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New York’s Cannabis Control Board approved more than 80 new license types in a Tuesday morning meeting during which they also passed a slate of bylaws that will govern the board.
The 86 new licenses include 22 retailers, 16 microbusinesses, 19 cultivators, 11 distributors and 18 processors. With Tuesday’s approvals, New York cannabis regulators have licensed more than 1,600 weed businesses since 2022, according to John Kagia, the Office of Cannabis Management’s director of policy.
“Great momentum, great velocity and a great reflection of what we expect as we go into the tail end of the summer,” Kagia said of the overall performance of New York’s legal cannabis market.
Legal sales in the Empire State have been skyrocketing in recent months, Kagia said while updating CCB members on market trends. Customers have bought nearly half-a-billion dollars worth of marijuana on New York’s licensed cannabis market since legal sales began at the end of 2022, Kagia said.
June was a blockbuster month with more than $70 million in sales, Kagia said, and July sales may have also exceeded $70 million – OCM staffers are still collecting sales data for the final week of that month.
“I think this is just a very bullish outlook for this year,” Kagia said.
Enforcement efforts appear to be having a very positive effect on legal sales, he added. The OCM has padlocked some 240 illicit weed stores statewide, and the New York City Sheriff’s Office has closed about 1,000 shops within the five boroughs.
Sales at legal dispensaries downstate increased by 100% between early May and mid-June, partly as a result of these efforts, Kagia said.
During Tuesday’s meeting, board members gave initial approval to a measure that would formalize the process for retailers to get waivers when their proposed store location falls within the buffer zone of another dispensary.
Current regulations don’t allow dispensaries to open within 1,000 feet of each other – or 2,000 feet in sparsely populated areas. During Tuesday’s meeting, the CCB initially approved a rule that would allow the board to waive distancing requirements if the retailer’s proposed location would promote a public convenience. However, waivers are not available for locations that abut a school, youth facility or house of worship.
The new rule will now go through a 60-day public comment period before the CCB can vote on final approval.
CCB members also established a formal set of bylaws, which lays out details like the board’s structure, how votes are taken and how to deal with issues, including conflicts of interest.