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Do NM Cannabis Producers Support Mandatory Testing for Medical Cannabis?

Tested Medical MarijuanaIn January 2015,  two New Mexico Medical Cannabis Program patients decided to poll the licensed producers in New Mexico to see how they felt about mandatory testing of cannabis and cannabis products. These patients knew that some of the producers were already testing their products and fully support testing, but didn’t know anything about how the majority of them felt about it. This has been a very contentious issue and there have been much banter and lots of rumor about how each of the producers felt about this subject, so it was decided to go right to the source for some answers. Below you will find the letter that was sent out, once by email and once by traditional mail in January, followed by a second email in February. The patients wanted to be sure all producers got it and had ample time to reply. At the end of the letter is a link to the pdf of the answers. Only 12 of 23 producers replied. A group of interested patients was formed and met this Sunday to assess the replies. I will post their personal feelings about this in another post as soon as I get it.

Dear Sir or Madame,

I am a patient in the New Mexico Medical Cannabis Program. I’m also a member of the New Mexico Medical Cannabis Patient Alliance, Albuquerque and the New Mexico Medical Cannabis Patient Alliance, South. I represent not only myself, but other interested patients in the NMMCP.

This letter to you is regarding the possibility of mandatory testing and labeling of cannabis and the mandatory testing and labeling of finished cannabis products, because there is much discussion amongst concerned patients in the NMMCP regarding the quality of medicine offered by the LNPPs around the state.

We understand that some patients may not care if their cannabis is tested for impurities or cannabinoid content, but a majority of patients do care. As you know, many patients suffer from debilitating disease and immune deficiency disorders. We know from our discussions that there is a wide range of opinions on how LNPPs may feel about the mandatory testing of their products. To be fair, and not being on your side of the equation, we don’t know how you as an individual LNPP may feel about mandatory testing.

As of this date there are only rumors of testing facilities opening soon, so the one thing that we are asking is for you to assume when answering our questions that there will be two or more independent testing facilities available in New Mexico. With that in mind, here are our qu es tions :

Does your LNPP organization support mandatory testing and labeling for cannabinoid content for your cannabis products?
Why or why not?

Does your LNPP organization support mandatory testing and labeling for moisture content, pesticide residue, molds, and/or other impurities in cannabis products?
Why or why not?

Does your LNPP organization support mandatory testing and labeling of finished product? Why or why not?

Your answers will help us better understand the side of the cannabis producers in New Mexico. Thank you for taking the time to answer our questions.

We also feel, and must assume that no reply from your organization means you do not support mandatory testing and we’ll never know why, so please be sure to get back to us by February 16, 2015. We want to know how you feel about mandatory testing.

Thank you for your support of New Mexico Medical Cannabis patients.

The replies can be read or downloaded here.

Sarijuana

8 Comments

  1. It looks like you’ve misspelled the word “Secion” on your website. I thought you would like to know :). Silly mistakes can ruin your site’s credibility. I’ve used a tool called SpellScan.com in the past to keep mistakes off of my website.

    -Kerri

  2. How dare you snub the very people who put and keep you in business. Therefore, I think it’s great that you chose to start a political arm of the Medical Marijuana Program and fund it Mr. Ford, however, less you forget who went to bat for you last June, We the Patients Did. And now you don’t believe that we have the right to ask you for your response to testing our Medicine. As I remember you stated in June if the NMDOH, allowed you the growers to increase your plant counts, we were Promised the price would Drop dramatically, however, once again, you the Producer’s and Dispensaries Lied. Furthermore, not only did you lie to get us the patients on board, most of the Producer’s including you Mr.Ford have been expanding their respective businesses and moreover, Have Never intended to Drop Prices to us the Patients. Therefore, if anything, Your Prices have gone up, while Quality of the Medicine has gone down. So, Let’s be Clear, you and the vast majority of other Producer’s, Growers, and Dispensaries could give a Shit what we as patients need and want. Therefore, I will personally be starting a New Patient Alliance, Founded and Funded by Patients Only, as the one that you Created is a Wolf in Sheep’s clothing. However, let me restate, I along with thousands of other Patients will be starting the new Alliance. As there comes a time when you ask yourself, why are we letting you and your Chronies take Control of Our Program. Peace.

