Diggy Smalls
Well-Known Member
Home cultivation would not ruin the commercial market at all, as not everyone has the means or ability to grow their own. It's ridiculous and short sighted to make laws they have no means of enforcing.
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Law New York
- Thread starter CarolKing
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Baron23
Well-Known Member
"I’m going to continue to buy black.”
"I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character."
Black Lawmakers to Block Legalized Marijuana in N.Y. if Their Communities Don’t Benefit
Black lawmakers are blocking a push to legalize recreational marijuana in New York, warning that Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo’s proposal could perpetuate the racial inequality fostered under current drug laws.
The lawmakers say that unless people of color are guaranteed a share of the potentially $3 billion industry, there may be no legalization this year. They want to be assured that some of that money will go toward job training programs, and that minority entrepreneurs will receive licenses to cultivate or sell the marijuana.
Ten states and Washington, D.C., have legalized recreational marijuana, and as lawmakers elsewhere consider their own laws, they seem intent on not repeating what they see as other states’ mistakes.
They say one misstep, in particular, stands out: None of the 10 states or Washington ensured that minority communities would share in any economic windfall of legalization — missing out on an opportunity to redress years of having a disproportionate number of African-Americans arrested on marijuana charges.
In New York, the question of economic return for those communities has emerged as a defining issue.
“I haven’t seen anyone do it correctly,” Assemblywoman Crystal Peoples-Stokes, the first black woman to serve as Assembly majority leader, said of legalization.
“They thought we were going to trust that at the end of the day, these communities would be invested in. But that’s not something I want to trust,” she continued. “If it’s not required in the statute, then it won’t happen.”
Critics say marijuana legalization has fostered an inequitable system in which wealthy, white investors often reap the profits of the fledgling industry.
In Colorado, black entrepreneurs said they were banned from winning licenses because of marijuana-related convictions. Black people make up just a handful of the thousands of cultivation or dispensary license holders there, and continue to be arrested on marijuana-related charges at almost three times the rate of white people.
In California, several cities introduced equity programs retroactively. Oakland now requires at least half of licenses to go to people with a cannabis-related conviction and who fell below an income threshold.
The black New York lawmakers include some of marijuana legalization’s most vocal supporters, but they want to make their state the first to tie legalization directly to an economic equity program. And that has meant seeking changes to Mr. Cuomo’s proposal, which though it provides for a “social and economic equity plan,” does not specify how much weight would be given to minority license applicants, or how much money would be invested in communities ravaged by the war on drugs.
Alphonso David, the governor’s counsel, said that those provisions would be written in regulation after legalization was passed. “Some people are looking for a level of detail that may not be appropriate for legislation, and we have to be careful how we implement the legislation so we don’t have to change it every few years,” he said.
But opponents say those omissions undercut Mr. Cuomo’s efforts to frame legalization as a way to right the wrongs that decades of criminalization had wrought on communities. He called for sealing some drug-related records and funding substance abuse treatment.
Even as Mr. Cuomo has pressed for speed, urging the Legislature to include legalization in the state budget in April, crucial lawmakers have shown little interest in rushing his proposal through.
Assemblywoman Crystal Peoples-Stokes, the Democratic majority leader, said New York must ensure that marijuana legalization would bring an economic return for people of color, or “it won’t happen.”CreditHans Pennink/Associated Press
“It’s not going to go the way it looks now,” said Ms. Peoples-Stokes, a Democrat who represents a district that includes Buffalo. She has introduced her own bill, which directs half of all marijuana revenue to a community fund supporting job training, and prioritizes licenses for people from communities most affected by criminalization.
Mr. Cuomo seemed to acknowledge as much on Monday, telling reporters that he was “no longer confident” that marijuana would be in the budget.
The debate in New York is unfurling as at least three Democratic presidential candidates — Senators Kamala Harris of California and Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts, and Julian Castro — have said they support reparations for African-Americans. Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez recently called for “affirmative action” licensing for entrepreneurs of color in the marijuana industry.
Senator Cory Booker of New Jersey, another presidential candidate, has introduced a bill to legalize marijuana nationwide. Co-sponsored by four other Democratic presidential hopefuls, including Senator Kirsten Gillibrand of New York, it includes provisions for job investment in minority communities.
In New Jersey, where the Legislature is also weighing legalization, a coalition of black pastors, the N.A.A.C.P. and advocates is also pushing for legalization only if tied to community reinvestment. After lawmakers in November moved the bill through a committee, the state’s chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union called adding language about education and job training a top priority.
Of particular concern in New York has been the influence of wealthy medical marijuana corporations, which are overwhelmingly led by white people and may be well positioned to capitalize on the recreational industry.
That concern has made itself so clear that the New York Medical Cannabis Industry Association, worried that legislators might seek to shut them out of the new industry, sent a letter to Mr. Cuomo and legislative leaders on Monday promising to set up a $25 million “Cannabis Economic Opportunity Fund” to provide zero-interest loans to companies led by women and people of color. (The association recently asked the company MedMen to resign from the group amid allegations of racism among top executives.)
The medical companies have sought to shape the bill in other ways, too: Their executives and people tied to them have donated more than $600,000 to Mr. Cuomo’s campaign account.
The governor’s bill also would require applicants to already have the land, buildings and equipment needed for their businesses, which would effectively exclude many black people because of historical disparities in capital, said Kassandra Frederique, New York State director at the Drug Policy Alliance, a nonprofit group. Ms. Frederique’s group is pushing for the bill to include zero-interest loans and provisional licenses.
Mr. David said the state’s regulations after legalization could include zero-interest loans for minority entrepreneurs, funded by payments from companies seeking licenses.
Other interests are already clamoring for a share of the hypothetical tax revenue as well, which has been projected to reach as much as $677 million a year. Last month, Mr. Cuomo and Mayor Bill de Blasio announced a plan to divert at least some of the money to New York City’s subway system.
But legislative leaders suggested that revenue might not materialize without a robust economic equity plan.
“I was very clear with the governor and the mayor that the marijuana revenue, if we get there,” should go first to “community investment,” the Assembly speaker, Carl E. Heastie, said.
A bill that includes only criminal justice changes, at the expense of economic ones, would not meet that standard, advocates said.
Representative Hakeem Jeffries, who spoke at the recent conference on legalizing marijuana, said there had been an “overemphasis on social justice,” when “the economic aspect of marijuana legalization” was more critical for black communities.CreditDemetrius Freeman for The New York Times
“Some people exploit the social justice piece of legalization,” said Bertha Lewis, president of the Black Institute and a chief strategist for We Rise to Legalize, a coalition of advocacy groups.
“You can’t talk to me about justice and not talk to me about economics. They are inextricably joined.”
Throughout New York City, communities are trying to ensure that they see some benefit from legalization, regardless of what happens in Albany.
The City Council’s Progressive Caucus and the Black Latino and Asian Caucus recently introduced laws and resolutions calling for the city to have local control over home delivery and cultivation of marijuana, potentially allowing smaller businesses to share in the sales.
“Not arresting people is not good enough,” Donovan Richards, a city councilman from Queens, said. “Economic justice must be served.”
For some marijuana skeptics, “economic justice” has become the selling point, and also the sticking point. The Rev. Anthony Trufant, pastor of the Emmanuel Baptist Church in Brooklyn, held a conference with the group Women Grow at his church last month that was aimed at improving diversity in the cannabis industry.
Among its speakers was Representative Hakeem Jeffries, who said in an interview that a “growing emphasis on the economic aspect of marijuana legalization” had replaced an “overemphasis on social justice.”
Mr. Trufant said the economic argument had helped ease his initial hesitation about legalization.
“There are opportunities for investment,” he said. “There are opportunities for employment.”
If reinvestment initiatives are not put in place alongside legalization, the underground market is likely to remain, said Dasheeda Dawson, the chief executive of MJM Strategy, a cannabis consulting and marketing firm.
“The industry right now reads as very white,” Ms. Dawson said. “If I’m in the hood and I’m hooking up my man with revenue by purchasing from him, I’m going to continue to buy black.”
Still, the economic argument has not won over all the skeptics.
The Rev. Johnnie Green Jr. of Mount Neboh Baptist Church in Harlem said black politicians and activists were “fooling themselves” if they thought licenses to sell marijuana would go to the black community.
“The licenses will go disproportionately to Caucasians. It’s already been proven in every city where there’s legalization of pot,” he said. “I just wish they would stop acting like this is a win-win for the black community.”
The Rev. Reginald Lee Bachus of Abyssinian Baptist Church in Harlem said he would push to ensure that legalization, if successful, would create funding for black communities, but would not push for legalization itself because the issue had divided his congregation.
“I lose a segment of my support if I come down on one side or the other,” Mr. Bachus said, “but I have 100 percent support if I talk about the tax revenue.”
"I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character."
Black Lawmakers to Block Legalized Marijuana in N.Y. if Their Communities Don’t Benefit
Black lawmakers are blocking a push to legalize recreational marijuana in New York, warning that Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo’s proposal could perpetuate the racial inequality fostered under current drug laws.
The lawmakers say that unless people of color are guaranteed a share of the potentially $3 billion industry, there may be no legalization this year. They want to be assured that some of that money will go toward job training programs, and that minority entrepreneurs will receive licenses to cultivate or sell the marijuana.
Ten states and Washington, D.C., have legalized recreational marijuana, and as lawmakers elsewhere consider their own laws, they seem intent on not repeating what they see as other states’ mistakes.
They say one misstep, in particular, stands out: None of the 10 states or Washington ensured that minority communities would share in any economic windfall of legalization — missing out on an opportunity to redress years of having a disproportionate number of African-Americans arrested on marijuana charges.
In New York, the question of economic return for those communities has emerged as a defining issue.
“I haven’t seen anyone do it correctly,” Assemblywoman Crystal Peoples-Stokes, the first black woman to serve as Assembly majority leader, said of legalization.
“They thought we were going to trust that at the end of the day, these communities would be invested in. But that’s not something I want to trust,” she continued. “If it’s not required in the statute, then it won’t happen.”
Critics say marijuana legalization has fostered an inequitable system in which wealthy, white investors often reap the profits of the fledgling industry.
