John Garcia was very much in favor of legalizing recreational marijuana.

“It was about time,” he said. I was very excited. I think New Mexico will be at the forefront of the cannabis industry in the future.

As a minority entrepreneur, he saw an opportunity and used his savings to get started. But now he’s hit a snag.

“We need a place to grow our product,” Garcia said. “Once we have spoken to the owners of the buildings and made this offer to them, once they find out that we are going to be growing cannabis, they hesitate and back off.”

Garcia is not alone. There are dozens of inspiring businessmen like him who have hit a roadblock trying to capitalize on the state’s new industry that is slated to go legal next spring.

“It will be really disappointing if you walk into a cannabis store next spring and there is no product on the shelves,” said Matt Kennicott, who runs a consulting firm that helps entrepreneurs start a business. of cannabis. “Right now in Albuquerque, we have a two percent vacancy rate on commercial properties.”

And time is running out for people who want to start growing. The state opens license applications in less than 30 days and to apply you must have a facility. And, the plants need to be in the ground now to be ready in the spring.

“We have everything ready on our end,” Garcia said. “We are ready to deliver cannabis from the first day it becomes legal.”

But Garcia worries that if he doesn’t find a place soon, he could lose the hundreds of thousands of dollars he invested.

“You can’t have a restaurant without a kitchen,” Garcia said.