Three licensed medical cannabis producers are challenging a 1,750-plant limit the state Department of Health imposed in August, saying the number isn’t based on valid data and violates a court order for the agency to ensure a growing number of patients in the New Mexico Medical Cannabis Program have an adequate supply.
Sacred Garden Inc., New Mexico Top Organics-Ultra Health and G&G Genetics filed a lawsuit Thursday in state District Court in Santa Fe, seeking enforcement of a November 2018 order handed down by then-District Judge David Thomson in a previous complaint over marijuana production limits.
Thomson, now a state Supreme Court justice, ruled the 450-plant limit at the time was too restrictive and “not based on reliable data or updated data” or law. He gave the Department of Health until March 2019 to implement new rules before the cap would become invalid.
The department imposed an emergency rule allowing producers to grow up to 2,500 plants until a new rule could be ratified and then conducted a rule-making process over the summer that resulted in the cap of 1,750.
Read more at santafenewmexican.com