This post was originally published on this site.
Join NY Cannabis Insider at our next industry networking event on Aug. 15 at Madame Mikette’s in NYC. Tickets will sell out.
Hope everyone enjoyed their Fourth of July celebrations! We had a shorter week at NY Cannabis Insider, but still covered some good ground. Let’s take a look at the stories we wrote about last week:
Yesterday, NY Cannabis Insider Editor/Publisher Brad Racino published an important piece about unanswered questions from the Dormitory Authority of the State of New York. As the overseer of New York’s $200 million cannabis social equity fund, DASNY is heavily involved with the legal cannabis industry, but the agency has declined to answer key questions Brad has posed for over a year.
“While the authority did provide some information over the past year, the majority of our questions went unanswered despite multiple follow-ups,” Brad wrote. “As a result, we are publishing a list of the major questions that DASNY – more than a year into the process – has refused to answer.”
Last week, we checked in with Adult-Use Conditional Processing licensee OMO Labs, LLC, to see how things are going for the Long Island-based company. Things haven’t been easy, said OMO founder David Falkowski, but he hopes his situation will improve as more dispensaries open.
OMO Labs is storing thousands of units of gummies, vapes and other products, as Falkowski seeks out retail outlets on or close to Long Island that will buy them. The company’s location puts it in a unique geographical bind: Long Island is among New York State’s most populous regions, but skepticism toward legal cannabis among local leaders make a roaring weed retail market there unlikely.
Paula Collins, a tax attorney dedicated to the cannabis industry and a co-founder of the NY Consortium of Cannabis Accountants, wrote an Independence Day column reflecting on New York’s cannabis industry. “But to be honest, not a lot of people in the New York cannabis scene are feeling in touch with their rights to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness this July Fourth,” she wrote.
In another guest column, Collins wrote about Gov. Kathy Hochul’s announcement that Real Estate Investment Trust Chicago Atlantic invested $150 million in the state’s cannabis social equity fund, fully banking it. But the devil is in the details, Collins wrote.
“Note that the governor’s announcement calls the $150 million an ‘investment’ in the headline, but in the very first line of the press release, backpedals to call it a ‘commitment up to $200 million.’”
Continuing our “NY’s women in cannabis” series, we ran a profile on Rebecca Rutenberg, a VP of Northeast Markets and Business Intelligence at Vicente, LLP, a top-ranked national cannabis law firm.
We also added a new entry to our “People to know in NY cannabis” series: Harrison Wise, the publisher and founder of The Bluntness.
Lastly, we posted attorney Jeffrey Hoffman’s latest Ask Me Anything segment, in which he answered questions about medical needs, farmers’ markets and more
Have a great weekend everyone, we’ll be back with plenty more next week.