New Mexico’s Department of Health has announced the approval of six new nonprofit medical marijuana dispensaries, bringing the state’s total number to 17. According to the New Mexico Independent, the department is also considering a number of proposed changes to its medical marijuana program, including:

*Implementing an annual fee for nonprofit producers based on how long the nonprofit has been operating (previously proposed 7 percent fee on gross annual revenue). The fees would be $5,000 for producers licensed less than one year, $10,000 for more than one year, $20,000 for more than two years and $30,000 for more than three years.

*Eliminating the proposed open and closed application periods

*Removing size requirements from definition of mature plant and size limits from definition of seedling

*Allowing nonprofit producers to get plants, seeds and useable cannabis from other licensed nonprofit producers

There are currently more than 2,800 registered medical marijuana patients in New Mexico, more than 1,200 of whom have individual permits to grow their own medicine.

Incoming New Mexico Gov. Susana Martinez (R) has vowed to repeal the state’s medical marijuana law, widely considered one of the tightest regulated in the country. Thankfully, such an act would first have to pass through the state legislature, which has remained supportive of the program.

We’ve all heard the rhetoric, trotted out again and again by law enforcement and paranoid city officials, that dispensaries and other marijuana facilities cause crime wherever they are. They focus on a horror story and blame the dispensary regardless of the facts at hand. They point to media coverage of similar incidents and say that all dispensaries are blights on the community.

Now, the media and the authorities are very good at using scare tactics, but what they consistently lack are statistical data to support their claims. This is because there is no such data.

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The signature count is in, and it’s official!

In November, Oregon voters will have an opportunity to vote on a measure that would improve access for medical marijuana patients by allowing the creation of nonprofit, state-regulated medical marijuana dispensaries. The official name for the ballot question will be Measure 28.

This positive news expands the number of local elections this year that will have marijuana-related questions on the ballot. To review:

• In California, voters will consider Proposition 19, which would make it legal for adults 21 and over to use and grow marijuana for personal use, as well as allow local governments to tax and regulate the drug.
• In South Dakota and Arizona, voters will have a chance to add their states to the list of those with effective medical marijuana laws, potentially bringing the total number nationwide to 16 (plus the District of Columbia).
• And in Detroit, voters will decide whether to make it legal for adults to possess up to one ounce of marijuana in the city.

Most polling so far has been very encouraging. Be sure to go out and vote if you live in one of these states. Everyone else, tune-in for the results on November 2!

Maine took an important step toward enhancing patient access to medical marijuana on Friday, when officials awarded the state’s first operating licenses to six nonprofit dispensaries that will open across the state. Regulated dispensaries were added to Maine’s law in November, after nearly 60% of state voters approved an MPP-drafted initiative that made Maine the third medical marijuana state to allow dispensary licenses, and the first to do so through the ballot.

In related news, New Mexico, which was the first state to license dispensaries, just approved six more medical marijuana producers—bringing the state’s total number of licensed, nonprofit dispensaries to 11.

These establishments—when properly regulated—provide patients in need with safe, reliable and orderly access to their medicine, saving them the effort of growing their own while also sparing them from having to resort to the often dangerous and unpredictable black market.

Elsewhere, Rhode Island has been holding hearings on applicants for dispensary licenses there, while New Jersey and Washington, D.C. are considering similar plans. In Oregon, it seems increasingly likely that state voters will consider adding dispensaries to that state’s law this November.

Could the tiny island of Guam become the first U.S. territory to pass a medical marijuana law?

Yesterday, a bill was introduced into Guam’s 15-member legislature that would give qualified patients legal access to medical marijuana and create a system of “compassionate health care centers” to grow and dispense it.

Guam now joins more than a dozen U.S. states that have considered or are considering medical marijuana legislation this year.

It’s still unclear what chances the Guam bill has of passing, but if it were to become law, medical marijuana would then be legal in 14 U.S. states, one federal district (Washington, D.C.) and one U.S. territory.