    • Andrew, we can make this state awesome! These LNPPs will find the karma really soon over their actions. They exploited us long enough. I am all in on this campaign to reign in the LNPPs. They want less regulations. We push for more. They want more locations. We fight to limit it geographically so places that can manage deliveries in those areas of our massive state are both able to deliver and within reasonable range. As well as only 1 single extra location per LNPP. We push for green energy regulations so they can supplement the insane overhead with renewable energy. They want less testing. We push for what is RIGHT! What HELPS patients of all stripes. Not their cookie-cutter philosophy of “they’re just stoners.” We are patients and we should push our medical program to be patient centered. Not green rush centered.
      Like I said, I’m all for some brainstorming to make this an awesome state for medical cannabis.

  3. I think it is wrong to assume that because we did not respond to your generic solicitation that we are against testing. Many producers understand the importance of testing and look to our state regulators to create an environment where testing will be available, affordable and mandatory. That environment does not exist now and we have been advised by the DOH and MCP not to test our products with unapproved laboratories. Perhaps a better use of your time may be to put political pressure on the DOH and MCP to test through the state labs. We, as producers, could subsidize the cost and patients would reap the benefits. I founded your organization – the NM Medical Cannabis Patients Alliance and funded it’s inception in order to create a political arm for the patients to express their wants and needs to the government – not so that you could waste your time polling the producers as to how we feel – how we feel is unimportant – how we are regulated is what matters.

    William Ford, Executive Director
    R. Greenleaf Organics, Inc
    Medzen Services, Inc.
    Healthy Education Society

    • “This is an outrage! I demand an investigation! You can’t sell our seats! A Duke has been sitting on this exchange since it was founded! We founded this exchange! It’s ours! It belongs to us!”

      This quote from the 1983 movie “Trading Places” was the first thing that came to mind when I first read the response below.

      Polling of the producers was not done by he NMMCPA, it was done by patients. In fact, several of the patients participating in this survey had no idea what the NM Medical Cannabis Patient Alliance was, but they do now, and I hope they are not dismayed.

      Because patients were well aware that there was no approved lab at the time of the survey, it was clearly asked that the questions be answered with the assumption that labs were present.

      The statement that producers would be assumed not to be supportive of mandatory testing if no reply was received was included to emphasize just how important these answers are to patients who have been hearing nothing but rumors for years, especially scathing comments about producers by other producers. The statement was included to get producers to respond, to which many did with thoughtful, well prepared responses.

      Mr. Ford’s response here in this blog is very telling. Lack of response to the patient survey by all of the LNPP organizations we now know Mr. Ford to be Executive Director of, appears to be no accident or oversight. This post has obviously hit a nerve though, and patients now know they are not doing what Mr. Ford thinks they should do. Perhaps if he could trade places with a less fortunate patient in the NMMCP he could understand the frustrations of patients who get banned from dispensaries for complaining, have no safe access to cannabis medicine where they live, can’t afford or are unable to travel to buy medicine, can’t depend on accurate information about the medicine that IS available, are unable to attend meetings and hearings because of physical disabilities, and may have no access at all to fellowship with other patients, let alone communicate meaningfully with producers.

      I think it’s important for patients to waste their time doing whatever they wish. Patients have been petitioning the DOH for years to create a working testing protocol, with or without the Patient Alliance graciously set up by Mr. Ford. The New Mexico Medical Cannabis program has many, many pitfalls that need to be addressed, and most everyone agrees to that, but please don’t tell patients what the best use of their time should be. Patients are no longer willing to be tools.

      Perhaps patients would be better served by petitioning the state for a co-operative program between patients and the compassionate producers, that would provide them all with what they need the most, and the producers with their eyes on the recreational market of the future can go at it on their own, and not on the backs of patients.

