Albuquerque, NM Cannabis Regulations: Dispensary Zoning (2026)

IDO § 14-16-4-3(D)(36)(a) treats Cannabis Retail as an allowed commercial use conditioned on compliance with New Mexico's licensing law: the establishment must comply with all state law requirements, including required spacing from other uses, and every distance measurement under this use standard runs from the lot holding the state-licensed "licensed premises" as defined by the Cannabis Regulation Act, NMSA 1978 §§ 26-2C-1 to 26-2C-42. Subsection (b) then grandfathers a specific group: any establishment that already held a valid medical cannabis license under the Lynn and Erin Compassionate Use Act, NMSA 1978 §§ 26-2B-1 to 26-2B-10, as of April 1, 2022, is entitled to continued and uninterrupted operation and becomes permissively allowed as a Cannabis Retail use once it obtains its Cannabis Regulation Act license, without having to satisfy the distance-separation standards in Subsections (c) and (d) or the prohibition in Subsection (h) that apply to later entrants.

In practice this means Albuquerque did not opt out of cannabis retail and does not ban it citywide; it folds the use into the ordinary commercial zoning table, applies buffer distances only going forward, and protects the state's original medical-program dispensaries from being displaced by those newer buffers. The City's role is confirming the zone district allows the use and that the operator holds the required state license, not issuing its own separate cannabis permit.