New Mexico’s medical cannabis industry has grown into a powerful magnet for money and customers.

Customers, sales revenue and dispensaries have exploded the past year with a total of more than 40,000 people now signed up to purchase medical marijuana.

Since Jan. 1, some 8,000 New Mexicans obtained a state-issued license that allows them to legally buy pot, pushing patient enrollment to 40,432 in April. With the recent growth spurt, enrollment has increased by 84 percent since March 2016.

The number of dispensaries increased from 36 in January 2016 to 56 in April, with new dispensaries popping up in smaller cities, such as Roswell, Hobbs, Clovis, Carlsbad, Artesia and Taos.

And that has helped fuel an impressive sales growth over the past year.

First quarter sales this year topped $19 million, up 91 percent over the same period in 2016, according to New Mexico Department of Health data.

“We are probably the single fastest growing industry in New Mexico,” said Duke Rodriguez, president and CEO of Ultra Health LLC, the state’s largest cannabis distributor. “This is the one industry that has been a juggernaut of growth.” [Read more at Albuquerque Journal]