New Mexico lawmakers last week discussed creating a new “Compliance Bureau” arm of the state’s Regulation and Licensing Department (RLD) to investigate cannabis operators and take enforcement actions against unlicensed or noncompliant activity, the Sante Fe New Mexican reports. The proposal aims to help officials identify and crack down on any bad actors in the state who might be helping fuel the illicit cannabis market, which competes with and hinders the legal market.
The state’s Cannabis Control Division is not currently authorized to conduct criminal investigations and generally relies instead on local police departments which can have limited time or resources to devote. The possible proposal, however, would extend new law enforcement powers to the state’s cannabis regulatory agency including the ability to conduct searches and seizures of illegal cannabis and to arrest anyone illegally selling cannabis.
“If the Cannabis Control Division is authorized to employ certified law enforcement officers to enforce criminal statutes, those officers could conduct criminal investigations, obtain search warrants, seize evidence of criminal acts, make arrests, and work with the district attorneys to see that criminal offenders violating New Mexico cannabis laws are prosecuted and brought to justice.” — RLD spokesperson Andrea Brown, via the Sante Fe New Mexican
Some lawmakers, however, questioned whether creating new police powers would be a good solution to the challenges presented by unlicensed cannabis activity.
“Why wouldn’t we just provide more funding to law enforcement or create a statute on something law enforcement could do?” Sen. Antoinette Sedillo Lopez (D-Albuquerque) said in the report.
New Mexico legalized cannabis in July 2021 and the state’s first licensed adult-use cannabis sale took place in July 2022.
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