General Doom and Gloom Edition
April 24, 2023
Brief Summary: Not really a breaking news item so much as a general update on the mood of the industry. I’ve been speaking with lots of conditional cultivators, conditional processors, and prospective retail business owners alike and there’s a general feeling out there that the program is struggling and that they are being set up to fail alongside it. Cultivators have cannabis molding in storage that processors can’t buy because they already have distillate they can’t sell because legal retailers aren’t up and running in numbers yet (unless you count the illicit market). There’s a race to the bottom in cannabis prices, lack of communication from the state on impending and expensive rules like seed-to-sale tracking (required by the state per the law but no specifics released), the funds for social equity support haven’t materialized, faith is lacking in strategies put forward by the state to take down illegal stores (1,400 in NYC), and everyone’s just generally down.
That’s not to say the industry won’t flourish in time (it certainly will), and there are ideas being considered with the goal of rescuing some of these operators, but we’ll have to wait and see how it all shakes out.
Market halt? Probably not.
April 24, 2023
Brief Summary: The legal market for New York grown and processed cannabis is set to come to a halt on June 1, 2023 thanks to language in legislation passed last year that allowed conditional adult-use cultivators to “minimally process and distribute cannabis products without holding an adult-use processor or distributor license,” – but only until June 1, 2023. After June 1 of this year, any such cultivator that wishes to process and distribute cannabis products must hold an adult-use processor or distributor license. However, distributor licenses don’t exist and most likely will not be issued by 6/1 without some emergency rulemaking, which will leave the legal market without a source of cannabis products.
Solutions being offered include allowing conditional adult-use cultivators and processors to distribute their cannabis products until there are at least a handful of adult-use distributors operating in each of New York’s fourteen regions.
Cannabis Crop Rescue Act
April 21, 2023
Brief Summary: New York State Assemblywoman Donna Lupardo introduced the “Cannabis Crop Rescue Act” which calls for allowing NY’s cultivators to sell cannabis products directly to consumers until 9/30/2023. The bill would also open up loans and grants to cultivators so that they can have their cannabis flower turned into distillate. While some cultivators applaud the proposal, some conditional retailers argue that they would essentially be cut out of the supply chain while just getting their businesses launched. It has yet to be seen whether the bill has much support although groups like the Cannabis Association of New York (formerly the Grower and Processor Association) have backed the idea.
MSO CAURD Lawsuit
April 20, 2023
Brief Summary: Word is that a hearing on the CAURD lawsuit brought about by some of the state MSOs (multistate operators) challenging the CAURD program and the constitutionality of CCB/OCM’s actions thus far is scheduled for July. The expectation, however, is that the OCM will award all of the outstanding CAURD licenses before the hearing to undermine the lawsuit’s merit (since it’s harder to take away a license once it’s been issued).
Cannabis Advisory Board Meeting
April 18, 2023
Brief Summary: The state’s Cannabis Advisory Board met for their fourth time. The board, which includes personal colleague and C-GCC guest lecturer Nikki Kateman, unveiled a new “Why Buy Legal New York” advertising campaign promoting legal cannabis. The board also unveiled a new committee structure organized as follows:
- The Community Reinvestment Fund Committee, which will be responsible for coming up with processes for tasks like reviewing grant proposals seeking fund money.
- The Social and Economic Equity Committee, which will engage with equity and small business issues.
- The Cannabis Industry and Market committee, which will handle licensing, banking and enforcement issues.
- The Health, Safety and Research Committee, which will engage with public health, medical cannabis and clinical research issues.
And that’s a wrap! Tune in next time for more exciting developments.