Ledes from the Land of Enchantment

New Mexico cannabis sales dip in November

Aaron Tellez scrapes THC extract at the Mesilla Valley Extracts warehouse. In November, sales dropped for medical and adult-use cannabis from the previous month, but overall remained steady. (Roberto E. Rosales/Journal)

Medical sales have continued to plunge since April, while adult-use sales have grown or remained steady.

According to updated data from New Mexico’s Cannabis Control Division, overall sales — including medical and recreational cannabis — for November were at about $38.6 million. That’s down from nearly $39.8 million in October.

Cannabis retailers in November brought in a total of $24.6 million, nearly half a million dollars less than in October which, at the time, was a record high for recreational cannabis sales in the state. October was also the 50th Albuquerque International Balloon Fiesta, which brought in many visitors from out of state and likely boosted that sales number. But sales for recreational cannabis have mostly grow month over month, with November’s sales numbers coming in $2.4 million higher than in April.

Medical sales, meanwhile, continued to drop in the most recent data from CCD. Last month, medical patients spent slightly more than $14 million — a drop of $660,000 from October and a nearly $3.4 million drop since April.

In October, the most recent data from the New Mexico Department of Health’s website, 119,817 patients were enrolled in the state’s medical cannabis program. That patient count is down from 134,307 at the end of April.

Ben Lewinger, executive director of the New Mexico Cannabis Chamber of Commerce, said the recent decrease in the state’s medical program is something seen in other states where both medical and adult-use sales are legal.

“What’s important is that we continue to invest in the medical program, continue to add qualifying conditions and continue to ensure that products are available for people who rely on cannabis to treat everything from cancer and auto-immune arthritis, to PTSD and seizure disorder, ” Lewinger said.

Looking at cities, towns

Albuquerque, according to CCD data, sold about $13.4 million in November. That’s down more than $700,000 from October.

On the adult-use side, sales in Albuquerque stood at $7.7 million, down from $8.1 million the previous month. Medical sales were more than $5.6 million in November.

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In Santa Fe and Las Cruces, recreational cannabis sales stood at about $1.7 million.

And in Sunland Park, recreational sales came in at slightly more than $1.6 million, according to the data. Hobbs saw adult-use sales numbers of $1.5 million. For both towns, which see a large number of Texas customers, November proved to be a record-breaking month.

Medical and recreational transactions

According to the data, the average sale per transaction stood at $43.99 in November for recreational purchases. That’s up about 74 cents from October, but still trails the high of $50.83 in April.

The average sale per transaction for medical sales stood at $50.92 in November — up from $49.59 in October.

There was a total of 275,960 transactions last month, with adult-use transactions making up 67% of overall transactions.

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