Inside the CCD Hearing: Santa Fe, September 3

By nine o’clock the Rio Grande Conference Room was already packed, with CCD Director Todd Stevens dragging out extra chairs himself. He could have had staff handle it, but he didn’t. That small gesture set the tone for the morning — regulators face-to-face with operators. They recognized some of the glaring topics; pointing out how many responses to the hemp ban they received ad nauseum.

The room was a mix: owners, operators, advocates, all carving time away from payroll, watering plants, and filling orders just to be there. Even more tuned in on Zoom, though only those in the room could speak. Among them were members of the newly formed New Mexico Cannabis Association — Lava Leaf, Pharmers Quality, First Crop, and more.

At 9:15, the introductions wrapped and the floor opened. Two to three minutes per speaker. Concerns poured out: the proposed ban on hemp-derived cannabinoids, the tightening of packaging rules, stricter testing requirements, and new labeling mandates. A few speakers interrupted with courtroom etiquette hurdles, but the majority were focused, articulate, and clear.

The hearing wasn’t set up for dialogue, but here’s the important part: CCD staff stayed afterward. They didn’t just defend the rules; they listened. Nothing was promised, nothing was solved, but something was learned — the two sides aren’t always speaking the same language.

Regulators come armed with statutes, compliance, and legalese. Operators come with payroll to meet, crops to water, and retail shelves to keep stocked. Some are ex-traditional market growers trying to figure out BioTrack on a borrowed laptop. Some are retiree couples from out of state who can’t tell a dashboard from a spreadsheet. Then you’ve got the corporate folks — MBAs, multi-state résumés — who can talk business but don’t know the culture or the plant. In the middle is everyone else, working hard, playing by the rules — and yes, a few bad actors gaming the system.

There’s another layer regulators can’t touch: consumer education (or should they?). They can print all the posters or ads they want, they can’t make buyers understand that THC numbers aren’t everything, or why a $20 ounce might be too good to be true, or what corners get cut to sell a $5 vape. Retailers are trying to bridge that gap, but it’s a losing battle when the loudest voice is price alone. and lets face it, no one wants to pay for a billboard that may get them fined.

So you’ve got regulators fixing one set of problems and operators facing another. The right hand doesn’t know what the left is doing. And while the CCD isn’t responsible for boosting anyone’s sales, protecting consumer health means also protecting a healthy, sustainable market.

What’s the answer? More rules, fewer rules, no rules at all? Should there be a license test like becoming a real estate agent, or a trade association where you have to put in time, or maybe leave them uncapped and hope for the best… Nobody knows. What we do know is this: we’ll figure it out faster together.