Have any new Producers been approved since Jan 1?

[allgreens]

I know there were several new approved producers before Martinez took office, i've heard rumors they may just simply not approve new producers. If so will renewal of existing producers become an issue in Dec?

allgreens Reviewed by allgreens on 03-31-2011. Have any new Producers been approved since Jan 1? I know there were several new approved producers before Martinez took office, i've heard rumors they may just simply not approve new producers. If so will renewal of existing producers become an issue in Dec? Rating: 5

[ManOBuds]

It probably will.....

[alfonso2002]

don't think that will be a problem right now what will be is the fees due for the producers that is. There have not been any major problems with any of the producers.

[patient4200]

well things are about to get dicey for the program. A venture captialist, who no doubt spent 100k setting up a grow operation before a license was issued is now suing the state since they are not approving everybody who applies.

sure enough when the application fee was $100 everybody and his mom who ever stuck a seed in dirt thought they could meet the requirements for producer permit. I found a number of application on the web which were carbon copies of poorly writen applications with just some name and location changes. Now it looks like big money will be spent to get some folks into this business.

BIOMED v DOH

The producer I'm on board with spent over a year tweeking the application before the state finally approved. and I was told that not a nail was driven in the grow room until the day the approval was given. Plenty of money was spent on the facility, not to mention lots of time working with the DOH to hoepfully get approved. Approvals are not assured is a paraphrase of the application. it was all up to the judgement to a single individual. The secretary of the DOH.

now this venture captial guy, who likley has a complete facility ready to grow is trying to force the states hand.

this will likely cause huge problems since the DOH raised the app fee to reduce the number of bs applications needing to be processed and implemented a huge renewal fee starting this year to fund the infrastructure needed to manage just 25 producers. We don't need 100 do we?..maybe we do..with one on every streetcorner in SantaFe..and next thing you know the feds will start sniffing around.

in short, this lawsuit has the potential to simply shut down the program since to manage over 100 producers is going to take money the DOH simply doesn't have. It will be simpler to mire the renewal process and let all current producers licneses expire imagine how much money it's going to cost to deal with this lawsuit

a venture captialist ( according to KOB news)..these are NON-PROFIT companies you dingbats. who's investing?

[budlover13]

I'm from Cali, but can verify that at least one is in the process of leaving NM to come out here for family reasons. I mention it because there's an empty slot coming up if they are limiting it to a certain #.

[ManOBuds]

Why do so many folks leave NM when there is a problem? Move the "family" reasons HERE. I wouldn't live in cali for any reason.

[FLYINGHIGH2]

Don't let patient4200's lie fool you. I know several people who have been working on their applications for over two years. All from scratch. Fresh and brand spanking new apps. No carbon copies like he's claiming. Two years "tweaking" their apps with Zurlo. They had their applications approved and had site visits. Then the communication with the DOH ceased. Zurlo stopped returning calls and emails. Last thing they heard from him was to watch the DOH website for updates. Hard to find updates on a website that is rarely updated. That was over six months ago when Zurlo told them that. Almost seems as though Vigil, Zurlo, and the others were and are working hard at having the program fail. Fail so the state could take over control of it and work with the Big Pharma companies. It is written into the application guidelines that if the program does fail they take control. Did you know that p4200? Unless of course 25 producers is enough for the nearly 4,000 patients in NM. Are all you patients adequately supplied as of now? I for one am glad to see the lawsuit. Maybe it will get the DOH to actually move forward instead of standing still. It'll be very interesting to see how Zurlo defends himself in court against the blatant lies he's been telling the reporters he's been interviewed by. If it actually does go to trial that is. I'll definitely be waiting for more info on this lawsuit. Besides, didn't SFINM have to sue the state to be approved? The very first producer had to sue to be approved. Go figure. I knew there was something severely wrong with you p4200 the day you arrived here. Ignorance is bliss isn't p4200? The "venture capitalist" he speaks of is only the organizer of the suit. Where he's coming up with "over 100" producers I will never know since there is what, maybe six plaintiffs involved. Last time I checked 25 + 6 is 31 not "over 100". Nice try though. I'll give you a B+ for effort but unfortunately I'm forced to give a D-/F+ for truthfulness and believability. Don't bother responding to me since I don't frequent this site since the massive downgrade they did. The only reason I came here tonight was to see if the lawsuit was mentioned.

[ManOBuds]

Vigil isn't the secretary of health any more.....martinez replaced him with Catherine Torres.

[patient4200]

Don't let patient4200's lie fool you..

