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Central NY January 22, 2024 3:14PM HT
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CAPITAL TONIGHT


ADVOCATE, OFFICE OF CANNABIS MAN­AGEMENT DEBATE ELEMENTS OF NEW YORK'S ROLLOUT

By Susan Arbetter New York State
PUBLISHED 7:30 PM ET Jan. 22, 2024 PUBLISHED 7:30 PM EST Jan. 22, 2024
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At 1 p.m. Wednesday, the New York Cannabis Control Board (CCB) will meet in New
York City.

Joe Rossi, the cannabis practice group leader at Park Strategies, is advocating
that New York’s cannabis entrepreneurs attend the meeting, in person or
virtually, to speak out on issues affecting the state’s cannabis rollout.
Attendees may sign up here.

Rossi wrote about some of the issues for Syracuse.com.

He discussed three primary criticisms of the cannabis rollout with Capital
Tonight, including the inclusion of a lottery to determine which of the 1,457
applicants will be picked for the 250 licenses the Office of Cannabis Management
(OCM) will issue.

“In the law, there was never a lottery,” Rossi said. “In the original draft
regulations, there was no lottery. In the final regulations passed in September,
it does mention that a lottery process can be used. (But) the CAURD program was
not a lottery.  The Conditional Cultivator licensing was not a lottery.  The
Conditional Processor licensing was not a lottery.”   

In other words, according to Rossi, applicants were surprised by the inclusion
of lottery system in the licensing process. 



But according to Damian Fagon, the Office of Cannabis Management's chief equity
officer, the original adult-use regulations released in 2022 clearly stated that
qualified lotteries as a pathway to licensure was something that the regulator
was exploring. 

Another issue facing some of Rossi’s clients is the evolution of the marijuana
law. 

While he acknowledged that there is no stated preferential treatment in law for
applicants who own their own brick-and-mortar location, or who are paying rent
on a retail outlet, he told Capital Tonight that many interested New Yorkers who
read the law understood something very different.

“To New Yorkers that read the [marijuana law], it was incumbent on them to have
a location and it was basically mandated to have one in order to get a license,”
he explained. “So, a lot of New Yorkers went out and signed leases on locations,
paid monthly rent or bought and are holding a deed for months if not years.” 

Fagon argued the law was passed four years ago. 

“I don’t believe there are many people who bought properties in 2021 in March
that are upset now. In both adult-use regulations and in the law, there is
language that allows for provisional licensing in lieu of having a location,” he
said. “In the current application period, we created both pathways: People who
have a location and people who do not have a location.”

Rossi’s primary grievance is that the Office of Cannabis Management is only
issuing 250 licenses when there are over 1,500 people people who have applied,
and a clear market for recreational cannabis.   

“They (CCB) can issue a lot more than 250 licenses,” he said.

Fagon disagreed, saying that opening up the marketplace too much, too fast will
hurt small businesses.

“When you over-license a market too early on, it creates market distortions that
are harmful to mom and pop businesses,” Fagon said. “And we’ve seen that with
the imbalance with our current farmers where we have 270 farmers and limited
shelf space for them.”

When asked about OCM’s position that too many licenses could upend the market,
Rossi was skeptical. 

“With all due respect, the market is already upended,” he said.





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