The medical cannabis industry is booming in New Mexico. The industry says the effects of COVID have dramatically increased demand and they’re trying to keep up.
“What we learned was it wasn’t just a New Mexico thing, in fact, the number of transactions have doubled in New Mexico, prices have gone up and the supply is pretty much in a very dire situation, very short,” said Duke Rodriguez, President, and CEO of Ultra Health.
Ultra Health recently commissioned an analysis to determine what was causing the increased demand. It showed from the final quarter of 2019 to the first quarter of 2020 the number of retail transactions nearly doubled.
The analysis also found that medical cannabis patients are at an elevated risk and want more medicine during the pandemic. They say contributing factors are increased loneliness, depression, anxiety, fear, and concern about the future.
Grass Roots RX, a dispensary along San Mateo says they’ve seen a significant increase in purchases. At Zia Health and Wellness, they say they’ve seen an uptick in medical card renewals, especially in people who hadn’t renewed their cards in a few years. With the demand up, Rodriguez says they need to be able to grow more plants. [Read more at KRQE]
