On Sunday, Sept. 26, while churchgoers were still singing the morning’s hymns, Santa Fe medical cannabis producer NewMexiCann Natural Medicine sent out an email blast titled “NM Medical Cannabis Program AT RISK!”

The email warns that the New Mexico Department of Health is proposing sweeping changes to the program, including granting the program’s Medical Advisory Board the ability to recommend raising the bar for patients to qualify for certain conditions—or removing conditions entirely.

To Len Goodman, the founder of NewMexiCann, the proposed regulations could not only gut the program but, moreover, they only surfaced days before a public hearing scheduled to discuss them.

Weeks earlier, the DOH announced other proposed changes, such as a 7 percent gross receipts tax on producers. But even in one-on-one meetings with producers, Goodman says the DOH never brought up the other proposed changes.

“Why is DOH putting in rules that will weaken the program rather than strengthening it?” Goodman asks.

Especially, he notes, with a potential Republican governor who opposes the program.

The proposed rules will be presented in a public hearing at 9:30 am, Sept. 30 in the Harold Runnels Auditorium (1190 St. Francis Drive).