CORRECTED

By Taylor Lehr and Michael Braga

Interstate 40 killed the tiny border town of Glenrio back in 1975.

The motel, cafe and gas station on the Texas side slowly collapsed into ruins.

The bar on the New Mexico side disappeared into the dusty landscape, and Glenio’s population dwindled to just one resident.

But soon after it became legal to sell marijuana for recreational use in April 2022, the ghost town abruptly rose from the dead.

In 2025, the Glenrio Smoke Stop sold $3.3 million worth of marijuana – the highest per capita sales of any dispensary in the state.

Located just off Route 66, store employees said customers don’t just hail from Texas, they come from all over the United States.

That was certainly true on a hot June morning when buyers from Virginia, Michigan and Arkansas pulled into the parking lot.

“We’re road-tripping from Arkansas to New Mexico,” said Ryan, who was traveling with his wife, Madi, and preferred using their first names. “This is the first dispensary we’ve seen. We noticed it on google maps and we saw it on road signs.”

The shop boasts eight billboards along Interstate 40.

Arkansas has medical marijuana, but Ryan and his wis wife think pot should be legalized everywhere.

“If I lived in Dallas or Amarillo, I would come to New Mexico all the time,” Ryan said. “I would drive here all the time to buy pot.”

That’s exactly what’s been happening over the past five years.

https://crop.rld.nm.gov/data-catalog.html

Texans have been pouring across the border and marijuana sales are nearly 40% higher than what New Mexicans could account for on their own, according to a study by Dan K Reports.

Dan Kief, of Dan K Reports, says that’s equivalent to nearly 30% of New Mexico’s total marijuana revenues of $567 million last year — or about $162 million.*

It’s a boom that’s supporting the economies of a dozen border cities and a tax windfall that provides tens of millions of dollars annually for the state.

It’s a precarious boom, though.

If Texas ever legalizes marijuana, all that money will go away overnight.

To get an idea of the importance of Texan buyers to the New Mexican industry, Watchdogs reporters traveled to New Mexico on June 19.

Texans have to be 21 to buy marijuana in New Mexico. They can’t buy more than two ounces — about 60 joints worth — and they better not travel back with it.

Getting busted for possession on the Texas side could mean upwards of 180 days in jail and a $2,000 fine.

pot and paranoia

Tucumcari, a town of about 5,000 residents, is just 40 miles down the road from Glenrio.

With eight marijuana dispensaries and $5.6 million in sales in 2025, it ranked 13th on the per capita sales list.

Like Glenrio, the city benefits from customers from all over the US traveling along Route 66, but Texans are the main buyers.

At Lifted Fine Cannabis Boutique Dispensary, there were four cars with Texas plates in the parking lot at 11 in the morning.

A man and a woman leaving the store didn’t have time to stop and talk about how many Texans come across to buy. “But it’s more than you think,” the woman answered over her shoulder as she got in the car.

So close to the border, there was a palpable anxiety among customers about whether they would get busted for possession on their way back home.

It’s not an unfounded fear.

https://baildashboard.txcourts.gov/ and https://demographics.texas.gov/Estimates/

A half-dozen Texas border counties – Hudspeth, Oldham, Parmer, Deaf Smith, Bailey and Gaines – have high per capita arrest rates for possession of marijuana.

With a per capita arrest rate of 1,645, Oldham County’s is the highest.

Wanting to keep its customers safe, The Glenrio Smoke Stop posts a map in its lobby showing how they should head west on Route 66 and turn onto Highway 93 before using Interstate 40 to reenter Texas.

Oldham County is the darkest spot on the New Mexico border. Below it is Deaf Smith, Parmer and Bailey Counties, all of which have high per capita arrest rates. Skip two counties and you get to Gaines County. Hudspeth is the large dark county in West Texas near El Paso. https://baildashboard.txcourts.gov/ and https://demographics.texas.gov/Estimates/

Into the clouds

When visitors get to the mountain town of Ruidoso, the vibe is very different.

It couldn’t be more relaxed.

This is where Texans come to beat the summer heat and Mexicans venture north in the winter to ski,

There are more than a dozen marijuana dispensaries and cannabis cafes in this laidback resort.

Together they logged $8.5 million in sales in 2025.

As a result, the city of 7,600 ranked 12th on the per capita sales list.

Customers at the Lit Lounge savor the aroma of marijuana strains they’d like to sample and select the type of pipe or bong they’d like to use.

“Most of our customers come from the Permian basin,” said the manager, Justin Hackler. “We get some people from Lubbock and some all the way from Austin.”

*Lit Lounge Manager Justin Hackler showing off his stock*

The idea is to replace drinking alcohol, he said, the same as in Middle Eastern hookah bars.

“Customers can try indica, sativa or a hybrid,” he said. “One makes you energized, the other makes you relaxed. But you always end up in the same place at the end of the evening – sleepy, hungry and heading to the fridge.”

The lounge often has live music. Patrons can play video games.

“We have bong pong which is like beer pong. Only players don’t end up arguing about the rules,” Hackler said. “It's more about trying to remember what the rules are.”

Just down the hill is Elevation 6420.

What stands out there is the little museum in the foyer. It has cannabis medicine jars from the 19th and early 20th Centuries; Pablo Escobar’s ashtray and pornographic playing cards; and Elvis Presley’s army uniform.

*Valerie Espinoza - the manager at Elevation 6420 in Ruidoso*

The manager, Valerie Espinoza, says 65% to 75% of her customers are Texans.

“They come for 420 and New Years,” she said. “We have events all through the year.”

On the way out of town, there’s the Weed World.

You can’t miss it.

Dinosaurs, aliens, robots and a towering, joint-smoking swami litter the front yard.

Inside, the kaleidoscopic Fox Cave snakes back 150 feet from the entrance.

“I would say about 60% of our customers are Texans, but that’s probably a low number,” said John Swopes, the manager.

“We are the biggest consumption lounge in the state,” he said. “It’s a natural river cut cave - rumored to have been used by Billy the Kid as a hideout.”

Every corner has something wild to look at or fun to play with – video games, pinball machines, dart boards, aquariums, giant skeletons, fossil remains, geodes with glistening crystals, Billy the Kid in a coffin and Marilyn Monroe.

“The owners are incredibly eccentric,” Swopes said, “They spent thousands of dollars on the aliens and dinosaurs.”

Extraterrestrials and THC

The road back to the Lone Star State leads through Roswell.

There are more than a dozen dispensaries in that city, which is only 100 miles from the Texas border.

Roswell sold more than $12 million in marijuana in 2025. But because nearly 50,000 people live in that city, it doesn’t rank high on the per capita sales list.

Tatum, with only 700 people, ranks much higher.

Right on the Texas border, Tatum has three dispensaries. Collectively they sold $1.4 million in 2025.

“Our clients are 90% from Texas,” said Justin Lee, who represents the Gnomad Canna Co.