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Medical patients looking to shop at Sunnyside medical cannabis dispensary in Brooklyn’s Williamsburg neighborhood are out of luck, as the store has been closed for weeks.
But if they jump on the L train for three stops then transfer to the Q, they can buy at a new adult-use store on Flatbush Avenue – as long as they’re willing to pay adult-use taxes.
Patients in New York’s medical cannabis program have complained about lacking access to dispensaries – and few product options at those shops – for years, and some believed the situation would improve when the MRTA passed.
But nearly three years after legalization became the law of the land in the Empire State, the issue of patient access remains largely unaddressed – and some patients fear circumstances may not improve anytime soon, as regulators focus on general adult-use licensing.
“It’s been very frustrating to watch all these other adult-use stores open, especially in areas where the closest medical location they can access is hours away by car,” said Tim Mitchell, a medical cannabis patient and advocate.
“That, I think, is definitely an ongoing frustration in the medical cannabis community,” Mitchell said.
When NY Cannabis Insider reached out to Cresco Labs, which owns the Sunnyside dispensary, to inquire about the store’s status, a spokesperson said it’s closed, but provided no other details.
“As it says online, the store is temporarily closed, and we do not currently have a timeline for reopening, but will update that message for patients when we do,” Cresco Chief Communications Officer Jason Erkes said in an email.
According to data from the Office of Cannabis Management, two other medical dispensaries are currently operating in Brooklyn, and this week The Travel Agency – the adult-use dispensary formerly known as Union Square Travel Agency – is opening its Flatbush Ave. adult-use shop. Medical cannabis patients appear to be taking a back-seat to the adult-use market, Mitchell said.
A look at the numbers of registered patients, medical dispensaries and adult-use weed stores in recent years seem to bolster that impression.
New York lawmakers passed the MRTA in March of 2021, about a year after Sunnyside opened in Brooklyn. Around that time, New York State had more than 151,000 certified medical patients.
That number has since dropped to a little over 120,400, according to OCM data – almost a 30,000-patient drop, and about 2,000 fewer than last February.
According to the OCM, fewer than 40 medical dispensaries – including Sunnyside – currently operate statewide, which means the state likely hasn’t added any new medical shops since at least January of 2022.
Additionally, medical dispensaries are still barred by regulations from carrying concentrated cannabis products like shatter and rosin. Mitchell said he and other patients assumed these restrictions would be lifted from medical shops, but that hasn’t yet panned out.
“We’ve waited so long to have additional retail locations, additional brands to access, additional types of products,” Mitchell said. “I genuinely don’t know if it was an accident or by design.”
The Travel Agency dispensary on Flatbush Ave. will initially stock a slate of inventory similar to its Manhattan location, and then will use customer purchasing data to curate its offerings, said Paul Yau, the company’s CEO. That includes concentrate products that medical dispensaries are unable to sell.
The Brooklyn store is currently operating out of a 3,500-square-foot popup shop while crews finish the buildout of its 4,800-square-foot permanent store, located next to the pop-up, Yau said. The store will cater to a wide demographic of customers – people in their 20s to elderly customers – who may also take pictures at the sleek entrance, which Yau said will look “Instagrammable.”
“It’s going to be pretty iconic,” Yau said.
Mitchell said he’s happy to see dispensaries licensed under New York’s Conditional Adult-Use Retail Dispensary program succeed, but thinks it’s disheartening that medical dispensaries have remained more or less stagnant in number and quality.
One way Mitchell believes could improve the situation for medical patients makes him a bit uncomfortable to say: the state should prioritize licensing more medical cannabis Registered Organizations. Mitchell supports New York-based weed businesses – and has issues with the way some large national vertically integrated companies operate. But he also believes taking a hard line against MSOs hurts patients, who buy products from these companies.
“I say that kind of through gritted teeth,” Mitchell said of advocating for prioritizing licensing more ROs. “We’re basically looking for more well-capitalized MSOs to enter the market.”
Many small business advocates within New York’s cannabis industry argue that the state should avoid issuing RO licenses, and focus instead on licensing New York retailers – most of which are adult-use, Mitchell said.
It’s be great if the OCM would allow medical patients to shop at adult-use stores without paying taxes from which medical patients are exempted, Miller said. But that policy doesn’t currently exist in New York, and patients still need access to their medicine, he said.
“Unfortunately, the sound arguments and the bad arguments for and against the ROs, it just creates a lot of noise,” Mitchell said. “Unfortunately, the patients, we’re kind of forgotten about.”