Green Rush or Total Bust? New Mexico's Cannabis Boom
New Mexico’s cannabis market—wild, sprawling, and booming—has exploded into a landscape of over 670 dispensaries. More than 200 of those call Albuquerque home, a city where green crosses litter the map like confetti. But behind the optimism, a looming storm brews. It’s not all smoke and sunshine. The market is flooded, the competition brutal. Survival of the fittest has never been more relevant, and the weakest are feeling the squeeze.
The state’s bureaucrats are scratching their heads, trying to figure out just how deep this saturation problem goes. As of August 2024, the latest numbers paint a picture of 759,481 cannabis plants in the ground. But while new dispensaries pop up with alarming frequency, others quietly fade away. Seven Point Farms in Socorro, Lucent on Osuna in Albuquerque, Galileo Cannabis on Broadway, and Downtown Dispensary in Tucumcari? All “Temporarily Closed” on Google, with no earnings reported for the month. The cannabusiness graveyard might just be starting to fill.
Road to Success, But at What Cost?
Take Julieta Neas. She gambled big—sold her house—to fund her shot at the cannabis dream. Amnesia Dispensary pulled in $393,789 last month, but Neas knows the battlefield she's on. Her words cut through the haze: "It’s very, very competitive... People are putting so much of their money, their livelihood into it." She’s expanded to an additional location in Albuquerque off Jefferson, but the question remains—how long can she keep the wolves at bay?
Then there’s Oasis Cannabis, a heavyweight led by Kane Oueis, a man who knows how to play the long game. With their Roswell store pulling $46,508 last month, Oasis is thriving. Oueis attributes their success to a decade of grind and hustle: "This reputation did not emerge overnight but is the result of constant evolution." And the evolution continues, with several new location on they way, including one on Menaul in Albuquerque.
The Free Market Grind
Cinder Cannabis, straight out of Washington, made its way to Albuquerque with a single store. They’ve carved out their slice of the pie, but they’re not naive. Mitch Anderson, Director of Manufacturing, is pragmatic: "It drives us forward... but there’s always going to be competition." Cinder’s latest move? Expanding their wholesale game with Firefly prerolls and vapes.
But the cold reality is in the numbers. Bill Sluben of The Data Heard drops the hard truth: sales growth is flat, while the number of dispensaries just keeps rising. Pat Davis, city councilor and cannabis consultant, sums it up bluntly: "There’s not enough money in Albuquerque being spent on cannabis to support all of these stores." The math is simple, the outcome inevitable. Some of these businesses are going down.
The Pause That Could Save—Or Sink—The Market
Jessie Hunt of Schwazze is one of the many calling for a pause on new licenses. Her reasoning? It’s time to stabilize the market, give the ones still standing a fighting chance. "We just really want to give everyone a chance to survive," Hunt says, as she eyes a way to slow the tide before it washes away the smaller players.
But not everyone’s on board. Duke Rodriguez, the CEO of Ultra Health, doesn’t mince words: "The genie is out of the bottle." No pause is going to fix what’s already been unleashed. And he just might be right, with Cannabis Titans such as Mango Cannabis looming in the Horizon.
And so, the cannabis industry in New Mexico marches on—a mix of high hopes, hard realities, and dreams on the line. Some will thrive, others will fold. But in the end, it’s all part of the game.
Excerpts from Albuquerque Journals 2023, Matthew Narvaiz, Albuquerque Journal, N.M. November 13, 2023