In this episode, the last of the year, I speak with small cannabis producer from New Mexico, Richard Strahlem.
Richard contacted me wishing to discuss the New Mexico statutory cannabis management body and the issues he and others have had with the body over the past couple of years.
He co-signed the following open letter sent to the state’s governor along with over 100 other small cannabis producers and businesses in the middle of the year with the assistance from the state chamber of commerce and as yet, says, they’ve heard nothing back from anybody in the New Mexico administration.
Cannnabis Industry Letter to Governor Lujan Grisham 6.27.23 (3)
In the letter and the podcast Richard outlines how licensing has been managed in the state and what seems like a total inability by the NM CCD to explain or manage the program efficiently.
The current director Todd Stevens is the body’s 4th director in only 2 and a half years and previously worked in Colorado’s cannabis retail private sector.
Richard talks us through his compliance issues with the NM CCD the lack of license oversight, only 50% of licensed businesses inspected as yet.
The NM CCD appears to change rules with what seems like little thought on how to share that information in a timely fashion with license holders and what was most worrying to hear, was something I have heard throughout 2024 about under pressure licensing authorities in other states.
That being, if a licensee is a little to vocal in their criticism or are demanding answers suddenly the compliance enforcement of their license(s) is stepped up.
Throughout our conversation Richard’s frustration is evident and the same that i’ve heard and read aabout all year from smaller businesses around the US.
Cannabis programs & legislative frameworks were supposedly designed to encourage the smaller players or those who had been affected by the war in drugs with the concept of equity licensing.
In some cases the legislation has been somewhat flawed but not disastrously so.
This conversation and many others I have witnessed throughout the year tend to point to the state regulatory bodies and their leadership of lack thereof.
I also believe that, in many cases, the hiring and HR practices used to find employees for these bodies is seriously flawed and simply put the wrong people are being hired to manage these programs. This is yet another conversation that bears this out.
CANNRA keep telling us what a great job their members are doing but vignettes from the frontline around the country suggest that this isn’t actually the case. If you are a big company with reserves of cash and experienced lawyers and other professionals you’ll do alright but if you are further down the pecking order it’s sink or swim.
Richard like many others in his predicament understand the market they are in and don’t complain about the difficulties or even the inbuilt inequities of programs but what really rankles is the inability of program managers or staff to work with licensees.
We were, in the main, told that cannabis was also meant to be an opportunity for smaller players to build good local and profitable businesses.
If, at the moment this isn’t even been bourne out in smaller states like New Mexico what hope do we have in seeing anything positive happening for smaller producers in the big states.
I don’t hold out hope that 2025 will bring the solutions if I’m being honest.
Which is a sad state of affairs to finish this year on.
