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Happy weekend, everyone!
Between stories about marketing regulations, coverage of the state’s seed-to-sale tracking system and Q&As with industry players, we covered a lot of ground – so let’s dive in and take a look at the articles we ran.
We spoke with several licensed dispensary owners about how marketing regulations are negatively affecting their businesses. New York’s Cannabis Control Board finalized regulations that govern the state’s legal cannabis industry in September, including rules for how weed businesses are and are not allowed to advertise their products and stores. The rules prevent dispensaries from buying billboard ads, and stop all companies from using marketing techniques that could be attractive to children.
Business owners and prospective licensees in the Empire State’s cannabis industry have been criticizing the Office of Cannabis Management’s rules for advertising as overly broad and stringent since they were first proposed at a CCB meeting in 2022. Now that an increasing number of dispensaries are opening across the state, store owners are saying they’re prohibited from doing basic advertising, and potential customers don’t even know they exist.
In a piece about how the state is rolling out its BioTrack seed-to-sale tracking system, we reported that cannabis licensees have until the end of April to stand up seed-to-sale tracking systems, but regulators haven’t provided much clarity or instruction, according to license holders who spoke with NY Cannabis Insider.
OCM officials emailed licensees last month, notifying them that regulators planned on launching the BioTrack API in early March. Licensees then have until April 29 to purchase software that can integrate with the state’s BioTrack system.
Korey Rowe, owner of DOSHA Farms dispensary, did a Q&A with NY Cannabis Insider about how business is going at the Oneonta-based store. The store opened over the summer, just barely on time to avoid getting delayed due to a court injunction a judge imposed on the CAURD program around that time.
Since DOSHA Farms opened in mid-August, the store has been doing better business than initially expected, owner Rowe told NY Cannabis Insider, and is serving up to 400 people per day.
Continuing our “NY’s women in cannabis” series, we ran a profile on Jenny Argie, the founder of Jenny’s Baked at Home Company, a licensed New York cannabis processor, manufacturer and distributor. Her brand in the adult use market is “Jenny’s.”
We also added two new entries to our “People to know in NY cannabis” series: Joseph Abramov, owner and founder of Urban Leaf, a new cannabis dispensary just a few minutes from Grand Central Station in Manhattan; and Rodney “Hurricane” Carter, Jr., CEO of Trends Dispensaries, a licensed cannabis brand.
Lastly, we posted two new editions of attorney Jeffrey Hoffman’s Ask Me Anything segment, in which he answered questions about provisional licensing, funding opportunities for social and economic equity businesses and more.
Have a great weekend everyone, we’ll be back with plenty more next week.