New Mexico's medical psilocybin rules draw pushback before launch

What did New Mexico propose?

The New Mexico Department of Health proposed a new rule, 7.35.3 NMAC, for the New Mexico Medical Psilocybin Program, plus amendments to 7.35.2 NMAC, to "implement the Medical Psilocybin Act," sections 26-2D-1 through 26-2D-11 NMSA 1978.³ The act began as SB 219, signed April 7, 2025, as Chapter 73.¹

The new rule sets standards for patient enrollment and for certifying clinicians, practitioners, facilitators, healing centers and training programs. It also covers storage and handling, emergency plans and discipline, and the amendments revise producer and transport rules.³

The public hearing was Friday, October 2, at 9 a.m. in the Harold Runnels Building auditorium in Santa Fe, with video and phone access. Written comments had to arrive by the close of the hearing.³

What did critics object to?

Marijuana Moment's account of the two-hour hearing lists several complaints that the rules reach past the statute.⁹

• Landlord sign-off. The rules would require landlord consent for in-home care and for leased healing centers. Sen. Jeff Steinborn (D-Las Cruces), the act's primary sponsor, said: "I am totally opposed to the landlord sign-off for homebound patients."⁹
• Clinician certification. Witnesses said requiring a certifying clinician, with a recent in-person exam, goes beyond the statute and shuts out rural, tribal and homebound patients.⁹
• Patient IDs and a state database. Critics said ID cards and a 30-day state review create a bottleneck and a database of sensitive mental health records. Steinborn urged cutting the review to "a week or two."⁹
• Staffing. Witnesses said requiring both a practitioner and a facilitator raises session costs, and that group rules calling for five staff for eight patients cancel out the savings of group sessions.⁹

Ian Dunn, who chairs the state's Medical Psilocybin Advisory Board, put the housing point this way: "Those who own property can make decisions for themselves. Those who do not must ask someone else."⁹ Some witnesses praised the framework, and the article reports no formal response from the department.⁹

When does the program start?

That depends on which document you read. The statute says the department shall, "by December 31, 2027, implement the program" (Section 7(C)).² The department's program page says, "The program is set to be implemented by December 31, 2026."⁴

The department's FAQ frames 2026 as a target: "The goal of the Department is to enroll the first patients by the end of December 2026." It adds that "Psilocybin therapy enrollment has not yet started."⁵ Dominick Zurlo, director of the Center for Medical Cannabis and Psilocybin, told the advisory board in December 2025 that the goal was "to be able to see the initial patients by the end of December of 2026."⁸ So December 31, 2027 is the legal deadline, and the end of 2026 is the department's own goal.

Some money is already in place: Marijuana Moment reports 630,000 dollars for the Medical Psilocybin Treatment Equity Fund and 300,000 dollars for University of New Mexico end-of-life research, signed in March 2026.⁹

What does this mean for someone in San Diego?

New Mexico's program is medical. The statute covers major treatment-resistant depression, PTSD, substance use disorders, end-of-life care and other conditions the department approves, and the FAQ describes a preparation session, a dosing session and an integration session.²⁵ That's a different model from the adult programs in Oregon and Colorado; our guide to legal psilocybin access from California covers all three programs.

Whether a Californian could enroll isn't settled. The statute has no explicit residency requirement, and we couldn't confirm what the proposed rule says on the point.² For now, the department says psilocybin "is not legally available in New Mexico outside of clinical research."⁵

Federal and California law haven't moved: psilocybin is Schedule I under both, so a New Mexico card wouldn't make it legal to carry psilocybin home to San Diego.⁶⁷ If you're weighing options closer to home, see what legal psychedelic therapy costs in San Diego and which clinical trials have San Diego sites.