Number of People on Medical Marijuana is "Higher" Than Was Originally Projected

Alamogordo Daily News - SANTA FE -- Selling marijuana to help the sick is a growth industry in New Mexico, but one that Gov. Susana Martinez would just as soon eliminate. Dr. Catherine Torres, first-year secretary of the New Mexico Department of Health, says the state expected perhaps 200 medical marijuana patients when legislators created the program in 2007. New Mexico now has 4,310 people who use marijuana as state-sponsored medical treatment. The single largest subgroup -- 1,854 patients -- consists of people with post-traumatic stress disorder. In the program's infancy, people with PTSD were not eligible for medical marijuana use. But with thousands of U.S. soldiers coming home from war in Iraq and Afghanistan, the state Department of Health added PTSD in February 2009 as a medical condition for which marijuana could be used legally. Now patients with PTSD almost outnumber the next two groups that qualify for medical marijuana use, those with chronic pain or cancer. Read full story here: News New Mexico

Number of People on Medical Marijuana is "Higher" Than Was Originally Projected