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In a very newsy Cannabis Control Board meeting on Wednesday, regulators licensed 212 more conditional dispensaries, approved the concept of growers’ showcases and said they could introduce applications for general licensing as soon as September.
The mass approval of new licenses – which brings the total number of conditional adult-use dispensaries to 463 – and other votes on Wednesday signaled a renewed effort on the part of regulators to speed up dispensary openings and launch the general licensing process as soon as possible.
“Even with such a large cohort of CAURD licenses, take note that this isn’t the end of the CAURD program,” said Chris Alexander, executive director of the Office of Cannabis Management.
“I’m encouraging everybody who’s been waiting on an opportunity to stay tuned” for announcements regarding general licensing, Alexander said.
Board members voted in favor of creating growers’ showcase events, at which Adult-Use Conditional Cultivation companies can sell their weed at pop-ups facilitated by CAURD businesses. However, the measure they approved didn’t include any details of how these events will be run.
OCM officials introduced the growers’ showcase model during a May meeting of the Cannabis Association of New York (CANY). As OCM Director of Policy John Kagia described the idea two months back, the agency will likely allow these events to take place anywhere organizers can get municipal approval, and OCM would likely not limit the number of growers that can participate in an event.
During Wednesday’s meeting, Kagia said that showcase event organizers would have to receive municipal approval before seeking OCM’s blessing, and that these showcases cannot be held in cities or towns that opted out of adult-use cannabis retail. Kagia said these events will help farmers unload weed they’ve been unable to sell, due to a dearth in retail outlets, and will also introduce local weed brands to customers.
“Ultimately, the cannabis growers’ showcases, we believe, are going to be a win for our consumers – who will finally get access to legal, regulated products across the state – and a win for our farmers, who have a significant amount of inventory left to sell,” Kagia said.
The growers’ showcase concept has been a rare bright spot for struggling weed farmers across New York State, with some anxiously awaiting more details from the state. However, Jeremy Unruh, the senior vice president of public and regulatory affairs at PharmaCann, wonders if it’s feasible that the events will happen by the end of the summer.
Unruh pointed out that it appears the OCM and CCB still need to write and approve specific rules for how these events will be run. He also noted that Kagia said OCM will host info sessions about these events, which will add more time.
“The growers showcase, in my view, was supposed to be a short-term workaround aimed at ameliorating … the glut of conditional cultivator products,” Unruh said. “If the OCM still has to issue guidance, and then have town halls, and then update the guidance … is this really going to be an immediate short-term solution to an immediate short-term problem?”
It’s unclear when more details about the initiative will materialize.
Board members on Wednesday also approved a slate of updated regulations, including ones for the state’s medical market. The newly passed medical cannabis rules appear to be mostly technical and aimed at synchronizing regulations for medical and adult-use companies, Unruh told NY Cannabis Insider.
The new rules now sync up the packaging and labeling and True Party of Interest standards for adult-use and medical products and industries. They also set a non-reciprocal 1,000-foot setback requirement on dispensaries owned by medical cannabis Registered Organizations – meaning ROs may not open a dispensary within 1,000 feet of an adult-use shop, but the adult-use shops may open stores within 1,000 feet of an RO.
The packaging and labeling synchronicity for medical and adult-use is probably the most consequential item, Unruh said. It means ROs who want to expand into New York’s adult-use market can use the same packaging, rather than requiring different packaging for the different markets.
“That was a pretty significant area of heartburn for most of the medical operators,” Unruh said. “For us to have to make the same product simply packaged in a different way, that adds a lot of complication and expense to our production operations.”
Additionally, the CCB passed new emergency regulations for the cannabinoid/hemp program – which limit the amount of intoxicating compounds in hemp products – and approved rules for cannabis research. Board members approved a testing lab permit for Coral Reef Labs, and extended emergency enforcement regulations, which were set to expire on Aug. 6, by 120 days.
Toward the end of Wednesday’s meeting, OCM Executive Director Alexander said that if the CCB gives final approval to proposed regulations for general cannabis business licenses – as opposed to conditional licenses that are currently available – his agency could open the full application process in September.
“We have a lot of work in front of us, there’s a lot of work behind us, but today’s a day to celebrate,” Alexander said.