In Colorado, black entrepreneurs said they were banned from winning licenses because of marijuana-related convictions. Black people make up just a handful of the thousands of cultivation or dispensary license holders there, and continue to be arrested on marijuana-related charges at almost three times the rate of white people.
In California, several cities introduced equity programs retroactively. Oakland now requires at least half of licenses to go to people with a cannabis-related conviction and who fell below an income threshold.
The black New York lawmakers include some of marijuana legalization’s most vocal supporters, but they want to make their state the first to tie legalization directly to an economic equity program. And that has meant seeking changes to Mr. Cuomo’s proposal, which though it provides for a “social and economic equity plan,” does not specify how much weight would be given to minority license applicants, or how much money would be invested in communities ravaged by the war on drugs.
Alphonso David, the governor’s counsel, said that those provisions would be written in regulation after legalization was passed. “Some people are looking for a level of detail that may not be appropriate for legislation, and we have to be careful how we implement the legislation so we don’t have to change it every few years,” he said.
But opponents say those omissions undercut Mr. Cuomo’s efforts to frame legalization as a way to right the wrongs that decades of criminalization had wrought on communities. He called for sealing some drug-related records and funding substance abuse treatment.
Even as Mr. Cuomo has pressed for speed, urging the Legislature to include legalization in the state budget in April, crucial lawmakers have shown little interest in rushing his proposal through.
Assemblywoman Crystal Peoples-Stokes, the Democratic majority leader, said New York must ensure that marijuana legalization would bring an economic return for people of color, or “it won’t happen.”CreditHans Pennink/Associated Press
“It’s not going to go the way it looks now,” said Ms. Peoples-Stokes, a Democrat who represents a district that includes Buffalo. She has introduced her own bill, which directs half of all marijuana revenue to a community fund supporting job training, and prioritizes licenses for people from communities most affected by criminalization.
Mr. Cuomo seemed to acknowledge as much on Monday, telling reporters that he was “no longer confident” that marijuana would be in the budget.
The debate in New York is unfurling as at least three Democratic presidential candidates — Senators Kamala Harris of California and Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts, and Julian Castro — have said they support reparations for African-Americans. Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez recently called for “affirmative action” licensing for entrepreneurs of color in the marijuana industry.
Senator Cory Booker of New Jersey, another presidential candidate, has introduced a bill to legalize marijuana nationwide. Co-sponsored by four other Democratic presidential hopefuls, including Senator Kirsten Gillibrand of New York, it includes provisions for job investment in minority communities.
In New Jersey, where the Legislature is also weighing legalization, a coalition of black pastors, the N.A.A.C.P. and advocates is also pushing for legalization only if tied to community reinvestment. After lawmakers in November moved the bill through a committee, the state’s chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union called adding language about education and job training a top priority.
Of particular concern in New York has been the influence of wealthy medical marijuana corporations, which are overwhelmingly led by white people and may be well positioned to capitalize on the recreational industry.
That concern has made itself so clear that the New York Medical Cannabis Industry Association, worried that legislators might seek to shut them out of the new industry, sent a letter to Mr. Cuomo and legislative leaders on Monday promising to set up a $25 million “Cannabis Economic Opportunity Fund” to provide zero-interest loans to companies led by women and people of color. (The association recently asked the company MedMen to resign from the group amid allegations of racism among top executives.)
The medical companies have sought to shape the bill in other ways, too: Their executives and people tied to them have donated more than $600,000 to Mr. Cuomo’s campaign account.
The governor’s bill also would require applicants to already have the land, buildings and equipment needed for their businesses, which would effectively exclude many black people because of historical disparities in capital, said Kassandra Frederique, New York State director at the Drug Policy Alliance, a nonprofit group. Ms. Frederique’s group is pushing for the bill to include zero-interest loans and provisional licenses.
Mr. David said the state’s regulations after legalization could include zero-interest loans for minority entrepreneurs, funded by payments from companies seeking licenses.
Other interests are already clamoring for a share of the hypothetical tax revenue as well, which has been projected to reach as much as $677 million a year. Last month, Mr. Cuomo and Mayor Bill de Blasio announced a plan to divert at least some of the money to New York City’s subway system.
But legislative leaders suggested that revenue might not materialize without a robust economic equity plan.
“I was very clear with the governor and the mayor that the marijuana revenue, if we get there,” should go first to “community investment,” the Assembly speaker, Carl E. Heastie, said.
A bill that includes only criminal justice changes, at the expense of economic ones, would not meet that standard, advocates said.
Representative Hakeem Jeffries, who spoke at the recent conference on legalizing marijuana, said there had been an “overemphasis on social justice,” when “the economic aspect of marijuana legalization” was more critical for black communities.CreditDemetrius Freeman for The New York Times
“Some people exploit the social justice piece of legalization,” said Bertha Lewis, president of the Black Institute and a chief strategist for We Rise to Legalize, a coalition of advocacy groups.
“You can’t talk to me about justice and not talk to me about economics. They are inextricably joined.”
Throughout New York City, communities are trying to ensure that they see some benefit from legalization, regardless of what happens in Albany.
The City Council’s Progressive Caucus and the Black Latino and Asian Caucus recently introduced laws and resolutions calling for the city to have local control over home delivery and cultivation of marijuana, potentially allowing smaller businesses to share in the sales.
“Not arresting people is not good enough,” Donovan Richards, a city councilman from Queens, said. “Economic justice must be served.”
For some marijuana skeptics, “economic justice” has become the selling point, and also the sticking point. The Rev. Anthony Trufant, pastor of the Emmanuel Baptist Church in Brooklyn, held a conference with the group Women Grow at his church last month that was aimed at improving diversity in the cannabis industry.
Among its speakers was Representative Hakeem Jeffries, who said in an interview that a “growing emphasis on the economic aspect of marijuana legalization” had replaced an “overemphasis on social justice.”
Mr. Trufant said the economic argument had helped ease his initial hesitation about legalization.
“There are opportunities for investment,” he said. “There are opportunities for employment.”
If reinvestment initiatives are not put in place alongside legalization, the underground market is likely to remain, said Dasheeda Dawson, the chief executive of MJM Strategy, a cannabis consulting and marketing firm.
“The industry right now reads as very white,” Ms. Dawson said. “If I’m in the hood and I’m hooking up my man with revenue by purchasing from him, I’m going to continue to buy black.”
Still, the economic argument has not won over all the skeptics.
The Rev. Johnnie Green Jr. of Mount Neboh Baptist Church in Harlem said black politicians and activists were “fooling themselves” if they thought licenses to sell marijuana would go to the black community.
“The licenses will go disproportionately to Caucasians. It’s already been proven in every city where there’s legalization of pot,” he said. “I just wish they would stop acting like this is a win-win for the black community.”
The Rev. Reginald Lee Bachus of Abyssinian Baptist Church in Harlem said he would push to ensure that legalization, if successful, would create funding for black communities, but would not push for legalization itself because the issue had divided his congregation.
“I lose a segment of my support if I come down on one side or the other,” Mr. Bachus said, “but I have 100 percent support if I talk about the tax revenue.”
Cuckfumbustion
Lo and Behold! The transformative power of Vapor.
Incredible. 
Election year politics and political posturing ruin everything and all the jockeying for positions. And there has been some push back from the Anti crowd as well. Where were they a year ago when this was being kicked around? But I guess I can't pretend to be surprised. By the time all the greedy groups get their share of any anticipated tax revenue from Cannabis, that ship will have already sailed. 
There is a lot of short sided-ness in the NY GOV.
Cuomo doubts quick passage of legal marijuana - syracuse.com
Cuomo: State budget may not include legalization of pot - News - recordonline.com - Middletown, NY
Election year politics and political posturing ruin everything and all the jockeying for positions. And there has been some push back from the Anti crowd as well. Where were they a year ago when this was being kicked around? But I guess I can't pretend to be surprised. By the time all the greedy groups get their share of any anticipated tax revenue from Cannabis, that ship will have already sailed. There is a lot of short sided-ness in the NY GOV. Cuomo doubts quick passage of legal marijuana - syracuse.com
Cuomo: State budget may not include legalization of pot - News - recordonline.com - Middletown, NY
Baron23
Well-Known Member
I have a hard time seeing the difference between "racial justice measures" and race based set asides and I have a hard time seeing the difference between what is being threatened in NY with extortion.
By the by....I'm pretty sure that whatever goes into this bill regarding race based policies....it will NOT be Jamal who was busted on the corner who will be getting a grow license and raising $10M for an indoor, reg compliant, facility.
I don't care if they are white, black, or polka dot....these licenses will NOT redress the disproportionate criminalization of MJ possession in inner urban areas. The people who get these license....who can even afford the lawyers, accountants, editors to submit a good proposal....will already be wealthy, no matter their color.
Black Lawmakers threaten block of New York legalization sans racial justice measures
In New York, the process of getting marijuana legalized has uncovered some deep divides in the cannabis movement. Some of the state’s Black lawmakers say that unless racial justice is prioritized, they will withdraw their support of Governor Mario Cuomo’s legalization bill, which has also raised alarm over what some see as its over-reaching influence of medicinal marijuana conglomerates.
An article published by the New York Times on March 11 outlined the concerns of Black elected officials. “They thought we were going to trust that at the end of the day, these communities would be invested in,” commented Crystal Peoples-Stokes, the state’s first Black female Assembly majority leader. “But that’s not something I want to trust. If it’s not required in the statute, then it won’t happen.”
The Governor’s office holds that adding the allowances for correcting the racial disparities of the War on Drugs would be best added in after the passage of the bill. “We have to be careful about how we implement the legislation so we don’t have to change it every few years,” said Cuomo’s counsel Alphonso David to the Times.
That reasoning may not be good enough if the Governor plans on retaining the support of the state’s lawmakers of color for his bill, which he originally pledged to pass within the first 100 days of his current term and encouraged by included in April’s state budget. Some of the politicians involved in the criticism of the bill have been some of legalization’s most passionate activists.
