People who are not residents of New Mexico and who don’t have medical cannabis cards in other states would no longer be allowed to buy the medicine here under a proposed law change heading to the governor’s desk and likely to be signed.

The House voted Monday night to approve  Senate Bill 139, which cleared the Senate over the weekend on a 32-8 vote.

Still smarting from a District Court loss over the issue that has resulted in the state issuing over 600 cards to out-of-state patients, the Health Department, lawmakers and Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham are pushing for a language change in the statute that would halt the practice.

The House Health and Human Services Committee voted 6-1 Monday morning to recommend passage of the bill and it moved quickly to a floor vote.

Here’s the key shift in the language: Qualified patients would be “residents of New Mexico” instead of the broader “person,” which has caused all the trouble. [Read more at Santa Fe Reporter]