during demonstrations at the capitol building, going so far as to dress up as solar panels and to sing the tune of “You Are My Sunshine,” their counterparts, the anti-cap-and-trade contingency who has…
Roughly one quarter of University of New Mexico students are unimpressed with the state’s flagship public school, according to a survey that questioned college students about their higher education experiences.
The New Mexico Department of Health is seeking public input on some proposals for changing the state’s medical marijuana program, including ways to make the program financially self-sufficient and more tightly regulated.
One of the proposals would levy an annual fee…
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.…
A recent story aired on National Public Radio about New Mexico’s innovative medical marijuana program again looked at the state’s program being one of the strictest in the country.
NPR held New Mexico up as the anti-California, telling its listeners…
New Jersey will become the 14th state to legalize medical marijuana if Gov. Chris Christie signs a bill on his desk. The state modeled its legislation on New Mexico’s highly regulated medical marijuana program, although it may ultimately become even more…
Arizona could allow the use of marijuana if voters approve of a measure that qualified Tuesday for the November ballot. In order to get the issue on the ballot, supporters gathered more than 250,000 signatures, the Arizona Republic reports.
Almost 75 percent of Americans support legalizing marijuana for medicinal purposes, according to a national survey conducted by the Pew Research Center for the People & the Press. The number in support of general marijuana legalization is much smaller although…
As more and more states, like New Mexico, take the beginning steps in creating a medical marijuana program, the state that first allowed the drug for medicinal use 14 years ago is considering legalizing it entirely. Once Los Angeles County…
A Colorado legislator wants to amend a medical marijuana licensing bill to allow any military veteran suffering from post traumatic stress disorder to use the drug after obtaining a recommendation from a psychiatrist. In offering the amendment to Colorado House…
The largest group of patients enrolled in New Mexico’s medical marijuana program are those who suffer from post traumatic stress disorder, or PTSD, according to the most recent New Mexico Department of Health data. But Albuquerque’s Veteran’s Administration hospital–which many veterans rely on as their only source of health care–doesn’t allow its physicians to recommend the use of marijuana to patients.
A bill introduced by Sen. Jon Sapien, D-Corrales, would apply a 25 percent excise tax and gross receipts taxes on the drug. But the founders of a new medical marijuana patients’ group say that to force patients to pay tax on their medicine would “hurt them a lot.”
Although it has been praised for its innovative structure, New Mexico’s medical marijuana program, which debuted this year, has also been criticized for not providing enough of the drug to meet demand and for allowing high costs that could be prohibitive for some patients. In an interview, New Mexico Secretary Alfredo Vigil says New Mexico’s medical marijuana program faces the same barriers of provision and access as other health care services.
The American Medical Association has changed its position on whether marijuana should be classified by the federal government as a dangerous narcotic with no medicinal value. Short-term trials indicate marijuana does have medicinal value, the AMA says in the
Although the Drug Policy Alliance of New Mexico applauded the state’s decision Monday to approve four new nonprofit medical marijuana providers, Executive Director Reena Szczepanski said more will be needed soon. “You can do a back-of the envelope…
After months during which New Mexico’s single non-profit producer of medical marijuana was unable to keep a consistent supply of medical cannabis, Department of Health Secretary Alfredo Vigil announced Monday that the state is licensing an additional four producers, enough, the department hopes, to supply the state’s nearly 800 active medical cannabis patients.
The New Mexico medical marijuana program, whose sole provider recently ran out of the drug, may need to be revised if patients can’t be guaranteed access to their medicine, critics say.
