The governor of New Mexico spoke with the head of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) this week and expressed concern about a recent surge of Border Patrol seizures of marijuana from state-licensed businesses, Marijuana Moment has learned exclusively. But the top Biden official simply reiterated that federal cannabis laws haven’t changed, indicating that the seizures will continue.
The office of Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham (D) shared details about the conversation with Marijuana Moment, adding that her administration is “working on a strategy to protect New Mexico’s cannabis industry” from adverse federal enforcement actions.
The governor spoke with DHS Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas on Wednesday and “expressed her concern about the federal seizure of cannabis from licensed distributors in New Mexico,” Michael Coleman, the governor’s communications director, said.
The governor of New Mexico spoke with the head of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) this week and expressed concern about a recent surge of Border Patrol seizures of marijuana from state-licensed businesses, Marijuana Moment has learned exclusively. But the top Biden official simply reiterated that federal cannabis laws haven’t changed, indicating that the seizures will continue.
The office of Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham (D) shared details about the conversation with Marijuana Moment, adding that her administration is “working on a strategy to protect New Mexico’s cannabis industry” from adverse federal enforcement actions.
The governor spoke with DHS Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas on Wednesday and “expressed her concern about the federal seizure of cannabis from licensed distributors in New Mexico,” Michael Coleman, the governor’s communications director, said.
“During the conversation, the governor noted that industry operators in border states where cannabis is legal appear to be at greater risk of scrutiny and arrest by U.S. Customs and Border Patrol agents than those in non-border states that have legalized cannabis,” he said.
“Secretary Mayorkas assured the governor that federal policies with respect to legalized cannabis have not changed,” he said. “Regardless, the governor and her administration are working on a strategy to protect New Mexico’s cannabis industry.”
The conversation happened in response to recent reporting, including that of Marijuana Moment, about U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) seizing hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of marijuana from state-licensed cannabis businesses in New Mexico in recent weeks—detaining industry workers in what appears to be a localized escalation of national prohibition enforcement even as the federal government has largely refrained from interfering with the implementation of state legalization laws in recent years.
Marijuana Moment reached out to DHS and CBP for comment on the secretary’s conversation with the governor, but representatives did not respond by the time of publication.
New Mexico marijuana businesses report that the more than dozen CBP seizures, particularly at interior checkpoints around the Las Cruces area, are a relatively new phenomenon. Since adult-use marijuana sales launched in the state in 2022, the operators say they’ve generally been able to transport their products to testing facilities and retailers without incident.
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