November brought not only the election of Donald Trump to the presidency, but also a nationwide trend toward marijuana legalization, both recreationally and medicinally. But not in New Mexico.
While some people are looking longingly to the financial boon of the green boom of Colorado, the Land of Enchantment has spent most of 2016 dealing with the bumps and bruises that came with the rapid growth of this states medical cannabis program.
Just how quickly the program was growing became apparent over the summer, when patients started reporting that their annual applications which are, by law, supposed to be processed by the state Department of Health (DOH) within 30 days werent getting processed for 60, 90 and even 180 days. That meant that some folks cannabis cards expired before their new ones came in, leaving them without a legal way to actually get their medicine.
As Roni Stephenson, general manager of the NewMexiCann Natural Medicine cannabis pharmacy in Taos, said in July, the administrative delay sent plenty of her regular patients back to the streets.
Rapid growth, challenges
From June 2015 to June 2016, the program swelled from 15,226 patients to 26,586. In the last five months, another 6,000 patients have been added to the program. Taos now has 1,088 medical cannabis patients enrolled with the state a significant number, especially compared to other rural counties.
New Mexicos cannabis program started in 2007 and allows people with one of 17 approved medical conditions including post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), cancer, HIV/AIDS, multiple sclerosis and Parkinsons disease to buy cannabis bud and cannabis-derived products at nonprofit pharmacies.
Not only must patients submit an initial application, but the law that created the program also requires they renew every year (which includes a self-financed visit to the doctor). And thats helped create a huge volume of applications for the DOH to process.
Cannabis pharmacies, Stephenson said, had few options for folks with expired cards. Besides offering a few hemp-based salves, all they can do is to encourage their customers to reapply early. That was also the recommendation from the state.
The backlog actually created the conditions to clear up a misconception thats common with patients about the states medical marijuana program, Stephenson said that its the state, not the pharmacies and growers, that are in charge. Even still, frustration cascaded down and boiled up the chain of command. Storefront distributors like NewMexiCann felt the confusion and despair firsthand.
The DOH encouraged people to find alternative treatments to medical cannabis the ultimate irony for patients for whom cannabis was their alternative to traditional treatments.
Don Peters, a local veteran, told The Taos News that alternatives to medical cannabis usually mean opioids and other pharmaceuticals, drugs he sharply criticized as a fall-back plan. He said its easy to get pharmaceuticals, but that a lot of veterans arent functioning on these drugs. Peters said hes also seen vets get addicted to opioids and slip into heroin use.
The backlog was so severe that State Auditor Tim Keller sent a letter to the DOH in June advising the department that the law requires a 30-day turnaround regardless of volume or budget constraints.
In August, the state automatically gave a 60-day extension to all medical cards that expired in the latter half of the year (that extension expires Dec. 31), a move that Stephenson said did help ease the burden on some of her patients.
This short-term Band-Aid gives us a chance to look at this deeper, said Keller of the extension in August.
Look ahead
But in some ways, the backlog exacerbated distrust in the DOH and the medical program (though not necessarily the pharmacies).
Peters told The Taos News that, at the time, many people especially veterans dont enroll in the medical cannabis program because its such an onerous process. Doctors with Veterans Affairs cant even recommend cannabis as a treatment because of federal regulations, meaning vets have to navigate an entirely different medical infrastructure to get enrolled.
The scare is still out there because it was such a big deal, Stephenson said, even now, with most applications being processed in the month mandated by law.
Even as the state is improving its internal systems to make the application process more efficient, officials are still encouraging folks to reapply early.
At a meeting of state lawmakers and the DOH in August, DOH Secretary Lynn Gallagher said the medical cannabis program would start the process of figuring out how to make the program more effective, especially at processing applications. Systems improvement is how Colorados medical program dealt with a similar surge in its medical program (before recreational marijuana was approved a couple of years ago).
The [DOH is] committed to reviewing the overall operation of the medical cannabis program, the departments spokesperson told The Taos News Dec. 8. The program has already identified and implemented some positive changes, which have strengthened our ability to serve medical cannabis patients. For example, by [mid-December, the program] will have added five new permanent employees [since October], who will process card applications. Additionally, to streamline approval of applications, a single employee now handles an application from start to finish, including approval and printing the patient registry card, the spokesperson said.
The DOH said it is meeting the 30-day timetable of processing applications (with an additional five days allowed to print and mail the cards). Stephenson, the pharmacy manager, confirmed thats also the feedback shes getting from her patients.
Most of the people she had to turn away over the last year, Stephenson said, are now regular customers again.
News Moderator: Katelyn Baker
Full Article: Cannabis Program Grows Like A Weed – But With Bumps And Bruises
Author: Cody Hooks
Contact: 575-758-2241
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Website: The Taos News
