New Mexico’s Cannabis Control Division (CCD) is now accepting applications for all cannabis license types as it works to get the state’s adult-use program up and running.

The department, which had received more than 1,500 adult-use cultivation license applications as of mid-November, has expanded its application process to include manufacturing and retail businesses “to further streamline the licensing process,” according to a press release.

“The Cannabis Control Division’s licensing system is open for business,” Regulation and Licensing Department (RLD) Superintendent Linda M. Trujillo said in a public statement. “As part of the CCD’s mission to stand up a thriving adult-use cannabis industry in New Mexico, we are expanding user-friendly online platform to allow applicants to start the licensing process now for more business types so that they can be prepared as more rules are being quickly finalized.”

Prospective entrepreneurs can access the New Mexico’s licensing application system online, but the CCD will not issue cannabis licenses until the state’s adult-use rules have been finalized, according to the press release.

Final regulations for New Mexico’s adult-use cannabis industry must be adopted by a Jan. 1, 2022 deadline and sales are set to launch by April 1.

“The Cannabis Control Division doesn’t want to waste a single minute in getting cannabis businesses up and running in the state,” CCD Director Kristen Thomson said in a public statement. “After hearing stakeholders’ enthusiasm for standing up this industry as soon as possible, we are instituting this new licensing process to help businesses, entrepreneurs and communities maximize the economic opportunities this new industry is creating."