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Join NY Cannabis Insider for our next full-day conference on Nov. 16 at the Sonesta White Plains.
Don’t eat that candy. You’ll regret it.
Let’s recap what happened with NY Cannabis Insider’s coverage over the past seven days.
First, we’ve finalized our speakers and panels for our last full-day conference of the year, taking place Nov. 16 at the Sonesta White Plains. Details and tickets available here.
The conference will host new and seasoned industry professionals for a day of learning and networking. The content will feature both introductory and advanced “courses” on relevant topics such as accounting, insurance, real estate, applying for a license, the medical program, and more, taught by professionals within the NY cannabis industry.
On Monday, Senator Jeremy Cooney led a first-of-its-kind subcommittee hearing centered around the problematic rollout of the state’s cannabis industry. The bipartisan group of senators heard from staff at the Office of Cannabis Management, DASNY, Cannabis Advisory Board, NYC Sheriff’s Office, and others during the morning’s panel sessions.
It went as expected – not much “there” there, and not a ton of hard questions from any of the senators.
The afternoon was different. Those panel discussions involved licensed cultivators, retailers, processors, medical operators and more who went all-in on the state and its myriad problems getting the cannabis ecosystem up and running.
The first session we covered was Cannabis Advisory Board co-chair Dr. Junella Chin’s testimony. Chin discussed medical and adult-use access to marijuana, and the CAB’s role in regulating legal weed.
The second panel saw Charlie Williams, vice president of DASNY, talk about the agency’s role in the Conditional Adult-Use Retail Dispensary program. As we reported – there wasn’t much new information that came from Williams’ testimony. He did say the social equity fund’s interest rate is 13%, which he described as “a highly advantaged product,” and said the state has spent “about” $25 million of the total $200 million fund, with “another five to 10 million to come.”
We also combined several panel discussions around enforcement into one article. Participants included: NYC Sheriff Anthony Miranda; Department of Taxation and Finance Acting Commissioner Amanda Hiller, NYC Councilmember Gale Brewer, and Dasheeda Dawson, founder and director of Cannabis NYC.
A group of cultivators spoke in the afternoon about how disastrous the state’s legal weed rollout has been for licensed farmers.
“I come here with a plea for immediate intervention to help our distressed farmers,” said Joseph Calderone, chief operating officer at Grateful Valley Farm.
Following that, a panel of six processors answered questions from state senators about issues that have emerged for them, including out-of-state brands, the potency tax and flawed OCM regulations.
An emotional group of 10 retailers went on next to describe how tumultuous their journey has been over the past year.
“Millions of dollars have been spent, entire life savings are gone,” said Britni Tantalo, co-founder of cannabis retail applicant Flower City Dispensary and president of the New York Cannabis Retail Association
Lastly, medical cannabis industry operators spoke to senators about their relationship and communication issues with the OCM, and how the “promise of the MRTA” – the law that legalized adult-use cannabis in New York State – “continues to go unfulfilled.”
We will be following up more on this senate hearing with articles next week, so if you haven’t yet – now’s the time to catch up.
Moving on, this week we also ran a guest column from Paula Collins that gets into the state’s slow admission that its enforcement against unlicensed operators isn’t working. “The state has encountered a ‘lack of resources’ for enforcement hearings,” Collins wrote, “with no clear date to restart the labor-intensive trials.”
Finally, we published our weekly “Ask me Anything” column with NYC cannabis attorney Jeffrey Hoffman. This week, Hoffman answered questions about the current hemp industry lawsuit against the state, big-box cannabis stores, and offered updates on the license application process.
More to come. Stay tuned.