Minesh Bacrania
A meeting scheduled for this Friday discussing the future of how the state's Medical Cannabis Program is regulated has been postponed "until further notice," according to a press release from the New Mexico Medical Board.
Hundreds people were planning on attending—so many that the Board wasn't sure whether it could house all of them for the meeting.
The release states that the meeting's venue and time "must be changed in order to accommodate all members of the public" who are planning on attending and speaking up.
"The Board must be able to accommodate the public who wish to attend and comment during this specific rule hearing," the release reads.
So far, the Board, which licenses and regulates doctors and nurses across the state, hasn't rescheduled a new time and place for the meeting.
The proposed changes would further define expectations for the relationships between Medical Cannabis Program patients and their doctors. Some of the changes would include regular required follow-ups between cannabis patients and their physicians as well as a defined treatment plan for each patient "with objectives."
Medical marijuana advocates have criticized the proposed measures as an unnecessary limit on patients' access to medicine, especially in a state where not everybody has easy access to health care.
Last fall, patients and activists flocked to a Medical Advisory Board meeting on a petition to drop post-traumatic stress disorder as a qualifying condition for the medical marijuana. The Department of Health, which regulates the cannabis program, later rejected the petition.
More than 9,000 patients are enrolled in the state's medical marijuana program.
Read the NM Medical Board press release below:
