Ben Lewinger Steps Down: New Mexico’s Cannabis Industry Loses a Steady Hand

New Mexico’s Cannab*s chamber, Ben Lewinger, has announced he is stepping down as executive director of the New Mexico Cannabis Chamber of Commerce. For years, Lewinger has been the connective tissue holding together a volatile, fast-growing industry in a state still figuring out how to regulate its green gold rush.

Lewinger’s departure comes at a time when the industry is teetering between boom and bust. Oversaturation has already claimed legacy operators like Minerva Canna and Sacred Garden, while even giants like Ultra Health have shuttered stores  . Lewinger was one of the few voices calling for a “safety valve” to throttle the flood of new licenses—a power stripped from regulators during the final push to legalize adult-use cannabis.

He wasn’t just a policy wonk. Lewinger brought a rare blend of pragmatism and idealism to the table, pushing for stronger oversight when labs like Bluebonnet were accused of falsifying test results and shipping cannabis across state lines . He backed legislation like House Bill 10, which would give regulators more teeth to crack down on bad actors.

With Lewinger gone, the Chamber—and the broader community—loses a leader who understood that building a sustainable industry isn’t just about profits. It’s about protecting consumers, supporting small businesses, and keeping the whole damn thing from collapsing under its own weight.

Whoever steps in next will inherit a mess of contradictions: a booming market strangled by regulation, a flood of licenses without a lifeboat in sight, and a public that’s losing faith in the system. Lewinger may not have been a “huge pothead,” as he once joked , but he was the adult in the room. And now, the room just got a lot noisier.