A Santa Fe district court judge struck down a state rule that required medical patients to exhaust “standard treatments” before entering the Medical Cannabis Program.

The case that Judge David Thomson ruled on earlier this week involved the state Department of Health’s rejection of a post-traumatic stress disorder patient’s application to the Medical Cannabis Program based on the fact that the patient’s doctor, Carola Kieve, didn’t submit enough medical records with the application and didn’t exhaust other medical treatments first.

FT. LAUDERDALE, Fla. -- The New Mexico Department of Health's Medical Cannabis Program has awarded BioTrackTHC™, a division of Bio-Tech Medical Software, Inc., a contract for the provision and deployment of an integrated patient and provider tracking software application. This award makes BioTrackTHC the cannabis industry's first company with marijuana regulatory technology contracts in two states, following the company's existing contract for the state of Washington'sMarijuana Seed-to-Sale Traceability System.

TORONTO, ONTARIO--(Marketwired - April 10, 2015) -

THIS NEWS RELEASE IS NOT FOR DISSEMINATION IN THE UNITED STATES OR TO U.S. PERSONS.

Nutritional High International Inc. (the "Company" or "Nutritional High") (CSE:NHL) is pleased to announce that the Company has entered into a binding letter of intent ("LOI") dated April 8, 2015, to acquire a 51% equity interest (the "Transaction") in Zephyr Management Inc. ("Zephyr"), an exclusive management company being established to provide management and real estate services to Sacred Garden ("Sacred Garden"), an entity licensed to produce medical cannabis in New Mexico.

Gary Johnson, the Libertarian Party’s nominee for president in 2012, tells The Daily Caller he is gearing up to run for the White House again.

“Unless something catastrophic happens in my life, I hope to do that,” Johnson said in an interview at The Daily Caller’s newsroom in Washington on Wednesday.

Johnson — the former governor of New Mexico who ran for president as a Republican in 2011 before dropping out to run on the Libertarian Party ticket — said “there’s no real rush” to announce though he is actively preparing for a campaign.

BLOOMFIELD, N.M. — Charles C. Lynch seemed to be doing everything right when he opened a medical marijuana dispensary in the tidy coastal town of Morro Bay, Calif.

The mayor, the city attorney and leaders of the local Chamber of Commerce all came for the ribbon-cutting in 2006. The conditions for his business license, including a ban on customers younger than 18 and compliance with California’s medical marijuana laws, were posted on the wall.

Workers’ compensation carriers and self-insurers will not be required to pay for a patient’s medical marijuana under a new bill Gov. Doug Ducey signed into law Monday.

The state’s more than 63,000 holders of medical marijuana cards will still be allowed to purchase their own cannabis, but the law removes the requirement that workers’ compensation carriers and self-insurers reimburse patients for medical marijuana.

The law is similar to protections already in place for federal and private insurers under the Arizona Medical Marijuana Act.

This ain’t your dad’s seedy dope den.

Illustrating the rapid professionalization of the cannabis industry thanks to its legalization, the Minerva Canna Group dispensary project in Albuqueque, NM and its interior designer Megan Stone — head of The High Road Design Studio — just took top honors in the Designer Dozen Award by Visual Merchandising and Store Design Magazine (VMSD). The Designer Dozen award showcases the best and brightest emerging retail designers under 35.

One of the rare bills that cruised through both chambers of the state Legislature this session would allow the state to grow hemp for research purposes. 

Researchers from Yale University believe they have deciphered the neurological mechanism that causes the “munchies,” that inexplicable urge to eat that has led generations of marijuana users to consume untold numbers of nachos, Twinkies and Doritos.

The phenomenon appears to be driven by neurons in the brain that typically involve suppressing the appetite, according to a paper published last month in the journal Nature. When responding to marijuana, however, neurons that normally turn off hunger pangs instead made users ravenous — at least when those users were transgenic lab mice.

Plant count triples for producers; patients allowed 8 ounces every 90 days.

After months of contentious public debate, New Mexico Health Department Secretary Retta Ward has adopted three new sets of medical marijuana rules for patients, producers and even her own Medical Cannabis Advisory Board. Once they’re published in the State Register next Friday, Ward says she will consider reopening the license application process for up to a dozen new nonprofit producers. 

Patients tell SFR they generally support the new rules that allow them to purchased 8 ounces of medication every three months (two more than current rules permit), but they continue to question why THC potency levels have been capped at 70 percent.