NY Cannabis Insider’s week in legal weed for April 3, 2023

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Last week, New York cannabis regulators approved almost 100 new CAURD licenses, but missed an important deadline, while some industry stakeholders fretted about possibly competing against the state for properties – all of which kept us at NY Cannabis Insider busy.

Let’s take a look at what we covered last week:

Yesterday we ran a story I wrote after speaking to a few lawyers with CAURD clients, who worry that licensees seeking their own real estate – rather than participating in a loan program overseen by the Dormitory Authority of the State of New York – will have to compete with DASNY for available spaces.

Fears of a cannabis real estate crunch aren’t new or unique to New York. However, the dynamic emerging is that of small business owners being pitted against DASNY – a huge government institution that issued more than $10.6 billion in bonds in the 2021 fiscal year.

Earlier in the week, Cannabis Control Board members greenlit another 99 CAURD dispensary licenses, bringing the total number to 165. Meeting attendees applauded the large cohort of new licenses, but whether DASNY or dispensary owners will be able to find places to put their shops remains to be seen.

Additionally, CCB members on Monday permitted a new testing lab and extended temporary regulations until Aug. 1.

NY Cannabis Insider Editor/Publisher Brad Racino wrote about the Office of Cannabis Management missing an important deadline for their social and economic equity plan for the state’s legal cannabis industry.

Described in the Marijuana Regulation and Taxation Act, the plan is meant to guide the rollout of the state’s adult-use marijuana industry. Last week was the second time OCM missed a deadline to produce such a plan.

Cannabis-focused attorney and accountant Paula Collins contributed a guest column, which inquires about the yet-to-be-released social and economic equity plan. “There is no doubt that OCM is moving very carefully to implement social and economic equity into the markets,” Collins writes, “but we need to know that there is a well-thought-out plan, backed by data, social scientists.”

We ran a guest column by Scott Mazza of Vitality CBD that describes what terpenes are, and why they matter in cannabis. Additionally, Benjamin Rattner, a partner at law firm Cermele & Wood, LLP, contributed a piece warning that trouble lies ahead for New York’s legal cannabis supply chain.

In another guest column, Daniel Johnston, Of Counsel at Bell Law Group, PLLC, and general counsel for Gotham Growth Corp., wrote that the CCB’s decision to double the maximum number of CAURD licenses might create a slow-moving crisis.

Continuing our “NY’s women in cannabis” series, we ran profiles on Brynn Semeraro, a co-founder of Rooted NY LLC; Jenessa Jules, founder of Nessibles, and Beatrice Stein, founder and program director of Hospitality Pathways.

We added a new entry to our “People to know in NY cannabis” series: Fab 5 Freddy, a visual artist who entered the cannabis space almost two years ago and who is the current CEO of B Noble.

Have a great weekend, everyone, we’ll have plenty more next week.

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