Well I'll take offense at you in a big way.. especially your rant on KOB.

Lies..Don't think so.

Facts, that what I work with...DZ and his band of three work with no money, since the MCP program is using money from the HARM program to fund it.

Without a BIG influx of cash ( and time) how do you think the program is going to manage site inspections and regular inspections of all of these applicants? Unless the program is limited to one county there is simply no way to attain it.

I'm a big fan of using the process..which by the way doesn't include lawsuits to get your way. Take a look at all my other posts where I encouraged patients to contact their reps to let them know their needs.

I'll take offense at a number of other things too. But since you won't be around to read this or have the resolve to engage in a debate about the best way to handle this let me give the viewpoints of a patient who was bone tired of driving for a full day to get meds.

The MCP program needs to hire a BUNCH of people. Between inquires from potential cardholders and producers the amount of paperwork to get a properly filed application is HUGE. You wouldn't know that unless you were on a board of directors in a role past that of being a cardholder.

EVERY member of a non profit has to be HIPAA certified, our group brought a consultant in to train the staff on current rules and regulations, then an exam had to be passed in order to get the rating required. That took close to two months..all during that time our application was sitting in a stack.

new federal level background checks were required..and so on all of this means more delays.

Certain towns wanted to prevent producers from setting up shop there..more delays.

Funding for MCP was supposed to come from a percentage of sales, but it seems that either nobody really can grow cannabis in the state, or there was an awful lot of diversion going on the "reported" amount of production was laughable..so a fee was established and a sizeable one at that. @ 5-10k+ a pop the program may have enough funding next year to hire some folks. Site inspectors paper pushers and so on.

No public representative in New Mexico would survive trying to obtain funding for the MCP direct given the stance of our new governor. The HARM program only has token funding at best. The recent attempt to introduce a bill to repeal failed, why..the bill sponsor certainly had the governors support..but a couple of thousand folks let him know it was a really really bad idea to try that. Imagine the lawsuits from producers who had big investments to protect

So a lawsuit to force the wheels into motion?..it will in the end have an undesirable effect.

I might have a different view if the lawsuit was brought by patients, but I see this as simply a move by folks who have made a mistake investing big money to establish a not for profit company when the DOH application clearly states "an application does not assure an approval" and are now anxious to get their investments back and start collecting some salaries

I know what the parameters are for approval easy to deduce by the pin map of approved providers and easily found web data.

How do you explain an approval in Cantron county?..Simple..one of the patients there had some political pull There are many more patients in las cruces then there are in Silver city yet the las Cruces providers were left to dangle while the previous secretary fiddled away. I'm actually surprised he didn't send a big farewell note to the new governor and approve all the outstanding applications.

But without the means to monitor the activity of the producers we could quite easily had a situation like Montana.

Steps were taken to improve the program. I won't go into details, everybody here knows what changes were made in the last few months.

Now that we have a card mill or two operating in the state ( just check craigslist) expect to see MORE patients coming on line with patients buying more then they need so the excess can be sold to bolster their incomes.

I can go on for some time, but until I run for a political position in the state, I'll leave you with a few thoughts about the state of the state.

The environment is politically hostile to Medical Cannabis

Anything that bolsters that hostile environment is going to hurt the program, the cost to defend any lawsuit is going to make the MCP program far less attractive, and it will be so easy for a few new regs to be put in place to make renewals all but impossible.

The system must be used against itself and in a big way. The governor is not an ultimate dictator, the people rule, if they pick up the ball.If they don't the outspoken few manipulate the state reps which in turn vote on state futures

The DOH HARM program is seriously underfunded and so is the MCP program by default.

Learn lessons by what happened in other states, regardless of their structures. An in your face approach isn't going to work here, it will only serve to rally the "it's more trouble then it's worth" crowd to call their state reps and say "why on earth are we spending any money on THIS?. Don't you know the state is broke?

The end result may mean the end to state licensed producers and the establishment of more personal production licenses, which will prevent the neediest of patients from getting what they need.


Sorry for being a bit long winded, but I resent being called a liar. My posts speak for themselves.

So let;'s turn this into a debate and a meeting of minds..washing off mud is a waste of water

What would you do to speed things along?, let's say you had power to approve producers, tell me how you would manage activity, do site inspections and keep everything on the up and up. With 10-20 hours a week of time. Right..answer 50 emails a day and dozens of phone calls.

[alfonso2002]

I think the DOH will take is't time in any more approvals till this last rounds of approvals get going and they see if there is enough meds. to go around. They don't want to see a large supply left after demand is met.