House Bill 10, also known as the ‘ State Regulation and Licensing Department Cannabis Enforcement’ legislation, is now in effect as of Tuesday, July 1, 2025. The bill is sponsored by Democratic state Reps. Doreen Y. Gallegos, Javier Martínez, Gail Armstrong, Marian Matthews and Art De La Cruz. New Mexico state lawmakers passed the bill at the 2025 60-day legislative session. Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham signed it into law on April 8, 2025. MORE: New Mexico gains more power to regulate cannabis “The Verdes is in full support of this legislation. We were part of helping to get it to the finish line. We’re excited to finally have the RLD have the mechanism to enforce the program that rolled out a couple of years ago with the recreation program,” Verdes Cannabis Chief Revenue Officer Steve Brown told KOAT. “Finally, they will have the ability to go into stores, take illicit product that isn’t meant to be in our market right now, product that’s not being tested, product that wasn’t grown in the state. They’ll now have a mechanism to go enforce the things that they’ve been finding over the last many years, but haven’t had the ability to do anything about other than some paperwork with,” Brown said.According to the HB 10, an enforcement bureau will be established within the State Regulation and Licensing Department to seize and destroy illegal cannabis. An enforcement agent will have the same authority and/or power as law enforcement officers, including the power to maintain public order, undertake lawful warrantless search and seizure to arrest someone for a crime. “First of all, we’re going to bring on 10 additional compliance officers or inspectors; we had 9 in total with the supervisor,” RLD superintendent Clay Bailey stated during Monday’s Court, Corrections and Justice Committee meeting.”Our goal is the ones we have in place that are good partners and good compliant with us that we can help them stay compliant or keep them there or shepherd them along the way,” Bailey said.The New Mexico ‘Cannabis Regulation Act’ was signed into law by Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham on April 12, 2021. View Monday’s Court, Corrections and Justice Committee meeting here. Stay updated on the latest news with the KOAT app. Download here.