Various proposals have been raised to make sure that the legalization of marijuana and any windfall it brings to the state will include measures to correct the racially biased negative effects of the drug’s prohibition. Many hold that the legislation must explicitly set up an economic equity program that would designate a certain number of cannabis business licenses be given to entrepreneurs of color. Others have called for investments in communities adversely affected by the War on Drugs. People-Stokes has introduced a separate legalization bill that would earmark half of the state’s cannabis tax revenue for job training programs.
Lack of racial justice measures is not the only criticism the mayor’s bill has faced. Its requirement that licensees start the process with the requisite property and equipment already in place presents a serious boundary to lower income entrepreneurs.
Others have raised concern over the influence on the bill held by already-established cannabis business interests. In January, the New York Medical Cannabis Industry Association sent a memo to the Governor calling for a ban on home grow operations. That communique stated that allowing individuals to grow their own cannabis would “make it impossible for the state to eliminate the black market.”
In February, that same group found it necessary to kick out one of its members, the nationwide dispensary chain MedMen, over charges of racist and sexist remarks uttered by its executives.
In New York city, efforts are being made by the City Council’s Progressive Caucus and the Black Latino and Asian Caucus to save space in the cannabis industry to come for smaller business. They’ve proposed that the city retain control over delivery and cultivation of weed.
“Not arresting people is not good enough,” said Donovan Richards, a Queens councilperson. “Economic justice must be served.”
By the by....I'm pretty sure that whatever goes into this bill regarding race based policies....it will NOT be Jamal who was busted on the corner who will be getting a grow license and raising $10M for an indoor, reg compliant, facility.
I don't care if they are white, black, or polka dot....these licenses will NOT redress the disproportionate criminalization of MJ possession in inner urban areas. The people who get these license....who can even afford the lawyers, accountants, editors to submit a good proposal....will already be wealthy, no matter their color.
Black Lawmakers threaten block of New York legalization sans racial justice measures
In New York, the process of getting marijuana legalized has uncovered some deep divides in the cannabis movement. Some of the state’s Black lawmakers say that unless racial justice is prioritized, they will withdraw their support of Governor Mario Cuomo’s legalization bill, which has also raised alarm over what some see as its over-reaching influence of medicinal marijuana conglomerates.
An article published by the New York Times on March 11 outlined the concerns of Black elected officials. “They thought we were going to trust that at the end of the day, these communities would be invested in,” commented Crystal Peoples-Stokes, the state’s first Black female Assembly majority leader. “But that’s not something I want to trust. If it’s not required in the statute, then it won’t happen.”
The Governor’s office holds that adding the allowances for correcting the racial disparities of the War on Drugs would be best added in after the passage of the bill. “We have to be careful about how we implement the legislation so we don’t have to change it every few years,” said Cuomo’s counsel Alphonso David to the Times.
That reasoning may not be good enough if the Governor plans on retaining the support of the state’s lawmakers of color for his bill, which he originally pledged to pass within the first 100 days of his current term and encouraged by included in April’s state budget. Some of the politicians involved in the criticism of the bill have been some of legalization’s most passionate activists.
Various proposals have been raised to make sure that the legalization of marijuana and any windfall it brings to the state will include measures to correct the racially biased negative effects of the drug’s prohibition. Many hold that the legislation must explicitly set up an economic equity program that would designate a certain number of cannabis business licenses be given to entrepreneurs of color. Others have called for investments in communities adversely affected by the War on Drugs. People-Stokes has introduced a separate legalization bill that would earmark half of the state’s cannabis tax revenue for job training programs.
Lack of racial justice measures is not the only criticism the mayor’s bill has faced. Its requirement that licensees start the process with the requisite property and equipment already in place presents a serious boundary to lower income entrepreneurs.
Others have raised concern over the influence on the bill held by already-established cannabis business interests. In January, the New York Medical Cannabis Industry Association sent a memo to the Governor calling for a ban on home grow operations. That communique stated that allowing individuals to grow their own cannabis would “make it impossible for the state to eliminate the black market.”
In February, that same group found it necessary to kick out one of its members, the nationwide dispensary chain MedMen, over charges of racist and sexist remarks uttered by its executives.
In New York city, efforts are being made by the City Council’s Progressive Caucus and the Black Latino and Asian Caucus to save space in the cannabis industry to come for smaller business. They’ve proposed that the city retain control over delivery and cultivation of weed.
“Not arresting people is not good enough,” said Donovan Richards, a Queens councilperson. “Economic justice must be served.”
Cuckfumbustion
Lo and Behold! The transformative power of Vapor.
The first headline says it all. I waited to see if it was truly faltering before posting here. There hasn't even been a salient proposal as to WHAT type of sales WOULD be allowed. But there is already noise as to whom is entitled to a licence. If there is even going to be a licence for such a thing. This whole notion of 'Economic justice' for some group is ruining real justice for all. There are several creative ways, that don't involve extortion, to allow for locals to run their own shop. Just don't write the laws to cater to an industry. Or better yet let adults grow their own. Who needs big pharma for this anyway? Why write a bad law to bandaid another bad law. Fix the first law in place. Or am I naive to think that? 
Is Legal Marijuana Faltering In New York? | WAMC
Andrew Cuomo: Pot legalization dropped from New York state budget - CNNPolitics
Cuomo drops pot legalization from New York state budget | TheHill
There hasn't even been a salient proposal as to WHAT type of sales WOULD be allowed. But there is already noise as to whom is entitled to a licence. If there is even going to be a licence for such a thing. This whole notion of 'Economic justice' for some group is ruining real justice for all. There are several creative ways, that don't involve extortion, to allow for locals to run their own shop. Just don't write the laws to cater to an industry. Or better yet let adults grow their own. Who needs big pharma for this anyway? Why write a bad law to bandaid another bad law. Fix the first law in place. Or am I naive to think that? Is Legal Marijuana Faltering In New York? | WAMC
Andrew Cuomo: Pot legalization dropped from New York state budget - CNNPolitics
Cuomo drops pot legalization from New York state budget | TheHill
Baron23
Well-Known Member
Advocates, Cuomo disagree on status of marijuana legalization talks
ALBANY – Marijuana advocates say negotiations at the state Capitol to legalize the drug for adult use have been halted as Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo and legislative leaders this week try to nail down the final pieces of an overall state budget agreement.
Sources with knowledge of the matter said a number of rank-and-file legislators were told marijuana legalization talks were suspended on Monday.
Word of trouble nailing down a final marijuana deal – and thereby including it in the upcoming state budget that is due later this week – came on the same day a vote was postponed in New Jersey to legalize marijuana. Like New York, the governor and legislative leaders in New Jersey all supported efforts to legalize adult-use of the drug.
People close to the negotiations said New Jersey’s failure to advance a marijuana bill was closely watched in Albany. No state has gone through the legislative route to legalize marijuana; statewide referendum measures have been the most common route.
A group of marijuana legalization proponents, including the Drug Policy Alliance, medical marijuana industry representatives, hemp farmers and others are scheduled to gather outside Cuomo’s Capitol office to urge him to get the marijuana talks re-started.
In a radio interview this morning on WNYC public radio in New York City, Cuomo insisted the marijuana issue is still being debated as a possible item for the state budget. "I'd love to get it done in the budget,'' Cuomo said. He added, "It is on the table and we're still talking about it.''
Kassandra Frederique, New York State Director for the Drug Policy Alliance, a national group that has pushed for drug law changes, said her group was told talks over including marijuana legalization in the budget had stopped.
“We call on NY leaders to pass marijuana legalization in the budget by April 1," she said this morning. She said 1977 marijuana decriminalization laws have not worked for decades; she said the upstate arrest record in 2017 rose to almost double the levels in 1990.
Late Monday afternoon, sources said fiscal staffers in the Senate and Assembly had informed lawmakers that they were at an impasse on the marijuana legalization measure. Among the areas unresolved is how to spend what in the years ahead could be $300 million in annual tax revenues.
Advocates such as Assembly Majority Leader Crystal Peoples-Stokes, a Buffalo Democrat and sponsor of the bill to make marijuana legal in New York, want a sizeable portion of tax revenues to be directed to neighborhoods, mostly low-income and with minority residents, that have seen disproportionate numbers of marijuana arrests over the years. They say those communities should be given an array of different services funded with pot revenues, including job training programs and additional money for health and social services.
On Monday evening, Peoples-Stokes said it was her understanding that the marijuana issue was still a part of the budget discussions, but she did say the issue of how cannabis tax revenues would be spent was still an open item.
Advocates believe the measure stands a far weaker chance of passage this year if it is not made part of the larger state budget legislation, which could let some reluctant lawmakers to vote for the idea if it is linked to broader spending plans affecting popular education, health and other programs. They also believe it will not pass if punted to 2020, when the Legislature will be up for re-election and more lawmakers could be nervous about making such a sweeping change in the drug laws.
Opponents, which include everyone from health officials to law enforcement, have said legalizing marijuana for adults over age 21 will cause many problems, including health issues for more people who will take up marijuana because it would be state-sanctioned and available in corner stores and shopping centers, more traffic accidents and additional access for underage users to get the drug.
Legislative leaders weeks ago said they believed there would not be time to address marijuana legalization given the complexities surrounding the topic. Still, talks kept progressing behind closed doors at the Capitol even after Cuomo said he would no longer bank on its passage in this year’s budget.
To be on time for the new fiscal year start, the budget needs to be approved by this Sunday. No bills with any specifics on the more than $175 billion spending plan have been printed; lawmakers say they want such bills made public on Thursday in order to legally “age” them for three days in advance of what they say could be the budget’s adoption sometime Sunday.
Baron23
Well-Known Member
Legalizing marijuana in New York: Why supporters hope it happens this week
ALBANY – Gov. Andrew Cuomo and the state Legislature are in crunch time over whether they can strike a deal to legalize recreational marijuana as part of the state budget due Sunday.
And advocates are pressing state leaders to reach an agreement after Cuomo and legislative leaders had pledged support for making pot sales and use legal in New York.
“A failure to legalize marijuana when Democrats control all branches of NY state government is a failure of leadership,” Kassandra Frederique, state director for the Drug Policy Alliance, a pro-marijuana group, said in a statement.
Can marijuana get approved?
