1. For immediate release Media contact: Deborah Busemeyer
July 9, 2010 505-827-2619, 505-470-2290
Health Secretary Approves Six New Nonprofit Medical Cannabis Producers
New Mexico Now Has 11 Licensed Nonprofit Producers
(Santa Fe) – The New Mexico Department of Health announced today that it is licensing six additional
nonprofit producers for its Medical Cannabis program. There are now 11 nonprofits licensed to produce
medical cannabis for patients in New Mexico.
“The additional producers will help meet the needs of our patients by making medical cannabis more
accessible to patients in all regions of the state,” said Health Secretary Alfredo Vigil, MD. “We will
continue to evaluate the program to ensure patients’ needs are being met without creating an excess
supply of medical cannabis in New Mexico.”
The six new nonprofits are located in Harding, Doña Ana, Lea, Catron, Cibola and Bernalillo counties.
Nonprofits previously approved are in Santa Fe, Cibola and Bernalillo counties.
The Department of Health will provide patients with contact information for the newly licensed nonprofit
producers in approximately six weeks. This will give the nonprofits time to set up their production
facilities and get ready to respond to patient inquiries.
The Department approved the first nonprofit producer in March 2009 and four more in November
2009. Nonprofit producers are allowed to have 95 mature plants and seedlings and have an inventory of
usable medical cannabis for patients. Patients can also apply to produce their own supply of medical
cannabis and are allowed to have four mature plants and 12 seedlings.

2. There are 1,952 active medical cannabis patients, and 865 are licensed to produce their own supply of
medical cannabis.
To be approved for the medical cannabis program, patients must have a physician certify that they have
one of the 16 qualifying conditions that is debilitating and cannot be helped by standard treatments.
Certain conditions require additional medical certifications or medical records detailing the condition.
Qualifying conditions for medical cannabis: severe chronic pain, painful peripheral neuropathy,
intractable nausea/vomiting, severe anorexia/cachexia, hepatitis C infection currently receiving antiviral
treatment, Crohn’s disease, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder, Inflammatory Autoimmune-mediated
Arthritis, Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (Lou Gehrig’s disease), cancer, glaucoma, multiple sclerosis,
damage to the nervous tissue of the spinal cord with intractable spasticity, epilepsy, HIV/AIDS, and
hospice care.
For more information about the Department of Health’s Medical Cannabis Program, look up
www.nmhealth.org/idb/medical_cannabis.shtml.
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