What’s Next for Recreational Cannabis and How to Get There Faster
In a valiant effort to fulfill the promise of making legal purchases of cannabis available in New York State before the end of the year, the Cannabis Control Board and the Office of Cannabis Management have instituted surprising temporary emergency measures. Apparently, it takes longer than projected to create a revolutionary road to cannabis legalization designed to serve the individuals harmed and the communities destroyed by discriminatory enforcement of invidious laws.
Although we are celebrating the start of granting licenses for adult use dispensaries to legally sell cannabis, the final steps of opening legal consumer venues, the envisioned results, will not be substantially accomplished until at least mid-2023. In an effort to combat the delay, specific provisions have been implemented for the conditional adult-use cultivator[1] and dispensary licenses. The emergency measures include:
1. Allowing CAURD licensees to depend upon delivery to sell their product before being supplied with their storefronts by DASNY.
2. Directing adult-use cultivators, not just to grow, but to process, distribute and package consumer ready cannabis flower.
The dispensaries and cultivators are asked to follow the processor, distributor, sales, and delivery regulations to the extent possible. This temporary authority will expire on June 30, 2023.
As of November 21, 2022, 277 conditional cultivator licenses have been approved, and as of the same date, only 33 conditional processor licenses have been granted. There are simply not enough licensed processors or available purchase venues. The cultivators, who have additional tasks to perform, need employees to help with processing. Once the full number of CAURD licenses have been issued and there are not enough physical stores, the future store owner will need help making deliveries. The measures taken to reach the goal of legal sale under a revolutionary law are perhaps more difficult to achieve than hoped.
Advisors to justice people seeking priority points on their applications encouraged them to intern, take classes, and seek ways to gain experience. That opportunity still exists. If you are interested in a license or a job related to selling, packaging, processing, or delivering, you should check out some of the licensed cultivators who are surely looking to hire people willing to work for a temporary period, at least until June, or for as long as the emergency licensing systems are in force. A list of the growers and their locations is available here:
There is room for helping and benefiting from MRTA created activities.
[1]Consolidated Laws of New York, Cannabis Chapter 7-A, Article 4, Section 68-C (NYsenate.gov)