Day: 02/21/2015

States Smoking the Most Smuggled Cigarettes

States Smoking the Most Smuggled Cigarettes

4. New Mexico
> 2013 consumption smuggled: 46.1%
> 2013 cigarette tax rate: $1.66 (17th highest)
> Smoking rate: 19.1% (23rd highest)
> Pct. point change smuggling rate (2006-2013): 6.2 (15th highest)

Cigarettes are smuggled primarily to dodge taxes. However, while more than 46% of all cigarettes consumed in New Mexico were smuggled into the state — the fourth highest share nationwide — the smuggling problem has not hampered tax revenue growth. New Mexico’s revenue from tobacco taxes grew by nearly 322% between 2002 and 2012, an exceptionally high rate compared to other states with smuggling problems, and the sixth highest in the country. The state’s cigarette tax of $1.66 per pack was not especially high in 2013, although it was higher than the national cigarette tax rate of $1.44. New Mexico does not border any states with net outflows of smuggled cigarettes. However, state residents can easily access nearby Indian reservations, where cigarettes are frequently sold at a steep discount.

Newsletter

Musings of New MexiCann’s Executive Director…

New Patients in Taos?

Yes, yes, yes. New MexiCann is reaching out to certifying practitioners to see Patients at our stores. We are making space and resources available at no charge to any MDs or Nurse Practitioners who will help those in need of Medical Cannabis to get initial certifications and renewals. We also hope to extend this offer to alternative practitioners who can help our Patients achieve greater wellness. We have no control over what these practitioners charge (and we make nothing from this), but we do encourage compassion and ask that the financial reality of most of our Patients be recognized.

A friend of ours, a psychiatrist in Albuquerque who also has a home in Taos, will begin seeing potential Patients for initial certifications and current Patients for [annual] renewals on February 28. He will also be at our store on March 7 and 21. His fees will be $200 for anyone not currently enrolled in the Medical Cannabis Program and $100 for Patients currently enrolled seeking re-certification…

Since we opened in Taos last weekend, some 20 folks have already decided to become Medical Cannabis Patients and have scheduled appointments. Space is very limited. Call Roni at the store, 575-201-2457 to discuss scheduling.

Population of Taos:  5,716 (2010)

Chronic Pain will no longer require two PR practitioners and a specialist is only required for the initial certification. This brings all Qualifying Conditions to equal status – 1 practitioner and a specialist only being needed for the original diagnosis. This will reduce costs and scheduling barriers and make renewals much much easier and simpler from many conditions. Many of our Patients have both Chronic Pain and PTSD but chose to qualify under PTSD since it only needed a single practitioner’s signature.

I just don’t understand why there’s never any mention of the rule for how old your medical records can be.  Last I heard, if your MRIs and X-rays were over 5 years old, you were required to have them redone, especially if you’re a chronic pain patient.

And as long as Dr. Rosenberg at the DOH has the final say in who can join the Medical Cannabis Program, there will continue to be problems with access.

Testing for Health and Safety and for Cannabinoid Quantification will be mandatory for all Cannabis and Cannabis Infused Products. We still need labs to do this, but once those are here, Patients will be able to be certain of their Medicine’s safety, potency and content.

Testing is mandatory, but… not now, and not for awhile.

Susan and I are heading to India on Monday. I will be gone for two weeks and will miss writing this column for the weeks of March 1 and March 8. We will be spending the Holi Festival in the Himalayan Hills in the very small village and farm of our good friend Prem Matiyani. Namaste!

Be Well, Be Blessed, Be a Blessing for Others,
Len Goodman
Executive Director, New MexiCann Natural Medicine

Brainy quotes on Journeys

(Photo:  Indiana Jones on the Doom Bridge.)

“All journeys have secret destinations of which the traveler is unaware.” Martin Buber

“Every journey starts with fear.”  Jake Gyllenhaal

“Let me recommend the best medicine in the world: a long journey, at a mild season, through a pleasant country, in easy stages.”  James Madison

“A journey is like marriage. The certain way to be wrong is to think you control it.” John Steinbeck

“Without music, life is a journey through a desert.”  Pat Conroy

“If my ship sails from sight, it doesn’t mean my journey ends, it simply means the river bends.” Enoch Powell

“The only journey is the one within.”  Rainer Maria Rilke

“The truth, of course, is that there is no journey. We are arriving and departing all at the same time.”  David Bowie