    • A solicitation that was sanctioned by an organization that represents the very consumers you wish to service. A solicitation that a majority of the the Alliance wanted to know your opinion on. Opinions that count to people who have medical conditions that may be compromised by AIDS, Cancer, Crohn’s, or any number of other awful immuno-compromising conditions. The ingestion of certain things can lead to allergic reactions that normal people wouldn’t. The smallest amounts of some thing you may consider “benign” or “unimportant” may lead to organ failure and possibly death for some people. That is why the solicitation WAS NOT “generic” or “unimportant.” THIS IS OUR HEALTH SIR! This is not something you can toy with to make a fast buck. We are not here for you to exploit like your own personal “mini green rush.”

      You represent a medical non-profit entity sir. You do not represent a hedge fund or a conglomerate(as much as we all know you would like to). You represent an organization that was founded to provide VERY SICK people with a reasonable supply of SAFE and EFFECTIVE medications. As part of being SAFE is knowing what in the hell is in the medication to begin with. Do you know if that AIDS patient you just sold Blue Dream too is allergic to the level of toxicity of anything in your medications contents? No you don’t because you can only ask information about the patient’s conditions and only if they solicit the information. How can you tell that patient when they ask if there is a high level of copper in that strain. You didn’t want the testing. That it compromised their fragile immune system with something you could have tested to know if it was even present. You don’t know is the case and unless you INFORM the patient, how can they accurately CONSENT? Do you want your name attached to a news report titled “A report of a death related marijuana use reported in….?” Yeah that doesn’t sound fun.

      You are wanting to cut corners and skirt NEEDED testing to profit from it. To produce medication you plan on keeping sub-par with even semi-good closet growers. It’s a sad fact I supported your Medzen location so heavily. I even tried to help you folks out today. I came home with horrible quality medication that is just a joke to be honest. A baker in their kitchen at home with a magical butter and a stove does better than your “Medical-Grade” swill. You should be ashamed sir. Not justification of attempted payoff to an Alliance of sick patients seeking help. You think because you sink money in a thing that it’s just going to sprout legs and lips to dance and sing a tune to your liking? I’m sorry sir, but that is certainly not the case here. We are sick people with a love for each other you obviously no longer share in. We actually care if a patient gets crappy medication or how they can improve their lives through education and information about what may help them best. Not what you think is top shelf uber priced awesome-sauce bud. The ganja you make a killing off of and want so badly for folks to see. You never know if that cancer patient is B.S.’in you about having been a pro at smoking because they blazed in high school during the 70’s a lot. You just sold them some top nug at 24% THC that literally scares the living hell out of them. They leave the program and never get to know if that CBD strain would’ve been better for them or maybe RSO is the route for aggressive treatments.

      YOUR PURPOSE IS TO SERVE US! PERIOD! Not to profiteer off the misfortunes of other people. Your sole and complete purpose is not to be a business. It’s to provide this state with the number one in safe, consistent, affordable, top notch medication in the whole nation. If not the world. Your selling our chance short by taking up valuable LNPP licences(I will get to that point in a moment sir) and squandering it on filthy, sawdust dirtweed that I have seen better come out a gastank straight from mexico. Really Mr. Ford? Really? You have no pride in your product do you? You could care less how good it is, as long as it’s making you money right?

      ??!!! A COUPLE LNPP LICENCES !!!?? 7.34.4.8 Secion I(3) of the Lynn and Erin Compassionate Use Act. Please patients please go read that little part. It essentially states Mr. Executive Director “R. Greenleaf AND Medzen Services” is in complete violation of the act’s statutes when he personally put that business signature. Ohh Mr. Ford, why didn’t you just service the patients of this state with compassion? Why did you try and exploit us in such a horrible fashion? There is a questionaire for you to go through. We would surely LOVE to hear your responses to those questions.

      Also sir the dirtiness of the ads on the website is not going away. You will be hearing about that REALLY SOON.

      Shawn Gentry
      Disabled/Retired
      Admin
      New Mexico Medical Cannabis Patient’s Alliance – South

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