Cuomo pledged in his State of the State address in January to include legalized pot in his budget proposal in an effort to make New York the 11th state to allow for recreational sales.
While Democrats who control the state Legislature have largely supported the measure, it has faced obstacles because of the complexity of the issue and concerns from local governments, police and schools over the impact it could have in their communities.
Several county executives, including those on Long Island and in Rockland and Putnam, have already said they would recommend opting out of allowing sales there.
"We are working to try to get marijuana done," Cuomo said Monday on WAMC, a public radio station in Albany.
"It is complex, and it's the devil is in the details. And I don't know that it is done for the budget, but if it's not done after the budget, I believe we get it done after the budget."
More: Recreational marijuana in New York: More counties say they will opt out
More: Legalizing marijuana likely faces setback in New York
If not now, when?
The legislative session runs until mid-June, so lawmakers and Cuomo appear to be moving toward dealing with it after the budget is approved as the time to get a fiscal plan in place gets shorter.
School groups and health officials are pressing them to delay a vote.
"The legalization and commercialization of recreational marijuana creates a serious public and child health threat and sends a harmful mixed message to young people, that using recreational marijuana is acceptable," the state PTA wrote in a letter Tuesday to state leaders.
Marijuana supporters rallied at the Capitol on Tuesday in a last bid to get the proposal included in the budget.
“Governor Cuomo is primarily responsible for stalled negotiations, as he publicly put the brakes on talks for legalizing in the budget only to make contrary statements this week," Frederique continued.
More: New York marijuana: What to know about cannabis edibles, hospitalizations, poison control
More: Marijuana tax, congestion pricing would help fund NYC subways in Cuomo, de Blasio plan
Details of the plan
Map shows legal status of marijuana consumption by state; control of state legislatures. (Photo: Francois Duckett, AP)
State leaders have debated how much to tax marijuana if it's legalized, where the revenue would go and how much could be grown and sold.
Legislative leaders have made it clear that they want the majority of the revenue to come back into poor communities of color that have been disproportionally impacted by having marijuana illegal.
But Cuomo recently proposed using some of the money to pay for repairs to the subways and train in the New York City metropolitan area.
Rich Azzopardi, Cuomo's senior advisor, said the governor has worked to get legalized marijuana in New York, citing a study the state did and 17 listening sessions across the state.
The state estimates as much as $300 million a year in revenue when the program is fully implemented, but the proposed budget doesn't yet include any money from legalization.
"As the governor said, we have and will continue to work on this proposal with our partners in the Legislature, but, based on comments from legislative leaders and as a matter of fiscal responsibility, we did not count on revenue in the budget," Azzopardi said.
Other states
Kyle Belokopitsky, executive director of the New York Parent-Teacher Association, discusses why the group is opposed to legalizing marijuana during an interview in the USA Today Network's Albany Bureau on March 1, 2019. Joseph Spector, Albany Bureau Chief
Part of the reason New York wants to move on the issue sooner rather than later is because neighboring states have either legalized marijuana or are looking to do so.
Massachusetts and Vermont already have, as well as Canada.
New York and New Jersey are both debating how and when to legalize it, but New Jersey's plan faltered Monday when lawmakers there were unable to get the votes to pass it.
So it appears that in New Jersey the issue may languish until after the November elections when all 80 seats in the Assembly are on the ballot, according to the USA Today Network in New Jersey.
New York City Council passes ban on pre-employment marijuana testing
NEW YORK (1010 WINS) -- The New York City Council has passed a bill that would bar employers from requiring pre-employment marijuana tests.
Bloomberg Law reports, the bill passed Tuesday, is part of an effort to cut down on the legal consequences of marijuana use. Back in March, the council passed a resolution urging the state to legalize recreational pot.
“We need to be creating more access points for employment, not less,” said Public Advocate Jumaane Williams (D), who sponsored the bill, “And as we move toward legalization, it makes absolutely no sense that we’re keeping people from finding jobs or advancing their careers because of marijuana use.”
The bill makes exceptions for jobs involving safety and security as well as those tied to state or federal contracts, Bloomberg Law reports. That includes construction workers, cops, commercial drivers, and workers who care for children, medical patients, and people with disabilities.
It would take a year for the bill to go into effect once signed by Mayor de Blasio.
NEW YORK (1010 WINS) -- The New York City Council has passed a bill that would bar employers from requiring pre-employment marijuana tests.
Bloomberg Law reports, the bill passed Tuesday, is part of an effort to cut down on the legal consequences of marijuana use. Back in March, the council passed a resolution urging the state to legalize recreational pot.
“We need to be creating more access points for employment, not less,” said Public Advocate Jumaane Williams (D), who sponsored the bill, “And as we move toward legalization, it makes absolutely no sense that we’re keeping people from finding jobs or advancing their careers because of marijuana use.”
The bill makes exceptions for jobs involving safety and security as well as those tied to state or federal contracts, Bloomberg Law reports. That includes construction workers, cops, commercial drivers, and workers who care for children, medical patients, and people with disabilities.
It would take a year for the bill to go into effect once signed by Mayor de Blasio.
New York Doctors Can Now Recommend Medical Marijuana as a Replacement for Opioids
The New York Department of Health has amended the state’s medical marijuana program to include opioid prescription replacement and painkiller abuse as qualifying conditions to access legal weed.
In an effort to combat the nation's opioid abuse epidemic and provide citizens with non-addictive tools to fight chronic pain, the New York Department Of Health has amended the Empire State's medical marijuana program to include opioid prescription replacement and painkiller abuse as qualifying conditions to access legal weed.
The new rules, effective immediately, were added as emergency regulations, pushed forward by New York Health Commissioner Dr. Howard Zucker. The anti-opioid measures were first introduced last month, and traditional bureaucratic practices would have delayed implementation until August. Bypassing those expected channels, the Department of Health intends to enact the policy change as soon as possible.
"Medical marijuana has been shown to be an effective treatment for pain that may also reduce the chance of opioid dependence," Dr. Zucker detailed in a press release announcing the emergency regulations. "Adding opioid replacement as a qualifying condition for medical marijuana offers providers another treatment option, which is a critical step in combating the deadly opioid epidemic affecting people across the state."
New York first opened its medical marijuana program in 2016, with 12 qualifying conditions allowing cancer patients, Alzheimer's sufferers, and more to purchase cannabis pills, tinctures, and vaporizers through state-licensed dispensaries. In the years since, Empire State lawmakers and advocates have pushed to expand the program, with a number of high-profile politicians now pushing to legalize the plant for recreational use, too.
In the meantime, though, the addition of opioid-related qualifying conditions will theoretically open access to medical cannabis to thousands upon thousands of New Yorkers. According to the Department of Health's emergency regulations, "registered practitioners may certify patients to use medical marijuana as a replacement for opioids, provided that the precise underlying condition for which an opioid would otherwise be prescribed is stated on the patient's certification. In addition, the regulation adds opioid use disorder as an associated condition. This allows patients with opioid use disorder who are enrolled in a certified treatment program to use medical marijuana as an opioid replacement."
While scientific research has time-and-again found cannabis to be a near-miraculous replacement for opioid painkillers — not only in the treatment of pain, but in addiction rehabilitation — most medical marijuana programs across the country have stopped short of condoning weed as a direct replacement for pills.
A similar bill that would have allowed Colorado doctors to replace opioid prescriptions with cannabis recommendations was shot down in the state legislature earlier this year. And another bill in Illinois that would turn any valid opioid prescription into a de facto MMJ recommendation has been sitting on the desk of Governor Bruce Rauner for months.
New York's amended medical marijuana rules will become official at the end of the month, on August 1st, where they will then be subject to a 60-day public comment period.
The New York Department of Health has amended the state’s medical marijuana program to include opioid prescription replacement and painkiller abuse as qualifying conditions to access legal weed.
In an effort to combat the nation's opioid abuse epidemic and provide citizens with non-addictive tools to fight chronic pain, the New York Department Of Health has amended the Empire State's medical marijuana program to include opioid prescription replacement and painkiller abuse as qualifying conditions to access legal weed.
The new rules, effective immediately, were added as emergency regulations, pushed forward by New York Health Commissioner Dr. Howard Zucker. The anti-opioid measures were first introduced last month, and traditional bureaucratic practices would have delayed implementation until August. Bypassing those expected channels, the Department of Health intends to enact the policy change as soon as possible.
"Medical marijuana has been shown to be an effective treatment for pain that may also reduce the chance of opioid dependence," Dr. Zucker detailed in a press release announcing the emergency regulations. "Adding opioid replacement as a qualifying condition for medical marijuana offers providers another treatment option, which is a critical step in combating the deadly opioid epidemic affecting people across the state."
New York first opened its medical marijuana program in 2016, with 12 qualifying conditions allowing cancer patients, Alzheimer's sufferers, and more to purchase cannabis pills, tinctures, and vaporizers through state-licensed dispensaries. In the years since, Empire State lawmakers and advocates have pushed to expand the program, with a number of high-profile politicians now pushing to legalize the plant for recreational use, too.
In the meantime, though, the addition of opioid-related qualifying conditions will theoretically open access to medical cannabis to thousands upon thousands of New Yorkers. According to the Department of Health's emergency regulations, "registered practitioners may certify patients to use medical marijuana as a replacement for opioids, provided that the precise underlying condition for which an opioid would otherwise be prescribed is stated on the patient's certification. In addition, the regulation adds opioid use disorder as an associated condition. This allows patients with opioid use disorder who are enrolled in a certified treatment program to use medical marijuana as an opioid replacement."
While scientific research has time-and-again found cannabis to be a near-miraculous replacement for opioid painkillers — not only in the treatment of pain, but in addiction rehabilitation — most medical marijuana programs across the country have stopped short of condoning weed as a direct replacement for pills.
A similar bill that would have allowed Colorado doctors to replace opioid prescriptions with cannabis recommendations was shot down in the state legislature earlier this year. And another bill in Illinois that would turn any valid opioid prescription into a de facto MMJ recommendation has been sitting on the desk of Governor Bruce Rauner for months.
New York's amended medical marijuana rules will become official at the end of the month, on August 1st, where they will then be subject to a 60-day public comment period.
