This post was originally published on this site.
Join NY Cannabis Insider for its next industry meetup in Lafayette on June 13, 2024. Tickets available now.
Happy weekend, everyone!
We hope everyone has been getting outside for the first few weeks of summer weather. 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.
NY Cannabis Insider is hosting a live event on Thursday, June 13 just outside Syracuse at Beak & Skiff – home of ayrloom. Details and tickets available here. The get-together will feature a discussion panel focused on microbusiness licenses, and how they could change New York’s legal weed market.
Last week we ran a piece detailing what we have planned for the event. In addition to the live panel and networking opportunities, there will be an opportunity for attendees to purchase tickets to tour the ayrloom production facility and campus grounds by UTV ride.
Reporter Mel Hyman contributed a story about a cannabis tax reform bill, which just passed the Senate and is awaiting the governor’s signature. Relief for licensed cannabis farmers is just a signature away with a bill authorizing product producers to file electronic tax returns annually instead of quarterly.
“It may not truly be what the farmers wanted — or even needed — to keep their heads above water, but it will help,” Hyman wrote. “But there’s always a possibility that the bill could fall through the cracks during the last-minute crush to wrap up business and get out of town.”
We checked in with Anthony Bannister, CEO of licensed cannabis dispensary The Plant, to talk about how business has been during the company’s first month of operating the first legal dispensary in Yonkers.
In a Q&A with NY Cannabis Insider, Bannister answered questions about what customers are buying, what it’s like to operate in Yonkers and challenges in New York’s legal weed industry.
In another story, NY Cannabis Insider analyzed retail licensing data, and talked to some dispensary owners about how long it takes to open a dispensary, and whether worries about market oversaturation associated with a planned expansion of retail licensing are valid concerns.
The analysis revealed a more nuanced situation. Data show it’s been taking people between six months to one year to open their doors after getting licensed – and a heavy majority of CAURD licensees never opened at all.
We ran a guest column by Ngiste Abebe, co-founder of KND Group, vice chair of Virginia’s Cannabis Public Health Advisory Council, and a past president of the NY Medical Cannabis Industry Association. Abebe wrote that cannabis stakeholders in New York should shift from explaining problems with the state’s legal marijuana system and start coming up with solutions.
“At this point OCM needs to embody consistent communications reliably backed by actions in public (and behind closed doors),” Abebe wrote. “Licensees and applicants should not fear ‘selective enforcement’ from their regulator. Program changes, like this week’s news about DASNY’s loan fund ending, should come with guidance about next steps from the OCM.”
Lastly, we posted a new edition of attorney Jeffrey Hoffman’s Ask Me Anything segment, in which Hoffman interviews Eli Northrup of the Bronx Defenders.
Have a great weekend everyone, we’ll be back with plenty more next week.