New Mexico Register / Volume XXXIII, Issue 6 / March 22, 2022

This is an amendment to 16.8.1 NMAC amending Section 8, effective 3/22/2022.

16.8.1.8 SOCIAL AND ECONOMIC EQUITY:

A. Division mandate: Pursuant to the Cannabis Regulation Act, Paragraphs (7) and (8) of Subsection B of Section 26-2C-3 NMSA 1978, the division must adopt procedures to promote and encourage full participation in the cannabis industry of representatives of communities that have disproportionately been harmed by rates of arrest through the enforcement of cannabis prohibitions and encourage racial, ethnic, gender, geographic diversity, and New Mexico residency among license applicants, licensees and cannabis industry employees. Policies must also encourage representatives from rural communities that are likely to be impacted by cannabis production, including agricultural producers from economically disadvantaged communities.

B. Division goal: To accomplish these mandates, the division establishes a goal that at least fifty percent of applicants for licensure, licensees, and cannabis industry employees will represent these groups.

[C. Social and economic equity plan: The division, with the advice of the cannabis regulatory advisory committee, shall solicit public input to create and implement a social and economic equity plan. A plan shall be created no later than October 15, 2021, and will include guidelines to determine how to assess which communities have been disproportionately impacted, how to assess if a person is a member of a community disproportionately impacted, and proposed incentives to promote social and economic equity for applicants, licensees, and cannabis industry employees.]

[16.8.1.8 NMAC - N, 08/24/2021; A, 03/22/2022]