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Join NY Cannabis Insider at our next industry networking event on Aug. 15 at Madame Mikette’s in NYC. Tickets will sell out.
Jeffrey Hoffman is a New York City-based attorney who hosts “Ask Me Anything about Cannabis Legalization in New York” each week on LinkedIn. Hoffman and NY Cannabis Insider have partnered to bring those sessions into print in a Q&A format.
Hoffman’s practice focuses on cannabis industry clients, including licensees in the adult-use market, practitioners in the medical cannabis space, and cannabis-adjacent product and service providers.
He has a particular interest in social and economic equity cannabis license applicants, and he also informs and assists those convicted of cannabis offenses in getting such convictions expunged from their record. He can be reached at info@420jurist.com.
The following AMA from July 26 has been edited for length and clarity.
What just happened with Mastercard?
MasterCard has told the cannabis industry to quit using their debit cards. You already weren’t able to do credit card purchases for cannabis, and now MasterCard wants you to stop using your debit card. They will definitely be able to squeeze their customers on this. It’s almost as if they want cannabis commerce to be as unsafe as possible. I think the big cannabis states (CA, NY, IL, MI, MA) should put the squeeze on MasterCard and refuse to let their card be used for state transactions until they come right by what the people want.
When are the consumption lounges coming?
The dispensaries that are opening now and the forthcoming dispensaries for which the application is going to open in October are going to be able to have limited consumption as per the regs. But the straight on-site consumption license does not even have any proposed regs yet, so we’re a ways away from that license being issued.
What is the point of the consumption license?
It allows you to smoke cannabis in the licensed space whereas otherwise you would not be able to smoke anything due to New York’s Clean Indoor Air Act. You still won’t be able to smoke cigarettes there, but you will be able to smoke cannabis.
What is up with the proposed bill to ban smoking cannabis in public?
New York is the only jurisdiction in the world where it is legal to smoke cannabis anywhere you can smoke cigarettes. This was done for a number of reasons, but for me the most important was that a large number of our fellow New Yorkers cannot smoke in their apartments. And in particular, those who live in NYCHA, or other federally subsidized housing could be evicted.
So, it was imperative that we allow public consumption. Now, those that hate cannabis want to put that back in the bottle. While I don’t think they stand much of a chance, since those who implemented the law as it stands still control the levers of power in the state, I do think there will continue to be some backlash against “aggressive” public consumption. So, we as consumers should mind our Ps and Qs.
Where is your Yankees hat?
I’m wearing my Central Park Conservancy hat today in Central Park. As some of you know, my main Yankees hat is the one with the ear flaps that you flap down over your ears when it’s cold. And I don’t really wear that one until September or October when it starts to get cooler in the city. As I tell my friends who are Mets fans like Bruce Sterman, you guys could have hats like this – but they’re only really necessary for the teams that regularly play in October when it’s colder.