Cannabis Control Division

NM cannabis regulation director resigns
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After less than a year in the position, the director of New Mexico’s Cannabis Control Division has left the division.
A spokesperson for the state’s Regulation and Licensing Division, which oversees the Cannabis Control Division, confirmed that Kristen Thomson resigned from her role as director of the division.
In an email to NM Political Report, regulation and licensing spokesperson Bernice Geiger said Thomson’s resignation was in effect immediately.
“Yesterday, June 16, 2022, Kristen Thomson submitted her resignation from the position of Director of the Cannabis Control Division of the Regulation and Licensing Department (RLD). Her resignation was effective at that time,” Geiger wrote. “We thank Kristen for her service to the Cannabis Control Division and the State of New Mexico and wish her success in her future endeavors.”
Prior to working for the Cannabis Control Division, Thomson was a lobbyist in Colorado. According to her lobbying company’s website, cannabis was one of a handful of issues Thomspon worked on.
Geiger did not specify the reason for Thomson’s sudden departure but in a phone interview on Friday, Thomson said she never planned on the division director role being a “forever job” for her.
“I am a creator, not a regulator,” Thomson told NM Political Report. “That just was never going to be the role for me.”
Thomson said she has long had a passion for helping to come up with “big policy ideas” that help to create positive economic change on the community level and that she had not imagined that she would ever head a government agency.