State Regulation and Licensing Department puts price tag on increasing cannabis enforcement

Saying his department can put a “dent” in the flow of illicit cannabis in New Mexico, state Regulation and Licensing Department Superintendent Clay Bailey’s team has released its proposed $61.6 million budget for the 60-day legislative session that starts in January.

The fiscal 2026 budget request seeks to add law enforcement capabilities for the Cannabis Control Division and an additional 10 compliance officers to help increase the number of inspections at marijuana businesses across the state.

The multimillion-dollar proposed budget, which includes $2 million from the state’s general fund to add compliance officers and another $1.1 million to add seven special agents to the division, comes as the CCD has seen an increase in illicit activity within New Mexico’s budding cannabis industry. Bailey said unlicensed growers are harvesting 20,000 to 50,000 plants, while others who are licensed are growing more than legally allowed under their license type.

“I don’t envision my people going out there arresting folks — that’s not the plan,” Bailey told the Journal in a recent interview. “But they would be capable of it. … I’m here asking not because I want extra responsibilities, (but) because somebody needs to do it and it needs to be done. It needs to be done now.”

Bailey called the flow of illicit products in the marketplace a “huge problem.”

He added: “I think if you talk to any of the businesses that are in business legally, they’ll tell you it’s a problem, too, and it’s something that we need to be able to stop and put a halt on.”

Ben Lewinger, executive director of the New Mexico Cannabis Chamber of Commerce, said, “augmenting” RLD’s capabilities to include law enforcement duties is a policy priority for his organization. Like Bailey, he and businesses the Chamber represents have noticed the trend of illicit products grown and sold in New Mexico.

“I think what we are experiencing in the industry now is still a high volume of illegal activity,” said Lewinger, adding that it has also led to other illegal activities such as human trafficking and the production of other narcotics.

Bailey said the $1.1 million for special agents, as well as a special request of $465,000 for vehicles, is contingent upon separate legislation approval giving RLD law enforcement authority.

Law enforcement aside, Bailey said his division is running thin on compliance officers, increasing the workload for the dozen currently on the job. He said the addition of those compliance officers isn’t an expansion but helps the division “get to these inspections in a timely manner.”

Compliance officers with CCD have completed more than 2,200 inspections so far in 2024, compared with 1,100 in 2023 and 138 in 2022 — the first year of legalized, adult-use sales.

But the division is also overseeing 3,071 licensed premises, according to an October count, which spans retail, manufacturing and growing facilities.

“We’re stretched so thin,” Bailey said. “(Adding 10 compliance officers) would make it at least reasonable to get to all the inspections in a timely and yearly rotation, I believe, and it will allow us to do the other things that need to be done as we’re moving forward.”

Lewinger said the number of proposed compliance officers in CCD’s budget proposal is still too low. He said New Mexico needs to get more in line with states like Colorado, which he said is more equipped to enforce rules and regulations.

Lewinger’s comments fall in line with those of others, including Justin Dye, chairman of Schwazze, the company that owns R.Greenleaf and Everest Cannabis Co. Dye told legislators earlier this month that Colorado, for instance, has one inspector for every 47 licensees, compared with New Mexico, which has one for every 256 licensees.

“As a division, they are tremendously under-resourced for the task at hand,” Lewinger said. They shouldn’t “short sell what their resources need to be to support this industry, not just in 2025 but looking into the future as well.”

RLD also has a series of special requests, including $560,000 to cover vehicles for compliance officers and $745,000 for the equipment needed to seize and destroy illicit cannabis products.

A key legislative committee will release its proposed budget for the coming year in January, just before the start of the 60-day session. Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham’s administration will also release its own spending plan.

Those two budget proposals will then serve as blueprints of sorts as legislators debate and ultimately approve a state budget for the fiscal year that starts in July 2025.