Up In Smoke: HB 294 Does Not Pass

Saturday morning in Santa Fe. 9:30 a.m. While most people were pouring coffee or rolling something to take the edge off the week, a legislative committee was already seated to hear HB 294—a bill pitched as a child-safety fix and marketed as common sense. Where committee members didn’t just poke holes in the bill—they tore it to shreds.

After brief sponsor remarks walking through last-minute amendments, the industry was handed the mic. Five speakers. Ninety seconds each. Thats just Seven and a half minutes total for an entire regulated market to explain why the bill was overreaching, expensive, and aimed at the wrong target.

Every speaker started in the same place: protecting kids matters. That was never in dispute. The real question was whether this bill actually accomplished that—or whether it simply punished the easiest people to regulate: licensed operators who show up, follow rules, keep records, and submit to inspections.

The only group to speak in favor of the bill was State Police. No data. No breakdown of where exposures are actually coming from. No field experience tied to regulated retail. Just vibes and moral framing.

Then leadership weighed in.

Several committee members spoke from their own experience, pointing out that the licensed market is already one of the most tightly regulated industries in New Mexico. To even step foot inside a licensed shop, you must present ID before crossing the threshold. Tobacco doesn’t require that. Alcohol doesn’t require that. Yet here was a bill pretending this market operates without guardrails.

Sponsors attempted to justify the bill by showing images pulled from licensee websites—real products, legally sold. That move backfired. All it demonstrated was that existing law already allows regulators to cite packaging they believe appeals to minors. The authority already exists. The enforcement tools are already there.

Which led committee members to the question that hung in the room:

Why aren’t you using the rules you already have?

That question never received a clear answer—only theory. The Cannabis Control Division hasn’t even attempted to test what it could successfully enforce under current statute.

The safety argument stayed emotional, not operational.

The defense leaned on values:

• “Kids think it’s candy”

• “Parents need to see it across the room”

• “Children’s safety comes first”

All valid sentiments. But values aren’t policy.

There was no breakdown of:

• What percentage of poison-control calls came from regulated retail

• Whether packaging aesthetics correlate with exposure incidents

• Whether flower packaging has any documented role in pediatric ingestion

• How the bill would impact the unregulated hemp market (it wouldn’t)

That gap mattered—especially after opponents cited data showing roughly 1% of poison-control calls since 2021 involved regulated exposure, alongside national data showing declining youth use from 2020 to 2025.

When the House Democratic Floor Leader says a bill “isn’t ready,” that’s not commentary. That’s your boss politely telling you the work isn’t finished.

Moving the goalposts to make enforcement easier—at the expense of New Mexico businesses that already comply—isn’t policy. It’s a shortcut.

With all that being said, the question is will CCD attempt to throw its weight around and begin enforcing packaging

CCD already has authority today to cite packaging that is “reasonably appealing to minors.” That power exists under current statute. HB 294 didn’t give them a new hammer; it tried to make the old one heavier and easier to swing.

After what happened in committee, CCD may be in a tight spot.

If they suddenly “find religion” and start aggressively enforcing packaging rules right now, it will look exactly like what the committee was reacting to: regulators trying to solve a political problem through enforcement instead of evidence. That’s a bad look—especially after leadership openly questioned why existing tools hadn’t been used already.

CCD doesn’t gain legitimacy by swinging harder. It gains it by proving necessity.

After Saturday, that burden is squarely on them.