TOO MANY PATIENTS, NOT ENOUGH POT

Medical Marijuana Growers Fault New Mexico For A Big Shortage

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (AP) =AD Len Goodman can't grow
enough marijuana to keep up with demand.

He is one of just 11 growers approved by New
Mexico to produce pot for all of the state's
2,000 registered medical marijuana patients, and
his customers routinely wipe out his supply. Once
a strain of marijuana is harvested, dried and
cured, he sends an announcement that patients can
place orders, and the pot is usually gone in 24 hours.

New Mexico has been so cautious in licensing and
regulating growers under its 3-year-old medical
marijuana law that the small number of providers
can't grow enough, creating a shortage that has
forced some patients to the street to buy the drug illegally.

The dilemma in New Mexico could have
ramifications elsewhere because the state's
program has been held up as a national model,
with other states looking to replicate its strong
regulatory structure to avoid the chaos that has
prevailed in places like California.

Prospective pot growers are subjected to a
painstaking screening process before being
granted a license. Once that happens, they are
limited to 95 plants and seedlings and an
inventory "that reflects current qualified patient needs."

The providers' identities and locations are kept
secret, avoiding the kind of storefront
dispensaries that have flourished in Colorado and California.

State Health Secretary Dr. Alfredo Vigil says he
must balance patients' needs against preventing
so much legal pot from being grown that it ends
up in the illegal market. He said the program is
being expanded methodically to ensure sufficient
oversight and to get to know producers and how they operate.

He also opposes having hundreds of producers and
many thousands of patients, which he said
"absolutely takes it out of the arena of use for
in-state patients and into the arena of defacto legalization."

Medical marijuana patient Larry Love sees New
Mexico as an example of what not to do. He
contends the department approves new growers much too slowly.

Love, who runs a blog and has been highly
critical of Vigil, got his medical marijuana card
in June 2009 but said it was November before he
could get a supply from an authorized grower. He
said that drove him and other patients to the
illegal market, despite the risks.

Goodman's Santa Fe County business, NewMexicann,
has 650 registered patients =AD five times the
number of patients he said he can supply. Other
producers are in similar shape, he said.

As a result, he has to ration pot to patients who are chronically ill.

"Sometimes they don't have enough so they use it
when it's really severe, which is not good," he
said. "It's like seniors cutting down on their
meds because they can't afford it."

The situation in New Mexico is being closely
watched by other states as medical marijuana becomes increasingly popular.

New Jersey, Iowa, Maine, Rhode Island, Hawaii,
Colorado, Washington, D.C., and some California
municipalities have called about New Mexico's
law, Health Department spokeswoman Deborah
Busemeyer said. They have been asking how the
state manages producers and how it's kept some
control over legal pot while avoiding problems
with federal agencies, since marijuana remains illegal under federal law.

New Jersey and Rhode Island have laws that are
closer to New Mexico's system than California's much more freewheeling one.

New Mexico passed its medical marijuana law in
2007, and patient rolls have grown to about
2,000. New Mexico approved 200 patients in the
program's first year; it is now approving about 200 a month.

Love claims the state needs at least 10 more
producers by the end of the year to keep up.