Marijuana dispensaries.
Last week, when I went to pick up a pizza, I discovered two more new cannabis dispensaries that I had not seen two weeks earlier.
I went online and asked for “cannabis dispensaries near me” and found at least 30 of them in the immediate Las Cruces area. I don’t think the map is up to date, given what I see when driving around town.
Really — more than 30 of them. Along Solano Drive and Valley Drive, it seems like every other storefront is how a dispensary. Even residential streets like Conway Avenue in my neighborhood has one and short commercial Wyatt Drive has two.
I do wonder, with more than 30 dispensaries around town, how many people are driving around buzzed. Or how many people may be working at the edge of consciousness at some business I frequent. I hope it’s not at any of the medical facilities where I am occasionally treated.
The map below came from a website called “Weedmaps” and because of the many stores located along some streets, not all store locations can be seen.
I also found it quite ironic that a once-illegal habit and an underground industry for many years has now made a plea to the New Mexico Legislature to limit the number of dispensaries in the state.
In a letter to state lawmakers, the cannabis industry stated:
“An unfortunate byproduct of the free-market approach that our state took for licensing new operators is a saturation of regulated and illegal cannabis products in New Mexico. These two factors are resulting in homegrown small and medium-sized cannabis businesses being forced to close their doors or lay off staff. Our local businesses simply cannot compete with the illicit market and the immense oversupply.“
After years of hiding from big brother, now they want its help. It’s like liquor license owners, car dealers and other industries asking the state to protect them from the ravages of a free market economy. I think OPEC invented the “let’s limit supply so we can raise prices” business model.
But I’m not here to argue that point. What’s fascinated me is some of the business names that have been selected by the local cannabis dispensaries.
Among my favorites:
“HIgh Horse Cannabis” (Open 24 hours)
“Everest Cannabis”
“Cannaverse”
“Dreamz Dispensary”
“Cloud House Dispensary”
“NM Cowboy Cannabis”
“The Haze”
So I’ve come up with a few names for these kinds of businesses as my own.
“Pot Head Paradise”
“Cannabliss”
“POTSTOP” (an annagram)
“WeedEater” (sales of magic brownies)
“Wheeler Peak Weed” (after the highest mountain in New Mexico)
“Weed Weed” (located in the community of Weed in the Sacramento Mountains)
“Up in Tokes” (after the movie “Up in Smoke”)
“Warm Up For Munchies Dispensary”
“Tia Juana’s Marijuana”
“Not Mary Jane Shoes”
“Spliff Spot” (what they call it in the Carribean)
Okay, these are lame, but send me your ideas for weed merchants and I’ll publish them.
aero-cordero.com 
How about one for the Church of “ what’s happenin now”—Holy smokes—-
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There is one near our house called weed shack. It’s like some built a crude wood shack and painted an equally crude sign. Our governor sucks
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Several places that popped up on Solano have either moved or closed in the past couple months. Which? Doesn’t really matter because they are cannibalizing each other. Putative differences in variety and quality aside, ulimately they compete on price alone.
The failure rate for ‘pot-holes’ will be higher than that for new Mexican (or any other type) restaurants (~19 out of 20). There may be a bit of territorial consolidation (which may already be the case using different storefronts), but in a year’s time most will be gone. After that any startups will be made by people who’ve had too much already.
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