This post was originally published on this site.
This guest column is from Colin Decker, owner and founder of 7 SEAZ, New York’s first legacy-to-legal adult-use cannabis brand, and owner of Hudson Valley-based Sensei Growth Consulting. The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the author, and do not necessarily reflect the views or positions of NY Cannabis Insider.
“This is unreal.”
That’s what kept going through my mind as I sat inside the Ulster County Supreme Court today, where a massive movement of CAURD licensees, applicants, industry operators, cultivators and brand owners filled the courtroom benches and even the overflow room.
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I’ve witnessed countless moments so far within New York’s legal cannabis market that have left me speechless. All could have been avoided or prevented if those running the show had even the smallest amount of relatable experience, a general counsel who didn’t resign, or knowledge of the industry they’re attempting to stand up while “building the plane while it’s in the air.”
Personally, I’ve had enough of the excuses, of the fake sense of care and understanding, of the ass-kissing towards a failing governmental regulatory body that has yet to make a promise and keep it.
The simple fact that this is OK or acceptable by any of us operators, participants, owners, licensees, etc., is bewildering to me. We are allowing those without a shred of knowledge or relevant experience to lead us through a field of quicksand.
Would any of you hire an employee from a completely different business sector without any relevant experience to run your dispensary in Manhattan? How about to grow an acre of outdoor cannabis under the sun if they had no growing experience? Enough is enough with this charade of a market that we are being constantly spoon fed lies about. This market will not sustain or last if this continues – the MSOs will take what they want and destroy those who stand in opposition and who don’t have the resources that they need in order to survive the storm.
During today’s proceedings, it was beyond embarrassing to witness the state’s counsel not even be able to recite the most basic of rules and regulations regarding CAURD dispensary location distances or know the total amount of CAURD licenses that will be ultimately allocated before the program comes to a close for applicants.
Was this person hired just this morning at 6 a.m. off of a Craigslist ad? There was a literal moment where the counsel was unable to proceed due to “dry mouth.” The irony of witnessing cotton mouth as an excuse for incompetent performance was fitting, to say the least.
The idea of being patient and simply accepting all of this as status quo is bizarre and disrespectful to those who have chosen to leave a profession behind, or have transitioned from legacy to legal, or have invested their life savings into this industry in hopes of manifesting generational wealth for their families. It’s disrespectful to those who are out hitting the pavement day in and day out to build a brand and make relationships with store owners so that product can be sold. It’s disrespectful to the farmers working all day and night in fields and greenhouses to grow crops.
I do not blame any operator, business or individual for the overwhelming amount of wrongs that have thus far been doled out to industry participants. The blame falls ultimately on the incompetence of the OCM themselves.
The governor needs to step in immediately and end all of this once and for all, to do what we all have been thinking for so long – wipe the slate clean and get those who have actual experience and knowledge into positions of influence and decision-making to create a truly equitable industry.
Those at the OCM had their chance to try and make this work – and you all have failed. The lawsuits will keep coming and this will never get going at a reasonable pace if this is allowed to continue. The OCM cannot be the DMV.
If you believe that time will heal this wound and you will witness the “first truly equitable cannabis industry in the United States that rights the wrongs of marijuana prohibition,” then you are believing the dreams that the OCM wanted to sell you all along, and it is time to wake up and demand what was really promised to us all since the inception of the MRTA.
If disabled veterans are suing the state for not being able to obtain licensing, then why are the dispensary license holders who have strength in numbers not forming a class-action lawsuit against the same governing body that promised them a hope and dream with a license on top?
The same sentiment stands in regard to those who’ve cultivated crops legally for the adult-use cannabis market with the belief that a realized retail marketplace would be around for them to sell their products. Those farmers should consider the same avenue of a class-action lawsuit, as well.
These owners have invested time, money, blood, sweat and tears, along with a past they want to prove does not define them as human beings and business people. Women and men all looking to achieve the dream of selling legal cannabis and feeding their families – strength not only in numbers but in their life missions.
These are the operators suffering from irreparable harm at this moment, along with those running brands and cultivators across the state about to harvest a second year of crops.
We were promised 20 stores would be open by year’s end of 2022. We got one. Shame on the state of New York for being a negligent parent in the first year of its legal cannabis industry. If a parent were to act this way when raising their children, CPS would have stepped in by now.
These negligent parents need to be reprimanded by the governor herself, and it’s time that the OCM be bestowed upon different hands to continue on the job of raising the industry with vision; with legal counsel of adequate experience and knowledge; and with compassion and in collaboration with industry stakeholders.
Would any of you still like to fly on this broken plane at 30,000 feet?