Is It Legal to Grow Marijuana in New Mexico?

• Adults 21 years or older can legally grow cannabis at home in New Mexico.
• You can grow 6 mature and 6 immature plants per person.
• Household limits are capped at 12 mature marijuana plants.
• Medical patients generally follow the same growth limits.
• Homegrown cannabis cannot legally be sold without a license.
• New Mexico allows you to keep what your legal plants produce at home.

This is the part that confuses most people. New Mexico law separates cannabis plants into two categories:

• Mature plants
• Immature plants

A mature plant is flowering and producing buds. An immature plant has not started flowering yet. Under New Mexico law, you can grow:

• Up to 6 mature marijuana plants per adult
• Up to 6 immature marijuana plants per adult

So technically, one adult can have up to 12 total plants at different growth stages. What’s important to know is that New Mexico allows you to possess the cannabis produced by those plants at home, even if the total harvested amount exceeds normal possession limits. This is the most generous part of the New Mexico cannabis laws.

This is where the household cap comes in. Even if multiple adults live in the same residence, New Mexico law limits a household to no more than 12 mature cannabis plants total.

The law is very clear about the mature plant limit. That's the number regulators care about most because mature plants produce usable cannabis. So, if you and your partner both grow at home, you cannot each have 12 flowering plants. The household max is still 12 mature plants total.

A lot of people assume medical patients automatically get higher growth limits. In New Mexico, that is not really how the law works. Under the current Cannabis Regulation Act, medical patients generally follow the same personal cultivation limits as everyone else:

• 6 mature plants per person
• 6 immature plants per person

The home-growing rules in New Mexico for medical patients largely align with adult-use law now. That surprises many people because some medical cannabis programs in other states allow higher cultivation limits for registered patients.

If you're 21 or older and growing within the legal adult-use limits, you do not need a commercial cannabis license.

Medical patients can still apply for a Personal Production License through the state medical cannabis program. That allows registered patients or caregivers to produce cannabis specifically for medical use. Under New Mexico’s medical cannabis rules, a qualified patient with a Personal Production License may grow:

• 4 mature female cannabis plants
• 12 seedlings or male plants combined

You can only grow cannabis at your private residence. And your plants should not be visible to the public.

If children or pets live in the home, the state cannabis laws strongly recommend keeping plants secured and inaccessible. This is one of those areas where people accidentally create problems for themselves. A small indoor setup that stays private is usually much safer legally than a visible outdoor grow.