Albuquerque dispensary has license revoked by state

Inaccurately reporting sales to the state and selling cannabis with California stampings has led to the revocation of a license for an Albuquerque dispensary, the New Mexico Regulation and Licensing Department announced Thursday.

Paradise Exotics Distro, 4615 Menaul NE, was ordered to end sales immediately following a final decision and order issued and signed by the department superintendent, Linda Trujillo, on Wednesday.

RLD spokeswoman Bernice Geiger said Paradise Exotics Distro’s license revocation is the first issued by the department to a cannabis business.

Multiple calls from the Journal to the business — owned by Mei-Lein Mejia, according to state licensing data — were met with a message that stated the phone was out of service.

“In the interest of public safety, the department is holding true to the intent of the Cannabis Regulation Act and taking action upon licensees that have violated the law,” Trujillo said in a statement. “This revocation should serve as a warning to those selling or receiving out-of-state cannabis products. Our compliance officers are ramping up inspections and we will work to remove bad actors from within the New Mexico cannabis industry.”

RLD said representatives from the dispensary, which was issued its license last March, did not attend an evidentiary hearing in late April regarding the findings by department compliance officers.

That led to a June 30 recommendation of revocation by the hearing officer overseeing the case, who found sufficient evidence Paradise Exotics Distro violated portions of the Cannabis Regulation Act and the New Mexico Administrative Code.

Among the findings by the department were discrepancies in reported sales — the business documented $9,495 in sales to the state’s track-and-trace system, BioTrack, while the dispensary’s third-party system recorded $56,374 in cash and $8,338 in additional funds.

The findings also stated the dispensary possessed, received and sold products marked with California stampings — and displayed edibles and concentrates products that “were not properly documented on their required manifests.”

That includes a cannabis product a compliance officer testified had a California stamping and only the “quantity of the unlabeled concentrate while all other requirements for the label were not present,” such as a BioTrack identification number and a manufacturing date.

“Further photographic evidence regarding unmarked and unlabeled product demonstrated an edible marked with the potency and trade name, but all other required packaging, testing information and quality assurance information were not present on the label,” reads a portion of the order.

Industry leaders have long identified — even before recreational cannabis sales commenced — the strength of the illicit market that has made its way into licensed operations in the state.

A recent letter signed by nearly 100 representatives sent to the office of Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham stated that some businesses are “purchasing lower priced products from the illicit market in an effort to stay open,” which has created pressure for the regulated cannabis industry.

In an interview in late June, Jessie Hunt, a spokeswoman for Schwazze — which owns R.Greenleaf and Everest Cannabis Co. — told the Journal the lack of enforcement by RLD is likely “incentivizing the illicit market, and that is not good for anyone who wants to see a strong, legalized cannabis market.”

Robert Jackson, executive director of Seven Point Farms, also told the Journal last month that the “lack of regulation (makes) it extremely hard for there to be a healthy industry in... New Mexico.”