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Happy weekend, everyone!
We’ve had a busy couple of weeks covering legislative, regulatory and business stories in New York’s cannabis industry. Let’s take a look at what we wrote about.
Reporter Mel Hyman contributed a story about sales data that show a strong upward trend for global powerhouse Curaleaf, which continues to be the market share leader in neighboring New Jersey.
According to HEADSET, a cannabis analytics firm based in Seattle, Curaleaf’s market share of wholesale sales in New York has been tracking higher every month since multistate operators were allowed to operate vertically at the end of last year.
On Tuesday, reporter Wes Parnell published a story, in which he found the Office of Cannabis Management set lab testing guidelines and safety limits for a chemical used in cannabis extraction without notifying a processor whose facility has been shut down since March for using the solvent, and who has alleged OCM retaliated against her company for leaking a conversation she had with a top agency official.
Further, documents show the OCM updated its guidance regarding the chemical on March 15 – the same day the Hudson Valley processor, Jenny Argie, was in court seeking relief from the shutdown – but didn’t notify business owners and laboratories about the regulatory shift until last week.
Also on Tuesday, NY Cannabis Insider hosted a meetup event in Buffalo, which included a “State of the State” discussion panel, which dove into what’s working, what’s not, what needs to happen next, and what those looking to get into the industry should consider before making the leap.
The discussion panel included Michael Casacci of House of Sacci; Reggie Keith of Canna-House; Missy Fogarty of Pothead Parent and Edward Lukaszek of Biotrax Testing Laboratory.
We covered Gov. Kathy Hochul’s action to overhaul the OCM, including the exit of the agency’s current leader – following an investigation that found inefficiencies and mismanagement have slowed the state’s legal marijuana rollout.
Hochul said her administrations’ most pressing goals are to speed up the pace of licensing – especially for retailers – and crack down on illicit weed shops that have proliferated statewide. The action comes after a report by Office of General Services investigators – led by Commissioner Jeanette Moy – released a report detailing issues within the OCM.
Following a judicial finding in favor of cannabis-adjacent tech firm Leafly and other plaintiffs who sued New York regulators, we spoke with a couple of attorneys to weigh in on how the judge’s decision could affect future lawsuits.
Experts who spoke with NY Cannabis Insider said the judge’s ruling could provide a roadmap to future litigants who want to sue the OCM, and play a role in future attempts to strike down hundreds of pages of rules that regulators spent years writing and approving.
Joe Rossi, the Cannabis Practice Group Leader at Park Strategies, contributed a guest column arguing that cannabis applicants deserve more transparency in the process of applying for business licenses.
“I also respectfully urge the OCM to begin a weekly email to all the applicants, and everyone on the OCM email listserv, on where the agency is with the November and December queue review process. It doesn’t need to be more than two paragraphs,” Rossi wrote.
Reporter Mel Hyman contributed a story about licensed cultivators who have drained most – or all – of their savings to keep their businesses afloat, and how they’re affected by the state legislature’s failure to include in the state budget a relief fund for growers.
While a relief fund was proposed, none of the $80 million sought by the Assembly in its one-house budget, or the $128 million in cannabis relief proposed by the Senate, made it across the finish line for 2024.
We ran a story about problems that growers licensed under the Adult-Use Conditional Cultivator program are facing as they try to transition to general licenses. Cultivators who first established the state’s legal marijuana supply chain say they haven’t been able to get straight answers from regulators about the status of their licenses, leading to frustration and fear about their financial futures.
Growers who spoke with NY Cannabis Insider said the OCM hasn’t lived up to its commitment to quickly license transitional applications and is not providing clear answers to AUCC licensees seeking approval to operate past June.
Lastly, we wrote about how legal cannabis delivery businesses are doing so far in New York. Long before cannabis legalization seemed like a serious prospect, informal delivery services served as a primary retail method for the underground weed market.
As many of the increasing number of licensed dispensaries coming online are also operating delivery services, entrepreneurs are working out the kinks, and figuring out in real time how important deliveries will be to their bottom lines.
Have a great weekend everyone, we’ll be back with plenty more next week.
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