Pat Vasquez-Cunningham for the Boston Globe

Willie Ford, president of R. Greenleaf Organics in Albuquerque, inspects marijuana buds in the drying room at the organization's farm.

Pat Vasquez-Cunningham for the Boston Globe

J. Chris Romero, director of operations at R. Greenleaf Organics, inspected bud development.

Pat Vasquez-Cunningham for the Boston Globe

The nonprofit medical marijuana business, like others in the state, operates discreetly in an unassuming complex with small display signs.

Pat Vasquez-Cunningham for the Boston Globe

Ford and Romero inspected bud drying and curing inside a drying room.

Pat Vasquez-Cunningham for the Boston Globe

Jars filled with marijuana on a shelf at the R. Greenleaf Organics farm.

Pat Vasquez-Cunningham for the Boston Globe

Ford is careful to call the product medical cannabis, not marijuana.

Pat Vasquez-Cunningham for the Boston Globe

Romero inspected hash oil at the farm's undisclosed location in New Mexico.

Pat Vasquez-Cunningham for the Boston Globe

Ford and Romero stood outside the grow rooms at the farm.

Pat Vasquez-Cunningham for the Boston Globe

Wayne Brown, a farm assistant, processed popcorn buds.

Pat Vasquez-Cunningham for the Boston Globe

Industry watchers say New Mexico, with one of the country’s strictest medical marijuana programs, provides a model for Massachusetts.

Pat Vasquez-Cunningham for the Boston Globe

R. Greenleaf's small clinic is on the second floor of a strip mall building. Patients have to show blue registration cards when they enter the small clinic.

Pat Vasquez-Cunningham for the Boston Globe

Patient Joel White (right) sniffed his medical cannabis order while chatting with Ford at the Albuquerque clinic.