Baron23
Well-Known Member
“I’ve worked with this man a long time now, so I know when he really wants to do something, he knows how to get down in the trenches and negotiate to a final solution. So, I didn’t see that happening here, and I’m not sure why,”
Well...I'm damn sure why....and the reason is that the only thing that moved Cuomo off of his anti-MJ stance was a political opponent in a political contest. There is no Cynthia Nixon and upcoming election to motivate him. I do not care for Cuomo....hey, @momofthegoons ! How's that for a polite and restrained response!
It almost choked me! haha Legalization Soon in New York? “No Shot”
Senator Diane Savino, an influential voice in the cannabis debate, explains how adult use lost steam, why home grow is unlikely, and for which far-ranging medical reforms she’ll push.
This month could be a tipping point for cannabis legalization in New York. After lawmakers failed to reach an agreement on adult use in time for it to be included in the state budget, April 1, a spokesperson for Governor Andrew Cuomo told Cannabis Wire to “expect conversations will pick up in earnest” in May. Well, it’s May, and so far conversations don’t seem to have coalesced any more than the last time we checked in.
Cannabis Wire co-founder Alyson Martin joined Senator Diane Savino on the FAQ podcast yesterday to ask about where legalization conversations went wrong, and what to expect from the efforts to expand the state’s medical cannabis program.
According to Senator Savino, the April 1 deadline simply didn’t provide enough time. Lawmakers needed to try to convince officials from areas like Long Island that had come out strong against legal sales, and they needed more time to come together over exactly how equity provisions should unfold. “One after the other, you had local governments saying, ‘We don’t want it in our backyard,’” Savino said. “And that just created more anxiety from members who were teetering on the fence.”
One overall question for Savino was: Did Cuomo put his political capital behind legalization in the budget negotiation process?
“I’ve worked with this man a long time now, so I know when he really wants to do something, he knows how to get down in the trenches and negotiate to a final solution. So, I didn’t see that happening here, and I’m not sure why,” Savino told me and FAQ co-hosts Harry Siegel and Fordham professor Christina Greer during an interview for the podcast (you can listen to it in full later today by going to FAQ.NYC).
“I would suggest it’s possible he knew this wasn’t going to happen, because of all the opposition that was coming from different points of view,” Savino said. “He was going to take it on the chin if it didn’t happen. And so, let the legislature take the blame. And that’s kind of the way it shook out. So, will he take another stab at it? I don’t know. Yeah, I think it’s too soon to tell.”
Where does that leave the legalization negotiation? What’s the timeline?
Legalization, as a standalone bill, Savino said—“It really has no shot. And that’s where we find ourselves now.”
She pointed out that “If those same legislators wouldn’t vote for it today as a standalone bill, the likelihood that they’d vote for it in an election year becomes even slimmer. So, I think that the long term prospects are: You’re looking at two or three years before we get to a legal adult use market, unless something changes that I can’t see.”
That doesn’t necessarily mean that Savino and her colleagues are giving up on legalization, however, even if it stalls over the next year or two:
“The truth is, there’s an awful lot of opposition to it, from a whole bunch of different perspectives, that it was simple enough to just let it go. And not fight the fight. But I think it’s a fight that needs to be had, and we’re going to continue working on it.”
Savino previously told Cannabis Wire that she was going to be working on the expansion of the medical cannabis program. Yesterday, Savino doubled down on that goal.
When medical cannabis was passed in 2014, Cuomo “was not really a big supporter,” Savino said. “He fought me every step of the way. And as a condition of signing of the bill once he realized that I had the votes, and I was going to bring it to the Senate floor, he forced in some compromise on it,” Savino told me and FAQ. This narrowed the program’s number of license holders at first to just five, each able to open four storefronts. “In a state with 19 million people, it was just so ridiculous. But you know sometimes you have to compromise to get the legislation done,” Savino said.
So among the many changes that Savino is eyeing for the medical cannabis program is increasing the number of dispensaries: The state, she noted, has just under 100,000 patients.
“So we need to double the number of dispensaries minimally. We need to add more registered organizations. We need to eliminate conditions as a requirement and leave that up to doctors and patients. We need to lift the restriction on smoking,” she said, referring to the ban on smokable medical cannabis products in the state.
When asked if patients can soon expect to be able to grow their own medical cannabis, Savino said “I doubt that.” And while there was “almost a possibility” for patients to do so in Cuomo’s legalization plan, Savino said she’s “not sure that will survive the expanded bill.”
“The truth is, if you’re going to have a legal, regulated market, it’s hard to manage home grow. I don’t know how you really do that,” Savino said. “And every state that has it, has said to us, ‘Don’t do it.’”
Cuckfumbustion
Lo and Behold! The transformative power of Vapor.
This is why I say 'Hold there feet to the fire' figuratively
after every election cycle. There was no clear type of policy when the Guv had his banner made during his presentation. There is a part of me believes that he might be waiting for the 5 boroughs to get their house in order before he gets serious about passing state law. With a population dense type problem times the bureaucratic dimension. How to fit Legal use into things like job employment. PA just might pass them. No One's in a Hurry to Legalize Recreational Marijuana in NY
'Cuomo's plan for legalization still differs greatly from the legislature's vision. The governor wants only dispensaries to sell pot. The legislature has favored allowing local entrepreneurs to grow and sell it.'
Baron23
Well-Known Member
The NY med program can certainly use a face lift...its pretty much useless in its current form.
Albany pols firing up medical marijuana overhaul
As hopes for adult-use legalization dim, lawmakers look towards expanding the medical marijuana program.
A long-awaited push to expand New York’s highly restrictive medical marijuana program is coming as hopes for legal, recreational weed are going up in smoke.
The same architects of the state’s 2014 law that created the medical marijuana program in New York are introducing legislation aimed at loosening restrictions on who can access the drug and how it’s sold.
More doctors would be able to prescribe pot, more patients would be able to get it – and smokable forms of medicinal marijuana would be legal.
But the legislation is a last resort if discussions over legalizing adult use of marijuana stall in the state Legislature.
“I think there’s widespread agreement that these are needed improvements in the medical program and ideally this would be part of an adult-use bill,” Assemblymember Dick Gottfried (D-Manhattan), the bill’s sponsor, told THE CITY.
“We’re putting this bill in so that people can see the language and so it will be available in the event that the adult-use bill runs aground.”
The 2019 legislative session is scheduled to end on June 19, meaning lawmakers have roughly six weeks to negotiate several thorny issues and come up with a cohesive measure to legalize recreational pot that Gov. Andrew Cuomo would be willing to sign into law.
Bringing legal weed to New York is about more than just creating a forward-looking recreational program.
Lawmakers also are discussing how to address decades worth of draconian drug laws that have overwhelmingly affected minority communities, as well as how to tax marijuana – and what to do with the revenue.
The Cuomo administration and legislators previously discussed making legalizing recreational marijuana part of the state budget. But they couldn’t come to a consensus between the start of the legislative session in January and the April 1 budget deadline.
Now pressed up against another deadline, State Sen. Diane Savino (D-Staten Island) — who’s often referred to as the “mother of marijuana” in New York — and Gottfried are setting up a contingency plan if the Legislature can’t meet the June 19 cutoff.
“As of today, I do not have any degree of confidence that a standalone adult-use marijuana (bill) will pass the Legislature. Medical marijuana is completely independent of it,” Savino told THE CITY last week.
In the Weeds
Savino and Gottfried blamed the strict regulations outlined in the Compassionate Care Act for creating too many barriers to access.
“Our goal is to expand and strengthen the medical cannabis program. I think there’s widespread agreement that the program works but needs to be expanded,” Gottfried said. “What we’re proposing will help make medical cannabis more easily available to patients, bring down costs and help support the medical cannabis providers.”
Gottfried and Savino’s bill — which was shared exclusively with THE CITY and includes provisions endorsed by Cuomo — would do away with the list of 17 severe and debilitating illnesses that allow patients to qualify for medical marijuana and broaden it to include any condition certified by a doctor.
It would also expand the limited list of medical practitioners who can certify a patient to any doctor who can already prescribe controlled substances, including dentists and podiatrists.
“We’re looking at lifting the conditions as a requirement for becoming a patient and allowing health care providers and their patients to make that decision,” Savino told THE CITY.
Smokable forms of medicinal marijuana also would become legal — which Cuomo disallowed in the original bill in attempt to prevent excessive use.
While registered organizations would still need to document price changes, Gottfried and Savino’s bill proposes removing the requirement for the companies to receive prior approval from the state Department of Health. The agency’s commissioner would still be able to modify prices.
Advocates for medical marijuana told THE CITY that pricing has been particularly challenging for patients.
There are “still really significant challenges,” said Melissa Moore, deputy state director for the Drug Policy Alliance, a nonprofit that advocates for drug decriminalization. “Just the cost being prohibitively high for so many people or forcing people to make really gut-wrenching decisions if they can afford this medication or pay for housing or food.”
Treks for Prescriptions
There are 40 dispensaries authorized to operate in New York state, but five have yet to open.
As of the end of April, 98,701 patients were certified to purchase medical marijuana and 2,311 practitioners were registered to serve them.
The bulk of these patients — nearly 8,000 — reside in Manhattan, where there are four dispensaries, from a busy stretch near Union Square to a prominent location right across from Bryant Park.
Other boroughs are more poorly served. The Bronx counts just one dispensary, in the Hunts Point neighborhood, and Brooklyn only just got its two dispensaries in the past three months. Queens has three.
Staten Island, with roughly 2,500 patients — the largest share of any borough’s population — so far has none, though a dispensary has been authorized.
A spokesperson for Citiva Medical, the company tasked with opening the dispensary, told THE CITY that the team is “gearing up for a June launch” but did not divulge a location.
“Hopefully we’ll gain the trust and confidence of Staten Islanders,” said Amy Holdener, Citiva’s vice president of operations.
Patients say that the city’s inconsistent dispensary distribution has meant they must drive out of their boroughs to purchase medical marijuana. Up until recently, Joe Cimino, 69, of Greenpoint, said that he had to make regular trips to Elmhurst in order to quell his neuropathy pain.
