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Join NY Cannabis Insider for its next industry meetup in Lafayette on June 13, 2024. Tickets available now.
Happy Memorial Day weekend, everyone!
We at NY Cannabis Insider hope you all have a great kickoff to summer. As always, we’ve been busy covering the twists and turns in New York’s weed industry. Let’s take a look at what we wrote about last week.
First off, we ran a piece about an upcoming live event NY Cannabis Insider is hosting near Syracuse next month. Our next industry insight meetup and networking event is scheduled for June 13 at Beak & Skiff, home of ayrloom.
The evening will feature an interactive discussion with panelists who represent the biggest components of the adult-use ecosystem throughout the state and will discuss current issues facing growers, dispensaries, processors, and laboratories, among other topics.
Earlier in the week, we ran a story about the status of a state Inspector General investigation into Office of Cannabis Management’s Chief Equity Officer Damian Fagon, who remains on administrative leave amid allegations of retaliation and selective enforcement brought to light by a NY Cannabis Insider investigation.
An OCM spokesperson told NY Cannabis Insider on Tuesday that the former equity officer is still employed with the agency as they wait for the IG’s office to refer the case back to the OCM. Fagon was paid $148,000 in his role in 2023, according to The Empire Center.
In a guest column by Freeman Klopott, a vice president with New York-based public relations firm Marino – and previously served as the OCM’s first communications director – Klopott argued that New York has lost the narrative around the cannabis market’s social equity successes.
“There’s no question that there’s been issues with the licensing process,” Klopott wrote. “But through the midst of it all, we shouldn’t lose sight of the fact that despite the underinvestment in the agency, it has issued hundreds of licenses for dispensaries, processors, and New York farmers, and is more than meeting the goal set out in the state’s cannabis law that 50% of licenses be distributed to ‘social-equity’ applicants.”
Colin Decker, owner and founder of adult-use brand 7 SEAZ – and owner of Hudson Valley-based Sensei Growth Consulting – contributed a guest column in which he wrote that in light of the recent audit of OCM, it’s time the agency truly partners with industry stakeholders and listens to their concerns and advice.
“The time has come for transparency and conversation that leads to actualized results that directly benefit the owners and operators of the companies that have been building and will continue to build this market from nothing,” Decker wrote.
Lastly, we added a new entry to our “People to know in NY cannabis” series: Paul Lepore, president of Happy Days Dispensary, a Long Island-based licensed cannabis retailer.
Have a great long weekend everyone, we’ll be back with plenty more next week.