What the adopted rule requires of a psilocybin testing laboratory ยท in effect since June 23, 2026
For testing laboratories
Every requirement 7.35.2 NMAC places on a psilocybin testing laboratory: the accreditation the permit rests on, ownership, the traceability system, sampling, the five required tests and their action levels, re-testing, the additional services the rule allows and the limits on them, what must be reported, and discipline. Each is cited to its subsection and to the page of the adopted text. The August 25 amendments change no laboratory-specific provision; the one wording change that touches a laboratory is at the end.
Created September 7, 2026, from the text published in the New Mexico Register on June 23, 2026.
Before you apply
What the rule says an applicant provides with the application and keeps current afterward. Each is a document, not a promise; having them in hand before the application is what saves the time. Where each comes from, agency by agency, is on pathways.medical-psilocybin.org.
The traceability account, its administrator, and the department's system training come after the permit issues, but the account must be live before operating, and every cost of the system, vendor fees included, falls on the permittee. 7.35.2.16, p. 8
The rule states no application form, fee, filing address, review timeline, permit term, or renewal. The word "fee" appears once, for traceability vendor fees. The department's program page, as read on September 7, 2026, posts no application.
1. The permit application
A laboratory applicant provides, and maintains, the same twelve general records as a producer: business license, secretary of state and taxation and revenue registrations, certificate of occupancy, fire code compliance, electrical and HVAC inspection reports, zoning compliance, proof the facility is in New Mexico, proof of ownership or the property owner's signed acknowledgment, conditional use permits where applicable, an attestation that testing happens only within New Mexico and no psilocybin leaves the state, and further documentation on request. 7.35.2.8 (A), p. 4
A laboratory applicant additionally provides one of two credentials. Either a license or permit from the Regulation and Licensing Department's cannabis control division, with proof of current approval to operate as a cannabis testing laboratory in New Mexico, standard operating procedures for sampling and testing psilocybin, and an initial demonstration of capabilities for each test the rule requires; or proof of current ISO/IEC 17025 or NELAC/TNI accreditation, with the same standard operating procedures and the same demonstration of capabilities. 7.35.2.8 (C), pp. 4 to 5
An amended permit is obtained before any substantial structural modification of the permitted location, and the department is notified of changes to registrations, licenses, permits, certifications, and of equipment changes that substantially affect the process. 7.35.2.8 (D), p. 5
2. Ownership and control
The permittee rules apply to laboratories as to producers: compliance with all applicable law; no ownership interest in more than one permittee; no transfer of the permit or of actual control; no nominee, straw, or proxy ownership; and a complete record of financial interests produced within 15 calendar days of the department's request. 7.35.2.9, p. 5. Because no person may hold an interest in two permittees, a laboratory owner may not also hold an interest in a producer.
3. The traceability system
A laboratory records the results of all required testing of samples and products in the traceability system. 7.35.2.15 (B), p. 8. It may apply for an account and department training once permitted, and must have a functional account before operating; designates at least one system administrator; trains every user; completes the department's training; may be required to take continuing education to keep the account; and bears every cost of the system, vendor fees included. 7.35.2.16, p. 8
All traceability activity is tracked and reconciled daily; scales used before entry are certified as registered and calibrated under Department of Agriculture requirements; data fully and transparently accounts for all inventory tracking activity; each individual uses only their own account; and a loss of access is reported immediately, with comprehensive records kept during the outage, entered once access returns, and the outage documented. 7.35.2.17, pp. 8 to 9. Compliance and informational notifications are monitored and acted on. 7.35.2.18, p. 9
4. Sampling
The laboratory collects the samples from the producer for every required test, for a re-test after a failed result, and for a re-test after remediation, and may also test for labeling. Samples are between 1 and 5 grams for every kilogram of product in the homogenized lot, under the laboratory's sampling protocol. The laboratory develops and runs a training program in sample collection, transport, and testing, and lets no member of staff do any of the three before completing it. It may reject a sample it suspects was collected inconsistently with its protocol. The producer may impose reasonable contamination precautions on the visit, gloves and protective equipment, inspection of tools and containers, a specified sampling location, off-limits areas, and refusal of entry to non-compliant staff among them, but must give access to the entire lot. 7.35.2.19 (B), pp. 9 to 10
If a testing requirement takes effect after a sample is obtained, the laboratory performs only the tests required at the time it was obtained. 7.35.2.19 (C), p. 10. Both the laboratory and the producer document the sampling and testing of each lot in the traceability system, accurately and timely. 7.35.2.19 (K)(3), p. 12
5. The required tests and their action levels
Five tests are required on each homogenized lot before it may be released for consumption; the department may delay or suspend any of them, considering whether a laboratory has validated a method for the test and the laboratories' capacity to collect and transport samples. 7.35.2.19 (A), p. 9
| Test | Standard | Cite |
|---|---|---|
| Visual inspection | At a minimum of 40x magnification, in a one-gram sample: no living or dead insects, hair, eggs, or feces; no more than two percent sand, soil, mold, or rocks. | (D), p. 10 |
| Microbiological | Table 1. E. coli: 100 CFU per gram. Aspergillus flavus, fumigatus, niger, or terreus, which may be reported as one collective total: fails if present. Salmonella, Shiga-toxin producing E. coli, Clostridium botulinum, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, Listeria, Trichoderma: each fails if present. Total yeast and molds: fails above 1,000 CFU. Results are reported as present, absent, or CFU per one-gram sample. The department may add microbes on 30 days' written notice, or without notice where human illness is linked to product. | (E), p. 10 |