“I don’t drive when it’s dark out when it’s rainy, or snowing…. The parking was crazy,” Cimino said, adding that the cost and lack of insurance coverage were also steep obstacles.
“All this marijuana stuff is keeping me healthy, I guess, it’s keeping me going,” he added. “I don’t have as much pain at night as I used to. I’m from the ’60s so it makes you feel good, you know?”
Albany pols firing up medical marijuana overhaul
As hopes for adult-use legalization dim, lawmakers look towards expanding the medical marijuana program.
A long-awaited push to expand New York’s highly restrictive medical marijuana program is coming as hopes for legal, recreational weed are going up in smoke.
The same architects of the state’s 2014 law that created the medical marijuana program in New York are introducing legislation aimed at loosening restrictions on who can access the drug and how it’s sold.
More doctors would be able to prescribe pot, more patients would be able to get it – and smokable forms of medicinal marijuana would be legal.
But the legislation is a last resort if discussions over legalizing adult use of marijuana stall in the state Legislature.
“I think there’s widespread agreement that these are needed improvements in the medical program and ideally this would be part of an adult-use bill,” Assemblymember Dick Gottfried (D-Manhattan), the bill’s sponsor, told THE CITY.
“We’re putting this bill in so that people can see the language and so it will be available in the event that the adult-use bill runs aground.”
The 2019 legislative session is scheduled to end on June 19, meaning lawmakers have roughly six weeks to negotiate several thorny issues and come up with a cohesive measure to legalize recreational pot that Gov. Andrew Cuomo would be willing to sign into law.
Bringing legal weed to New York is about more than just creating a forward-looking recreational program.
Lawmakers also are discussing how to address decades worth of draconian drug laws that have overwhelmingly affected minority communities, as well as how to tax marijuana – and what to do with the revenue.
The Cuomo administration and legislators previously discussed making legalizing recreational marijuana part of the state budget. But they couldn’t come to a consensus between the start of the legislative session in January and the April 1 budget deadline.
Now pressed up against another deadline, State Sen. Diane Savino (D-Staten Island) — who’s often referred to as the “mother of marijuana” in New York — and Gottfried are setting up a contingency plan if the Legislature can’t meet the June 19 cutoff.
“As of today, I do not have any degree of confidence that a standalone adult-use marijuana (bill) will pass the Legislature. Medical marijuana is completely independent of it,” Savino told THE CITY last week.
In the Weeds
Savino and Gottfried blamed the strict regulations outlined in the Compassionate Care Act for creating too many barriers to access.
“Our goal is to expand and strengthen the medical cannabis program. I think there’s widespread agreement that the program works but needs to be expanded,” Gottfried said. “What we’re proposing will help make medical cannabis more easily available to patients, bring down costs and help support the medical cannabis providers.”
Gottfried and Savino’s bill — which was shared exclusively with THE CITY and includes provisions endorsed by Cuomo — would do away with the list of 17 severe and debilitating illnesses that allow patients to qualify for medical marijuana and broaden it to include any condition certified by a doctor.
It would also expand the limited list of medical practitioners who can certify a patient to any doctor who can already prescribe controlled substances, including dentists and podiatrists.
“We’re looking at lifting the conditions as a requirement for becoming a patient and allowing health care providers and their patients to make that decision,” Savino told THE CITY.
Smokable forms of medicinal marijuana also would become legal — which Cuomo disallowed in the original bill in attempt to prevent excessive use.
While registered organizations would still need to document price changes, Gottfried and Savino’s bill proposes removing the requirement for the companies to receive prior approval from the state Department of Health. The agency’s commissioner would still be able to modify prices.
Advocates for medical marijuana told THE CITY that pricing has been particularly challenging for patients.
There are “still really significant challenges,” said Melissa Moore, deputy state director for the Drug Policy Alliance, a nonprofit that advocates for drug decriminalization. “Just the cost being prohibitively high for so many people or forcing people to make really gut-wrenching decisions if they can afford this medication or pay for housing or food.”
Treks for Prescriptions
There are 40 dispensaries authorized to operate in New York state, but five have yet to open.
As of the end of April, 98,701 patients were certified to purchase medical marijuana and 2,311 practitioners were registered to serve them.
The bulk of these patients — nearly 8,000 — reside in Manhattan, where there are four dispensaries, from a busy stretch near Union Square to a prominent location right across from Bryant Park.
Other boroughs are more poorly served. The Bronx counts just one dispensary, in the Hunts Point neighborhood, and Brooklyn only just got its two dispensaries in the past three months. Queens has three.
Staten Island, with roughly 2,500 patients — the largest share of any borough’s population — so far has none, though a dispensary has been authorized.
A spokesperson for Citiva Medical, the company tasked with opening the dispensary, told THE CITY that the team is “gearing up for a June launch” but did not divulge a location.
“Hopefully we’ll gain the trust and confidence of Staten Islanders,” said Amy Holdener, Citiva’s vice president of operations.
Patients say that the city’s inconsistent dispensary distribution has meant they must drive out of their boroughs to purchase medical marijuana. Up until recently, Joe Cimino, 69, of Greenpoint, said that he had to make regular trips to Elmhurst in order to quell his neuropathy pain.
“I don’t drive when it’s dark out when it’s rainy, or snowing…. The parking was crazy,” Cimino said, adding that the cost and lack of insurance coverage were also steep obstacles.
“All this marijuana stuff is keeping me healthy, I guess, it’s keeping me going,” he added. “I don’t have as much pain at night as I used to. I’m from the ’60s so it makes you feel good, you know?”
Baron23
Well-Known Member
Cuomo is a dull tool and as I have said in this thread many times before, his actions on MJ are completely and utterly self-serving and if it wasn't for a primary candidate, Cynthia Nixon, threatening him with her platform of MJ legalization, he wouldn't have done a thing.
If his lips are moving, he is either lying or manipulating. He will not spend a penny of political capital on MJ and really doesn't give a flying fuck about any of the related issues such as imprisonment of our population for victimless crimes, uneven and unfair applications of drug laws. He doesn't even care about the opinion of his citizens of whom 59% support legalization against 39% who oppose (not too many undecideds here).
https://www.newsday.com/news/region-state/quinnipiac-poll-marijuana-legalization-support-1.26391648
Gov. Cuomo Bails on New York Cannabis Legalization
Despite his frequent jabs at Donald Trump, New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s recent finger-pointing regarding the state’s stalled cannabis legislation bears a striking resemblance to the president’s own tendency to throw his allies under the bus.
In interviews last week, Cuomo essentially called it quits on cannabis legalization in New York for the time being. After legalization failed to pass in the state’s budget last month, legislators and the governor alike vowed to work on a standalone bill that they could pass in the current legislative session, which ends on June 19.
Yet in the midst of their progress—a revised bill will likely be unveiled this week—the governor’s public statements undermined cannabis advocates in the State Assembly, and made it clear he is uninterested in pushing the bill.
Won’t Spend a Dime of Political Capital
Cuomo bailed on legalization just as the Legislature’s most ardent advocates looked to him for leadership. State Sen. Liz Krueger, a leading voice for legalization, noted recently that passing a standalone bill on adult-use cannabis would require “the governor’s strong support and willingness to use political capital to get this done.”
'If legislators are suggesting that I need to twist arms, that's a bad sign, because arm twisting doesn't work.'
Gov. Andrew Cuomo
A number of lawmakers are hesitant to support a standalone bill, for a variety of reasons. There’s a widely held belief that passing a legalization bill outside of the budget will be difficult for legislators who see supporting it as a political liability. A vote for a budget that includes legalization goes on the record as simply a vote for the budget. A vote for a standalone legalization bill goes on the record as a vote for cannabis—something legislators in more socially conservative districts fear could be used against them in the next election. The budget vote came and went last month, without a legalization clause within it. So now the only option is a standalone bill.
Instead of offering his support, Cuomo threw scorn on his colleagues in the statehouse for not coming through with the majority they promised. “When the Legislature starts to say, ‘We need the governor to get us votes,’ that’s legislative code for ‘We don’t have the votes,’” Cuomo said on Friday, in the midst of a press conference that he gave on a boat.
“If [legislators] are starting to suggest that I need to twist arms, that’s a bad sign, because arm twisting doesn’t work and it means they don’t have the political support,” he added a few hours later, on the WXXI radio program Connections with Evan Dawson.
But Isn’t That What Governors Do?
As Cuomo himself acknowledged, however, sometimes his role as governor entails exactly that: twisting arms. “Marriage equality was an issue,” he cited as an example in his interview with Evan Dawson. “I had just come in as governor. People didn’t really understand it.” Although, as he pointed out, there was a legal precedent at play with marriage equality that’s not applicable to cannabis, his claim seemed to undermine his earlier argument that he can’t, or shouldn’t, step in to help the legalization measure.
'This was always going to be a heavy lift, so yes, we need the governor's full-throated support to accomplish it.'
State Sen. Liz Krueger
“This was always going to be a heavy lift, so yes, we need the governor’s full-throated support to accomplish it,” said Sen. Krueger.
Michael Whyland, a spokesman for Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie (D-Bronx), also pushed back against the governor’s claims: “We are having thorough discussions of the proposal and are not aware of what the governor is talking about,” said Whyland. “We haven’t counted the votes and, with all due respect to the governor, the speaker has never needed him to twist arms.”
Other legislators believe the governor has simply given up on cannabis, for now. “I’ve worked with this man a long time now, so I know when he really wants to do something, he knows how to get down in the trenches and negotiate to a final solution,” said State Sen. Diane Savino, who sponsored New York’s medical marijuana bill in 2014. “I didn’t see that happening here, and I’m not sure why,” she added.
Savino speculated that Cuomo pointed fingers at legislators in order to dodge a PR bullet himself. “He was going to take it on the chin if it didn’t happen,” she said in an interview with Cannabis Wire. “And so, let the legislature take the blame. And that’s kind of the way it shook out.”
RELATED STORY
How the Cannabis Industry Defeated Legalization in New York
Backup Plan: Expanded MMJ Bill
Even with Cuomo’s support, a standalone bill was going to be a tough measure to move. “It really has no shot,” Savino said. “The truth is, there’s an awful lot of opposition to it.”
