From the day recreational marijuana was legalized, someone was out there trying to cheat the system. That’s why lawmakers imposed stringent safeguards to regulate all aspects of the new industry including licensing, lab testing, labeling requirements, and a ban on sales to children. That’s the way it’s supposed to work. But the reality today is a nightmare that has state officials scrambling. If you want to buy marijuana today, you don’t have to go to a licensed dispensary. Visit any number of gas stations or convenience stores across New Mexico and you’ll find racks of candy, chips, cokes and cannabis.
“It’s illegal. It’s illicit. Whatever words you want to use, it’s black market cannabis,” Duke Rodriguez says. Rodriguez is CEO for Ultra Health, the largest licensed cannabis producer in the state.
They get away with it by disguising bootleg marijuana in packaging that falsely identifies the contents as hemp. Cannabis and hemp look alike, but chemically they are vastly different. The only way to tell the difference is by having the product tested in a laboratory. Because hemp is not psycho active and won’t get you high, it can be sold anywhere including gas stations.
