NEW MEXICO'S MEDICAL MARIJUANA LAW IS WORKING, BUT STILL HAS SOME KINKS

After an exhausting seven-year struggle, New Mexico joined the ranks
of the medical marijuana states last year. As of July 1, the New
Mexico Medical Cannabis Program will be a year old, but while parts
of the program are well underway -- patients are registering and
obtaining ID cards -- the state law's innovative system of
state-licensed production and distribution of medical marijuana is
stalled in the regulatory process, with no end in sight anytime soon.
Under the New Mexico law, the Lynn and Erin Compassionate Use Act,
patients suffering from a narrowly circumscribed set of illnesses --
cancer, glaucoma, multiple sclerosis, epilepsy, spinal cord damage
with intractable plasticity, and HIV/AIDS -- can, with a doctor's
recommendation and upon registration with the program, legally
possess and use up to six ounces of marijuana, four mature plants,
and three seedlings. The law also calls for a medical advisory board
to determine whether other conditions should be added to the list.

Some 147 patients have registered with the state as of Wednesday,
said Melissa Milam, head of the Medical Cannabis Program. "We're the
little program that could," she said. "We just keep plugging along."

"The patients are really excited to get their ID cards and have some
legal protections," agreed Reena Szczepanski, head for the Drug
Policy Alliance New Mexico office, who has been intimately involved
in the passage and implementation of the law. "The Department of
Health and the Medical Cannabis Program are doing a great job of
working with the patients, and it's been very thoughtfully
implemented in terms of registration and the medical advisory board," she said.

But the law also provides for designated caregivers to be able to
grow for patients and for a system of state licensing of production
and distribution. Although the law called for the Department of
Health to promulgate regulations for production and distribution by
last October 1, that hasn't happened yet. As a result, the provisions
for caregivers and licensed production and distribution have not gone
into effect. That means patients must either grow their own medicine
or procure it on the black market.

The Department of Health finally promulgated draft regulations in
December and held a public hearing on them on January 14. Those draft
rules provided for "five different kinds of licensed producers: a
qualified patient, a caregiver, an association of persons, a private
entity, or a state owned and/or operated facility."

Based on the input it got in the hearing process, the department has
been crafting a revised draft of the regulations ever since. "We're
still working on that rule," said Deb Busemeyer, spokesperson for the
Department of Health. "We held a public hearing and received written
and oral comments, and we made some revisions, and it looks like
we'll probably hold another public hearing to let people comment on
our revisions."

Busemeyer was vague on a timeline, offering only that she expects a
hearing "some time this year" and resolutely declining to predict
when the regulations on production and distribution would actually be
implemented.

But he department is committed to crafting the production and
distribution regulations, Busemeyer said. "The governor was really
clear -- this is an important program, and he wants us to figure out
how to implement the law. We've been working on hard on this, we
believe in this program, we're not dropping it by any means, but we
want a good strong law with the right kind of rules, so we're taking
our time," she said.

Still, Busemeyer conceded that the delay was hard on patients. "They
still have to get it the same way patients do in those other medical
marijuana states," she said.

"The biggest source of dissatisfaction among patients is where do you
get it?" said Szczepanski. "It's the same situation as in so many
other medical marijuana states. That's why the legislature was keen
on the state-licensed distribution system; the intention was that New
Mexico would be different."

It may well turn out to be different, but the question is when. "I'm
concerned that we don't have a date for when the rest of the
regulations are coming out," said Szczepanski. "I don't have any
reason to believe they won't implement it, but I'd like to know the
time frame."

Although Szczepanski bemoaned delays in drafting the regulations, she
said she is glad the department is holding another public hearing.
"My understanding is that they are working on significant changes to
the regs, and we are pleased to have a formal opportunity to have
input," she said. "If there are drastic changes from the first draft,
it's better to have another hearing."

While each of the five sorts of licensed producers and distributors
envisioned in the first draft of the regulations has its advantages,
there is a strong argument to be made for including a state-owned or
- -operated component, said Szczepanski. "We are a largely rural state
and we have to be concerned about equality of access," she noted.
"New Mexico has public health offices scattered around the state, and
we have a Department of Agriculture at our state university that
knows how to grow things. The possible downside to a single supplier
is that if it's producing poor quality medicine or not delivering a
range of products, what do you do?"

The best solution would be to have a mix of licensees as envisioned
in the first draft regulations, Szczepanski agued. "Having a variety
of options is important for patients. If you're in a small town with
a public health office and only using for a short time, that might
work for you. But if you live in Albuquerque and have a chronic
condition with specific health needs, you might want other options.
We have to do what's best for the patients," she said.

While Szczepanski chafed at the delays, she saw no sinister forces at
work. "The feds pushed back against us when we were in the
legislature, but I haven't heard any rumblings at all about any
pressure from Washington," she said. "Our local opponents have also
been very quiet. There's nothing for them to glom onto to; there have
been no scandals or abuses or outrages. The program is working and
the patients have their cards and are protected," she said.

But they still need help growing their medicine while the Department
of Health ponders the regulations. The department could take interim
steps to ease their plight, said Szczepanski. "If the department is
going to wait much longer to produce the production and distribution
regulations, they need to start certifying caregivers immediately,"
she said. "The department says it doesn't have the authority to do
that until the regs are published, and we're not looking for hasty
action, but the caregiver regulations could be done now. There are
already applications pending."