| Water content | Less than 10 percent. | (F), p. 10 |
| Potency | Table 2. Psilocybin (CAS 520-52-5), psilocin (520-53-6), norbaeocystin (2140-59-7), baeocystin (21420-59-7), and aeruginascin (114264-95-8), each reported in milligrams per gram. | (G), p. 11 |
| Heavy metals | Table 3. Arsenic 0.2, cadmium 0.2, lead 0.5, mercury 0.1 micrograms per gram; the rule states the levels rest on USP Section 232 at a maximum of 10 grams per day ingested. | (H), p. 11 |
| Pesticides | Table 4, eighteen named pesticides with action levels in micrograms per gram, from 0.02 for trifloxystrobin to 40.0 for thiabendazole, and any other pesticide not registered with the New Mexico Department of Agriculture for use on psilocybin at 0.02. Levels below the limit of quantitation are reported in the form the table gives. The department may add pesticides on 30 days' written notice, and may investigate suspected use of an unregistered pesticide with the Department of Agriculture. | (I), pp. 11 to 12 |
Potency, water content, and microbiological tests are repeated on each homogenized lot and its product lots no less than five and no more than six months after the previous test, to the same standards as the initial test. A failed sample may be re-tested by the same or another laboratory. 7.35.2.19 (L), p. 12
6. Additional services, and their limits
A laboratory may test for a producer's research and development or quality control. Either party may collect the sample. Such results may not satisfy any required test even if they pass, a failure is not a failure of a required test, and the results may not appear on a label. 7.35.2.20 (A), p. 13
A laboratory may test for labeling purposes, for additional pesticides, microbial contaminants, solvents, mycotoxins, and metals among others; an agent of the laboratory collects those samples. A label may carry the results, and may state that the product met third-party screening criteria by naming the contaminants screened, linking or QR-coding the list, or stating that an industry association's criteria were met; no label may claim "pesticide free" or "organic" unless United States Department of Agriculture regulations specifically authorize it. 7.35.2.20 (B), p. 13
A laboratory may test for any entity in New Mexico, and for any entity operated or permitted by a tribal government with which the department has an intergovernmental agreement covering psilocybin testing; where that agreement lets the entity collect its own samples, the laboratory gives guidance on collection, and otherwise its agent collects. It may also test for the department, the Department of Agriculture, another state agency, or a state or local law enforcement authority within its jurisdiction. 7.35.2.20 (D) and (E), p. 13
7. What a laboratory must report
Nothing in the rule requires a laboratory to offer tests for analytes outside the required set, but a laboratory that detects a contaminant in any sample reports it to the department. 7.35.2.20 (C), p. 13. Required test results are recorded in the traceability system. 7.35.2.15 (B), p. 8
The department's own scientific laboratory may test psilocybin at the program's request and act as a reference laboratory, and its staff may take part in inspections of psilocybin testing laboratories and applicants. 7.35.2.22 (B), p. 14
8. Transport of samples
Testing and sampling is one of the three activities for which a chain of custody form is generated in the traceability system before transport, and the transport requirements of 7.35.2.24 apply to whoever moves the samples: a permittee, or a designated employee or contractor of a permittee or certified practitioner. The permittee receiving a shipment verifies it against the form and takes nothing that is not on it or differs in amount. 7.35.2.24, pp. 15 to 16
9. Monitoring and discipline
Monitoring, corrective action, immediate suspension, the thirteen grounds for discipline, and the hearing process apply to a laboratory as to a producer: on-site assessment with or without notice during business hours, correction of a noticed deficiency within 30 calendar days, record review of an immediate suspension on a request within 30 days, a hearing on a request by certified mail within 30 days, held within 60 days, with the burden on the appellant, the hearing officer's recommendation within 30 days of the last submission, and the secretary's decision within 45 days after that. 7.35.2.25 and 7.35.2.26, pp. 16 to 19. The full statement of both sections is on For producers, and the text on The adopted rule.
10. The August 25 amendments
None of the three sections proposed for amendment on August 25, 2026 carries a laboratory-specific requirement. One wording change touches a laboratory: under the amended 7.35.2.24 (C), the person receiving a psilocybin shipment, rather than the permittee receiving it, verifies the shipment against the chain of custody form, and under the amended (D) the duty to reject a shipment that is not on the form runs to any person. A laboratory receiving samples is a person receiving a shipment under both readings. Amendments p. 5. The hearing is October 2; see Comment.
Provenance: the source document and this page’s revisions▸
The document this page is read from
June 23, 2026
The adopted rule, 7.35.2 NMACCurrent state of truth
The adopted rule, published in the New Mexico Register on June 23, 2026 and in effect from that day: twenty-seven sections governing producer and laboratory permits, premises, allowed products, traceability, the five required tests and their action levels, packaging and the product information document, wastage, transportation with a chain of custody, monitoring, and discipline. It supersedes the text proposed on March 24 and heard on April 24, 2026. Proposed amendments to three of its sections were published August 25, 2026 and go to a hearing on October 2; until adopted, the text here stands unamended.
This document supersedes one earlier ones. Each of them, what it is, what superseded it and when, and a download, is in the register at Meetings and filings.
Revisions to this page
- September 7, 2026 A section at the top, Before you apply: the records and the credential a laboratory applicant has in hand, cited item by item, with what the rule does not state about the application itself.
- September 7, 2026 Created: what the adopted rule requires of a psilocybin testing laboratory, from the accreditation the permit rests on through the five required tests, the additional services the rule allows, reporting, and discipline, each cited to its subsection and page.