Still, advocates aren’t giving up
Last week four Assembly members introduced an expanded medical marijuana bill that could act as a stopgap measure until adult-use legislation is passed into law. New York’s current medical marijuana bill is lackluster at best. The list of qualifying conditions is limited, patients cannot purchase flower, and costs are extremely high. The expanded bill would make it easier to obtain a medical marijuana card, allow dispensaries to sell flower, facilitate cannabis research in the state, and provide a pathway to open new cannabis businesses.
That bill is currently in committee. It’s unclear if or when it will move to the floor for a vote.
Throughout the drama, cannabis activists remain committed to their fight. On May 29th, they will return to Albany for a final Marijuana Justice lobbying day.
If his lips are moving, he is either lying or manipulating. He will not spend a penny of political capital on MJ and really doesn't give a flying fuck about any of the related issues such as imprisonment of our population for victimless crimes, uneven and unfair applications of drug laws. He doesn't even care about the opinion of his citizens of whom 59% support legalization against 39% who oppose (not too many undecideds here).
https://www.newsday.com/news/region-state/quinnipiac-poll-marijuana-legalization-support-1.26391648
"According to the poll, suburbanites support legalization 59 percent to 34 percent, people in the city by 69 percent to 27 percent, and people upstate 64 percent to 32 percent. Among Democrats, support is 77 percent to 20 percent, and among Republicans, 52 percent to 44 percent."
Gov. Cuomo Bails on New York Cannabis Legalization
Despite his frequent jabs at Donald Trump, New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s recent finger-pointing regarding the state’s stalled cannabis legislation bears a striking resemblance to the president’s own tendency to throw his allies under the bus.
In interviews last week, Cuomo essentially called it quits on cannabis legalization in New York for the time being. After legalization failed to pass in the state’s budget last month, legislators and the governor alike vowed to work on a standalone bill that they could pass in the current legislative session, which ends on June 19.
Yet in the midst of their progress—a revised bill will likely be unveiled this week—the governor’s public statements undermined cannabis advocates in the State Assembly, and made it clear he is uninterested in pushing the bill.
Won’t Spend a Dime of Political Capital
Cuomo bailed on legalization just as the Legislature’s most ardent advocates looked to him for leadership. State Sen. Liz Krueger, a leading voice for legalization, noted recently that passing a standalone bill on adult-use cannabis would require “the governor’s strong support and willingness to use political capital to get this done.”
'If legislators are suggesting that I need to twist arms, that's a bad sign, because arm twisting doesn't work.'
Gov. Andrew Cuomo
A number of lawmakers are hesitant to support a standalone bill, for a variety of reasons. There’s a widely held belief that passing a legalization bill outside of the budget will be difficult for legislators who see supporting it as a political liability. A vote for a budget that includes legalization goes on the record as simply a vote for the budget. A vote for a standalone legalization bill goes on the record as a vote for cannabis—something legislators in more socially conservative districts fear could be used against them in the next election. The budget vote came and went last month, without a legalization clause within it. So now the only option is a standalone bill.
Instead of offering his support, Cuomo threw scorn on his colleagues in the statehouse for not coming through with the majority they promised. “When the Legislature starts to say, ‘We need the governor to get us votes,’ that’s legislative code for ‘We don’t have the votes,’” Cuomo said on Friday, in the midst of a press conference that he gave on a boat.
“If [legislators] are starting to suggest that I need to twist arms, that’s a bad sign, because arm twisting doesn’t work and it means they don’t have the political support,” he added a few hours later, on the WXXI radio program Connections with Evan Dawson.
But Isn’t That What Governors Do?
As Cuomo himself acknowledged, however, sometimes his role as governor entails exactly that: twisting arms. “Marriage equality was an issue,” he cited as an example in his interview with Evan Dawson. “I had just come in as governor. People didn’t really understand it.” Although, as he pointed out, there was a legal precedent at play with marriage equality that’s not applicable to cannabis, his claim seemed to undermine his earlier argument that he can’t, or shouldn’t, step in to help the legalization measure.
'This was always going to be a heavy lift, so yes, we need the governor's full-throated support to accomplish it.'
State Sen. Liz Krueger
“This was always going to be a heavy lift, so yes, we need the governor’s full-throated support to accomplish it,” said Sen. Krueger.
Michael Whyland, a spokesman for Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie (D-Bronx), also pushed back against the governor’s claims: “We are having thorough discussions of the proposal and are not aware of what the governor is talking about,” said Whyland. “We haven’t counted the votes and, with all due respect to the governor, the speaker has never needed him to twist arms.”
Other legislators believe the governor has simply given up on cannabis, for now. “I’ve worked with this man a long time now, so I know when he really wants to do something, he knows how to get down in the trenches and negotiate to a final solution,” said State Sen. Diane Savino, who sponsored New York’s medical marijuana bill in 2014. “I didn’t see that happening here, and I’m not sure why,” she added.
Savino speculated that Cuomo pointed fingers at legislators in order to dodge a PR bullet himself. “He was going to take it on the chin if it didn’t happen,” she said in an interview with Cannabis Wire. “And so, let the legislature take the blame. And that’s kind of the way it shook out.”
RELATED STORY
How the Cannabis Industry Defeated Legalization in New York
Backup Plan: Expanded MMJ Bill
Even with Cuomo’s support, a standalone bill was going to be a tough measure to move. “It really has no shot,” Savino said. “The truth is, there’s an awful lot of opposition to it.”
Still, advocates aren’t giving up
Last week four Assembly members introduced an expanded medical marijuana bill that could act as a stopgap measure until adult-use legislation is passed into law. New York’s current medical marijuana bill is lackluster at best. The list of qualifying conditions is limited, patients cannot purchase flower, and costs are extremely high. The expanded bill would make it easier to obtain a medical marijuana card, allow dispensaries to sell flower, facilitate cannabis research in the state, and provide a pathway to open new cannabis businesses.
That bill is currently in committee. It’s unclear if or when it will move to the floor for a vote.
Throughout the drama, cannabis activists remain committed to their fight. On May 29th, they will return to Albany for a final Marijuana Justice lobbying day.
Cuckfumbustion
Lo and Behold! The transformative power of Vapor.
It is frustrating seeing all this FAIL happening in the past 6 months since his State of the State 2019 declaration. I've been questioning all along 'where is the plan?' What is the plan? Well there was no sort of path from the beginning. So it's a case of...If You Fail to Plan, You are planning to fail. Legislators turning it into an equity issue doomed any other chance of anything passing. We could expunge past convictions of MJ for NYers right now with a stroke of a pen and sort out the legal issues of REC later. How is this still being kicked around as part of the issue that needs to be resolved?
Marijuana Legalization Hits a Wall: First in New Jersey, Then in New York - The New York Times
Marlon Rando
Well-Known Member
oy vey! politicians and their bereft promises,
time to swipe at the proverbial Gordian knot. great posts guys.
time to swipe at the proverbial Gordian knot. great posts guys.
Baron23
Well-Known Member
I don't have high hopes for this. The same conflicts and parochialism that killed having it added to the budget are still outstanding and will probably kill this bill also.
As for Cuomo's idiotic remark about the ineffectiveness of "arm twisting"...I'm sure him and his whips in the legistlature find "arm twisting" and vote counting/whipping effective for initiatives that they really want.
I will say it again....Cuomo has no core principals....well, on MJ at least IMO, and the ONLY reason he has even given lip service to legalization is a woman named Cynthia Nixon.
New marijuana legalization Bill introduced in New York
Lawmakers in New York announced plans to introduce a new marijuana legalization bill in the state legislature, according to media reports. The new bill comes after an effort to include a cannabis legalization plan in the state budget failed to gain enough support earlier this year. Democratic Sen. Liz Krueger of Manhattan, an advocate for cannabis legalization, said that the new bill builds on the common ground achieved during talks for the unsuccessful budget plan.
“We’ve attempted to take all of the negotiated agreements that took place during budget negotiations and expand our bill,” said Krueger.
The bill’s sponsor in the New York State Assembly, Democratic Majority Leader Crystal Peoples-Stokes, called for a comprehensive plan to legalize cannabis, regulate hemp, and improve New York’s medical marijuana program.
“I am working on amending the Marijuana Regulation and Taxation Act to incorporate many aspects of Governor Cuomo’s proposal,” Peoples-Stokes said, “including having one regulatory body overseeing medical marijuana, hemp extracts, and adult-use cannabis.”
Measure Aims for Social Equity
Peoples-Stokes also said that the core principles of the previous plan including “significant dedicated investment in communities most harmed by marijuana prohibition, equity in the industry, permitting individuals to grow cannabis for personal use, and addressing past criminal convictions,” had been preserved in the new bill.
The majority leader also said that the new plan would include public health benefits and provisions to address the consequences of the War on Drugs.
“A certain percentage of it will go towards comminutes that have been negatively impacted by mass incarceration,” Peoples-Stokes said.
“And a certain percentage of it would go for research, drug prevention and treatment,” she added.
The new plan also includes expansion to the state’s medical marijuana program by leaving it up to doctors and patients to decide when the therapeutic use of cannabis may be beneficial instead restricting access to those with a specified qualifying medical condition.
“It is my hope that this legislation will be approved by the Legislature, and there will not be a need to take up separate legislation that updates the medical marijuana program, and regulates hemp/CBD,” Peoples-Stokes said.
Will the Bill Succeed?
Krueger said that she does not believe that there are enough votes in the state Senate for the bill to succeed. She’s calling for the Assembly to pass the measure first to build support for the plan.
“And then I can try to make the case that people who might have been scared away when it dropped out of the budget should come back to vote for it,” Krueger said.
Peoples-Stokes offered lukewarm support for the legislative path outlined by Krueger.
“It’s not something that we are adverse to,” Peoples-Stokes said. “We will look to do that this time.”
Krueger said that she is also looking for help from Gov. Andrew Cuomo, a fellow Democrat, to help secure the votes needed in the Senate. But in a radio interview on May 10, the governor said that he is reluctant to attempt to persuade lawmakers who have reservations for the bill.
