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When New York launched its Cannabis Compliance Training & Mentorship Program early this year, many in the industry were hopeful it would provide to legacy operators a pathway to running a licensed weed business.
A few months after the first cohort completed the 10-week curriculum, participants see it as a mixed bag. The program taught students important elements of running a compliant marijuana business in New York, but some graduates say that the lack of clarity around whether completing the program will make them any more likely to get a license puts its value into question.
“I’m not trying to discredit some of the value of some of the classes, but that wasn’t the reason I went to the program,” said Joshua Waterman, a member of the mentorship program’s inaugural cohort. “I wasn’t going to the program to try to learn how to be successful in the industry that I’m already successful in. I went into the program to be able to get a license.”
Joshua Waterman is the co-founder of NY’s Legacy Growers Association, an information network for illicit operators and business interest group.
The MRTA, which legalized adult-use marijuana, stipulates the Office of Cannabis Management create “an incubator program to encourage social and economic equity applicants to apply and, if granted an adult-use cannabis license, permit or registration, the program shall provide direct support in the form of counseling services, education, small business coaching and financial planning, and compliance assistance.”
The law largely leaves the program’s specifics to the OCM.
When classes were about to start in January, OCM Chief Equity Officer Damian Fagon said the first cohort included 173 growers and 50 processors; 66% of whom are from groups historically underrepresented in the farming industry and/or qualify for social equity status under the MRTA.
Those participants would learn about compliance, business fundamentals, growing techniques and more. Partners included instructors from Cornell University, the State University of New York (SUNY) Morrisville, cannabis tech company Dutchie, and weed industry players.
Waterman, a legacy operator from Central New York, is a co-founder and president of the Legacy Growers Association, and advocated for a mentorship program that would help longtime weed entrepreneurs transition to the state’s legal market. After meeting with officials from the OCM over multiple months, Waterman was hopeful, but dubious as to whether the mentorship program would amount to more than a box-checking exercise.
It’s not that the program had no use at all, Waterman said. It just seemed more targeted to people with little to no experience in cannabis, rather than legacy operators looking for an onramp to the legal market. Business lessons covered things like forming an LLC, which many legacy players are already familiar with, Waterman said.
Classes on growing seemed amateurish, and sometimes inaccurate, he said.
Waterman added that the courses did provide students with important information about the regulations weed companies in New York will likely have to follow but – ironically – one of the most valuable things about the program is it led some legacy operators away from trying to join the legal market.
“A number of them said after going through the program, ‘I know for sure I don’t want to get into legal cannabis,” Waterman said. “It’s not like how it went in California, where a lot of legacy people just jumped in … and they ended up failing pretty quickly. I think it may have saved some people from doing that.”
But another Central New York legacy grower who went through the program said it felt like instructors were trying to dissuade most people from pursuing a cannabis business license. The grower – who plans to apply for a license and asked NY Cannabis Insider not to publish his name out of fear of retribution from regulators – said instructors seemed to suggest that anyone with less than $1 million in startup funding will likely fail.
“It sounded like they wanted to scare those people away,” the grower said.
Like Waterman, the grower thought instructors provided useful information to farmers who had never grown weed before. But for a seasoned grower, these lessons offered little more than tips to possibly try out, he said.
The grower said that OCM representatives seemed to suggest – but never directly said – that people who complete the mentorship program would receive a certificate that will fast-track their license applications when general licensing opens.
That tracks with comments OCM Director of Business Development James Rogers made during an event in May hosted by accounting firm Citrin Cooperman. At the time, Rogers said OCM’s finalized regulations could create a direct path from the mentorship program to receiving a license.
OCM has not yet provided answers to questions NY Cannabis Insider asked about the program, including whether the agency is still working on a pathway to licensure.
The Central New York grower who spoke with NY Cannabis Insider said he hopes OCM creates a pathway from the program to licensure. If not, he’s not sure if continuing the program is worth it for participants.
“I think they just did it because it’s in the MRTA law,” the grower said. “I feel this will be a one-and-done case.”
But at least one member of the mentorship program’s first cohort said the courses were very useful to him as he prepares to apply for a microbusiness license and launch a company.
Curt Boshnack, who works for Adult-Use Conditional Cultivation company Bristol Extracts – also CEO of Sunwalker Farms in Canandaigua – entered the cannabis industry a couple years ago, when he sought out an internship at a Denver hemp company. He started working at Bristol Extracts last September, and wants to eventually launch his own small marijuana business. The mentorship program provided him with a lot of useful information to pursue that goal, Boshnack said.
“We learned everything from compliance to mixed-light production, indoor production, outdoor, dealing with the elements, as well as dealing with different fungi,” said Boshnack, who added the course allowed him to go through self-directed classes at his own pace, and introduced him to people who might make valuable connections if and when he gets a microbusiness license.
However, after working in the cannabis industry for a while, Boshnack said people who go through the mentorship program will also probably need some hands-on experience in the sector to be successful.
“I think [the program] teaches a lot on a high level of what you’re going to be looking at, but nothing beats experience,” Boshnack said. “I think you’ve got to go hands-on if this is what you really want to do.”