James Perez traded family businesses from West El Paso restaurants to a Chaparral cannabis shop out of necessity, not greed.
With the advent of legal marijuana sales across New Mexico, Perez suggested to his wife, Christina, that they open a dispensary in Chaparral as a way to save patients the time and money it took to commute to dispensaries elsewhere in the state.
“We always had to go to either Las Cruces or Sunland Park to get my medication,” Perez recalled, “and my wife was like, ‘That’s a great idea, opening a dispensary in Chaparral.'”
The Perezes applied for their dispensary license at the end of 2021 and were the first in Chaparral to be approved. They had their eyes set on opening Green Therapy Dispensary in April 2022, when New Mexico’s recreational marijuana laws went into effect but were delayed until September over issues with their building.
“You have to be on point with everything,” James Perez said. “It was just a way to set us back. I guess their purpose was to get us unmotivated, but we didn’t stop.”
Perez had originally planned to help open the shop and then return to his restaurant business, but after three months open, Green Therapy generated