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This week marked the opening of general cannabis business licensing in New York. We at NY Cannabis Insider will keep you updated on how it’s going as the licensing period proceeds.
For now, let’s take a look at the stories NY Cannabis Insider covered last week:
We ran a story that breaks down all the significant lawsuits that have been filed against the Office of Cannabis Management, and the cases statuses. Some of these lawsuits were filed by aggrieved cannabis industry operators, while others were filed by parties looking to undue cannabis legalization in New York.
This update comes amid an injunction against the Conditional Adult-Use Retail Dispensary program, which is currently preventing more CAURD dispensaries from opening. The judge in that case ordered a pause as part of a lawsuit brought by a group of service-disabled veterans who planned to pursue dispensary licenses.
Thomas Spanos, a cannabis attorney and advisor based in Buffalo, wrote a guest column that dives into the crisis of credibility New York’s OCM and Cannabis Control Board currently face amid repeated missteps.
“As a cannabis attorney, it is my job to follow all the twists and turns of how we got here,” Spanos wrote. “So, in this article I explain how the top brass at the OCM have repeatedly misled the public, how these actions set New York cannabis businesses up to fail, and what actions our state should take to right the course.”
Colin Decker, owner and founder of 7 SEAZ, New York’s first legacy-to-legal adult-use cannabis brand, wrote a piece about the transition from operating on the legacy market to joining the legal market. In this column, Decker provides branding tips for legacy operators who want to run a licensed business.
“I wanted to provide insight into ways that a truly unique brand could be shaped; how products can be envisioned to make them stand out amongst the crowd; and how to survive this ever-changing landscape,” Decker wrote.
We ran a piece by Jordan Isenstadt, a senior vice president at Marino PR who founded the agency’s cannabis practice, about Navigating New York’s adult-use dispensary licensing with expert guidance.
In his column, Isenstadt lists the key categories cannabis retail entrepreneurs should be vetting – such as security, construction and marketing – and some businesses that already have experience working with weed dispensaries in New York.
Continuing our “NY’s women in cannabis” series, we ran a profile on Jahmila Edwards, the co-founder of Stash Queens and associate director of District Council 37.
Lastly, we posted attorney Jeffrey Hoffman’s latest Ask Me Anything segment, in which he answered questions about licensing, labor unions and much more.
Have a great weekend everyone, we’ll be back with plenty more next week.