Cannabis sales reached $3.5 million in the first weekend of sales since it was legalized in April 2021. In fact, weed sold Friday, Saturday and Sunday surpassed medical marijuana sales for that same time period, according to New Mexico's Cannabis Control Division.
A total of $3.5 million in recreational marijuana was sold by Sunday, nearly doubling medical marijuana sales, a program New Mexico has nurtured since 2007 under tight restrictions.
First-day sales reached about $2 million, second-day reached about more than $1 million and more than $550,000 on Sunday.
As of midnight April 1, anyone 21 and older is now permitted to purchase up to 2 ounces (57 grams) of marijuana or comparable amounts of marijuana liquid concentrates and edible treats.
Consumers will initially rely on supplies from 35 legacy marijuana businesses that have taken root over the past 15 years. Although cannabis regulators have issued more than 230 new marijuana business licenses so far — to growers, retailers and manufacturing facilities for extracts and edibles.
Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham has said that broad marijuana legalization responds to popular demands and is generating small business opportunities.
"This is what consumers want," said Lujan Grisham, who is up for reelection in November. "We have the potential for 11,000 more workers, jobs in places where young people can work and stay, like Torrance County and Texico and Tucumcari and Raton."
Getting Up And Running
Across the state, would-be marijuana farmers are bidding for water rights and learning to raise their first cannabis crops, as experienced medical cannabis producers ramp up production and add new retail showrooms.
And Across State Lines...
New Mexico's legal recreational cannabis also has implications for cannabis tourism and conservative Texas, where legalization efforts have made little headway.
"I can't explain how happy I am," Earl Henson in Clovis, NM, which is less than 10 miles from Texas, told NPR.
This week Henson began harvesting his first crop for a local cannabis shop. "I think these cities that are near Texas, for the next two years..it is going to change their economies," he said.
