“We go in, we tell them what we’ve got, tell them to stop doing their business, and they won’t stop.”
By Austin Fisher, Source New Mexico
Part of the New Mexico House of Representatives’s agenda going into the weekend is a proposal by the state’s hashish regulator to realize the power to police unhealthy actors within the hashish business.
House Bill 10 would create a brand new police company below the state’s insurance coverage regulator to implement state hashish legal guidelines. It obtained unanimous approval from the House Commerce and Economic Development Committee on February 3 and the House Judiciary Committee on Monday.
House Speaker Javier Martínez (D-Albuquerque) informed the judiciary committee on Monday he’s involved about illicit hashish harming the authorized hashish business.
New Mexico legalized medical hashish in 2007 and leisure hashish in 2021. Martínez stated native police departments and the Cannabis Control Division, a part of the state Regulation and Licensing Department (RLD), lack the capability to supervise illicit hashish operations.
“I believe that had we had this in our original bill, it would have actually helped RLD go after these folks in much more efficient, effective and impactful ways,” Martínez stated.
The invoice would broaden the division’s powers to incorporate limiting the motion of hashish merchandise suspected of being adulterated or dangerously or fraudulently misbranded.
RLD Superintendent Clay Bailey informed the committee the unhealthy actors “just ignore us.”
“We go in, we tell them what we’ve got, tell them to stop doing their business, and they won’t stop,” he stated. “We’ve tried everything in the world.”
The bill proposes the creation of an enforcement bureau that might be connected to the Office of the Superintendent of Insurance and would examine alleged unlawful hashish operations; seek for, seize or embargo illicit hashish; and make arrests.
The invoice would additionally permit the Cannabis Control Division to conduct introduced or unannounced inspections of licensed hashish producers and retailers.
The invoice can also be sponsored by Minority Floor Leader Gail Armstrong (R-Magdalena), and Reps. Doreen Gallegos (D-Las Cruces), Marian Matthews (D-Albuquerque) and Art De La Cruz (D-Albuquerque).
This story was first published by Source New Mexico.
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