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Happy weekend, everyone!
Between a judicial invalidation of cannabis marketing regulations, a story about some illicit shops gaining proximity protection from the Office of Cannabis Management and other developments, it’s been a crazy week for New York cannabis.
Let’s take a look at the stories we covered.
We ran a story on Thursday about an Albany County Supreme Court judge striking down marketing and advertising regulations, ruling that cannabis regulators’ advertising standards are “arbitrary and capricious.”
Judge Kevin Bryant’s ruling came from a lawsuit filed by cannabis-focused tech company Leafly Holdings, adult-use retailer Stage One Dispensary and a customer who uses Leafly to make informed decisions about her cannabis purchases.
Just before Bryant submitted the amended version of his ruling, he wrote a decision that would have invalidated the OCM’s entire slate of adult-use regulations. Bryant wrote that decision on Wednesday, but amended it on Thursday to void only the rules banning third-party advertising.
Earlier in the week we published a story about some cannabis shops that have been allegedly operating illegally that are applying for retail licenses, and gained proximity protection from regulators ahead of other applicants.
This means that applicants who followed the rules but happened to find themselves lower on the licensing queue are now being blocked from applying for retail licenses at locations within 1,000 feet of the illicit shops (or 2,000 feet in less densely populated areas).
Last week was the three-year anniversary of the MRTA passing, so we published a retrospective of what happened in New York’s legal cannabis industry over the past year.
This past year may have been among the most tumultuous for the statewide legal weed market. Stakeholders spent much of it hand-wringing about regulations, difficulty in the licensing process and lawsuits that led to court orders preventing stores from opening. Meanwhile, we saw high-profile exits from the Cannabis Control Board and Office of Cannabis Management, and questions as to how effective their oversight has been.
On the other hand, regulators in the past year finalized and ratified a full slate of regulations for New York’s legal cannabis market, launched the state’s first general licensing application process and approved the state’s first general licenses – including to the first microbusiness applicants.
Reporter Mel Hyman wrote about a local controversy in New Paltz, which led to yet another lawsuit against the OCM. The suit takes aim at a key regulation in the state cannabis law.
Filed in State Supreme Court in Albany, the legal action brought by the New York City law firm Prince Lobel challenges a state regulation that establishes proximity buffers between licensed shops — as well as proposed cannabis dispensary locations.
We checked in with Coss Marte, co-owner of CONBUD dispensary in Manhattan’s Lower East Side. Marte said that despite seeing fewer customers than anticipated and adhering to tight regulatory restrictions, CONBUD is already planning to expand by opening a second location in coming months.
In a Q&A with NY Cannabis Insider, Marte answered questions about competing with illicit shops, expansion plans and more.
We ran a profile of cannabis tax attorney Paula Collins’ longshot political campaign. Collins is seeking the Democratic party nomination for New York’s 21st Congressional District in a bid to unseat Rep. Elise Stefanik, the fourth-ranking Republican in the U.S. House of Representatives.
Collins, a frequent guest columnist for NY Cannabis Insider, is realistic about the uphill nature of the fight she’s waging, she said. After announcing her campaign in mid-February, she is still building her team as she traverses the enormous district for signatures to appear on the June primary ballot.
Lastly, we also added two new entries to our “People to know in NY cannabis” series: Beau Allulli, the founder and owner of Mighty Lucky, a forthcoming CAURD dispensary in Manhattan’s Lower East Side; and Angelo Kitkas, the founder and president of Flower Power Dispensers, a CAURD licensee planning to open a store on Manhattan’s Upper West Side.
Have a great weekend everyone, we’ll be back with plenty more next week.