“I support it,” Cuomo said. “But if they are starting to suggest that I need to twist arms, then that’s a bad sign. Because arm twisting doesn’t work. And it means they don’t have the political support.”
Krueger said that lawmakers will have “flunked the assignment” if they fail to pass a marijuana legalization bill this year.
As for Cuomo's idiotic remark about the ineffectiveness of "arm twisting"...I'm sure him and his whips in the legistlature find "arm twisting" and vote counting/whipping effective for initiatives that they really want.
I will say it again....Cuomo has no core principals....well, on MJ at least IMO, and the ONLY reason he has even given lip service to legalization is a woman named Cynthia Nixon.
New marijuana legalization Bill introduced in New York
Lawmakers in New York announced plans to introduce a new marijuana legalization bill in the state legislature, according to media reports. The new bill comes after an effort to include a cannabis legalization plan in the state budget failed to gain enough support earlier this year. Democratic Sen. Liz Krueger of Manhattan, an advocate for cannabis legalization, said that the new bill builds on the common ground achieved during talks for the unsuccessful budget plan.
“We’ve attempted to take all of the negotiated agreements that took place during budget negotiations and expand our bill,” said Krueger.
The bill’s sponsor in the New York State Assembly, Democratic Majority Leader Crystal Peoples-Stokes, called for a comprehensive plan to legalize cannabis, regulate hemp, and improve New York’s medical marijuana program.
“I am working on amending the Marijuana Regulation and Taxation Act to incorporate many aspects of Governor Cuomo’s proposal,” Peoples-Stokes said, “including having one regulatory body overseeing medical marijuana, hemp extracts, and adult-use cannabis.”
Measure Aims for Social Equity
Peoples-Stokes also said that the core principles of the previous plan including “significant dedicated investment in communities most harmed by marijuana prohibition, equity in the industry, permitting individuals to grow cannabis for personal use, and addressing past criminal convictions,” had been preserved in the new bill.
The majority leader also said that the new plan would include public health benefits and provisions to address the consequences of the War on Drugs.
“A certain percentage of it will go towards comminutes that have been negatively impacted by mass incarceration,” Peoples-Stokes said.
“And a certain percentage of it would go for research, drug prevention and treatment,” she added.
The new plan also includes expansion to the state’s medical marijuana program by leaving it up to doctors and patients to decide when the therapeutic use of cannabis may be beneficial instead restricting access to those with a specified qualifying medical condition.
“It is my hope that this legislation will be approved by the Legislature, and there will not be a need to take up separate legislation that updates the medical marijuana program, and regulates hemp/CBD,” Peoples-Stokes said.
Will the Bill Succeed?
Krueger said that she does not believe that there are enough votes in the state Senate for the bill to succeed. She’s calling for the Assembly to pass the measure first to build support for the plan.
“And then I can try to make the case that people who might have been scared away when it dropped out of the budget should come back to vote for it,” Krueger said.
Peoples-Stokes offered lukewarm support for the legislative path outlined by Krueger.
“It’s not something that we are adverse to,” Peoples-Stokes said. “We will look to do that this time.”
Krueger said that she is also looking for help from Gov. Andrew Cuomo, a fellow Democrat, to help secure the votes needed in the Senate. But in a radio interview on May 10, the governor said that he is reluctant to attempt to persuade lawmakers who have reservations for the bill.
“I support it,” Cuomo said. “But if they are starting to suggest that I need to twist arms, then that’s a bad sign. Because arm twisting doesn’t work. And it means they don’t have the political support.”
Krueger said that lawmakers will have “flunked the assignment” if they fail to pass a marijuana legalization bill this year.
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Cuckfumbustion
Lo and Behold! The transformative power of Vapor.
Embattled New York Introduces New Marijuana Legalization Bill
There is some regulation meant for CBD as well.
This link is to Sen Kruger's website. She was the first in my memory for NYS to try to pass any sort of salient pro-legalization legislation. I intend to watch her bills more closely and hope for the best. And perhaps let her and other legislators know that this is the best policy being put forward.
Liz Introduces Bill to Regulate and Tax Marijuana in New York State – State Senator Liz Krueger (part)
The Marijuana Regulation and Taxation Act
The legislation Sen. Krueger is filing today would regulate marijuana in a manner similar to New York’s current treatment of alcohol, and would empower the State Liquor Authority to act as the primary regulatory agency. In brief, the bill:
There is some regulation meant for CBD as well.
This link is to Sen Kruger's website. She was the first in my memory for NYS to try to pass any sort of salient pro-legalization legislation. I intend to watch her bills more closely and hope for the best. And perhaps let her and other legislators know that this is the best policy being put forward.
Liz Introduces Bill to Regulate and Tax Marijuana in New York State – State Senator Liz Krueger (part)
The Marijuana Regulation and Taxation Act
The legislation Sen. Krueger is filing today would regulate marijuana in a manner similar to New York’s current treatment of alcohol, and would empower the State Liquor Authority to act as the primary regulatory agency. In brief, the bill:
- Removes penalties for possession of 2 ounces of marijuana or less;
- Makes 18 the minimum legal age for marijuana possession and consumption;
- Establishes that smoking marijuana in public and possession of marijuana by persons under the age of 18 are violations;
- Allows for home cultivation of up to six marijuana plants;
- Empowers the State Liquor Authority to grant licenses for marijuana production, transport and retail sale;
- Prohibits sale of marijuana to persons under 21;
- Allows communities to opt out of retail sale for off-premises consumption through a referendum process similar to what is now in place for alcohol sales;
- Allows communities to opt in to allow retail sales for on-premises consumption through a vote of the local legislature, in addition to the local c
- Community board in the case of New York City;
- Establishes an excise tax of $50.00 per ounce of marijuana, and authorizes localities to charge a sales tax on retail sales; and
- Directs a portion of the state tax revenue collected to be directed to re-entry programs, substance abuse programs, and job training programs in low-income, high-unemployment communities.
jeffp
Well-Known Member
Agreed and in little time most aspiring home cultivators will realize that there's a lot of attention and some expense to making a grow into something special so i don't see this impacting the commercial market at all. I'm more concerned with legalization ruining the integrity of the seeds (GMO) and the inevitable fact that eventual federal legalization will make marijuana a more controlled substance than it already is.
Baron23
Well-Known Member
As marijuana debate rages, New York's medical program poised for growth
As recreational marijuana shapes up to be a tough sell for New York lawmakers this session, there is one marijuana deal on the table that appears poised to move with little fanfare.
A bill introduced this month by Assemblyman Richard Gottfried and Sen. Diane Savino, both downstate Democrats, would make it a lot easier for patients to get medical marijuana in the state, following years of concerns about access from patients, providers and industry insiders.
Building on proposals in Gov. Andrew Cuomo's executive budget, the bill would allow health care providers to decide who should have access to the drug, increase the number of dispensaries statewide, eliminate patient registration fees, and remove a ban on the sale of smokable marijuana bud.
"One of the things that's been abundantly clear from the very beginning is that this was a narrow program that only served a small number of patients," Savino said. "We saw some improvements over the years, but now we're trying to really close those remaining gaps."
New York legalized marijuana for medicinal use in 2014, but a program wasn't implemented until January 2016. Since then, the Department of Health has certified 100,283 patients for its medical marijuana program.
That's fairly low compared to similarly sized states with medical programs. Florida, for example, has enrolled nearly three times as many patients (294,700) in half the time (its program launched 18 months after New York's).
Industry leaders theorize the slow growth is due to the many limits on New York's program. Only 40 dispensaries are allowed statewide (35 are currently operational) and eligibility is limited to 13 medical conditions. Additionally, patients can only access 30 days' worth of the drug at a time — a major barrier for residents in far-flung areas of the state.
What the bill does
The bill currently under consideration appears to move in the direction of treating medical-grade cannabis like any other medication.
"We believe cannabis is medicine and should be treated as such," said Dr. Stephen Dahmer, chief medical officer at Vireo Health, which operates a dispensary in Albany. "This (bill) attempts to put it on a level playing field."
One obvious example is that it allows health care providers to decide whether their patients would benefit from medical marijuana, removing a requirement that patients have one of 13 state-approved medical conditions in order to qualify. Anyone who is authorized to prescribe a controlled substance, including podiatrists and dentists, could recommend patients for the program.
"It would basically be between you and your doctor, as it should," Savino said.
Dahmer drew a comparison to the medical practice of off-label prescribing, in which a doctor directs a patient to take a drug outside of its intended or approved use, on the belief that it's in their best interest.
The bill would also remove some financial barriers to the program by eliminating a $50 patient registration fee, and allowing the sale of smokable marijuana. This is the cheapest form of retail marijuana, but it's currently banned in New York.
"As a physician, I would prefer other forms over smoke, but I'm also very aware of the financial challenges our patients face when paying out of pocket," Dahmer said.
Insurance companies don't cover medical marijuana, due to its federal illegality. And because pharmaceutical-grade cannabis is so expensive, many patients end up unable to afford medical marijuana.
The bill would also ease travel burdens. Patients are currently limited to a 30-day supply of cannabis. The bill would increase that to 60 days. It would also double the number of allowed dispensaries per registered organization from four to eight, bringing the overall number of allowed dispensaries statewide to 80.
"We have patients who travel up to three hours to a dispensary, some who are wheelchair-bound and severely debilitated," Dahmer said. "We try to access them through delivery, but some are unfortunately outside those zones."
Another big change would enable health care facilities such as nursing homes and group homes for the developmentally disabled to become "designated caregiver facilities" — allowing caregivers to obtain and administer medical marijuana to patients who may be unable to do so themselves.
It would also establish a medical marijuana research program in the state, expand third-party testing of cannabis products beyond the state's Wadsworth Laboratory, and allow companies to contract out ancillary functions such as security or transportation.
"We feel very confident about this bill because the people who opposed medical marijuana in the Senate in 2014 now wholeheartedly support it or are no longer here," Savino said. "In just a few short years, the thinking on this really has changed."
As recreational marijuana shapes up to be a tough sell for New York lawmakers this session, there is one marijuana deal on the table that appears poised to move with little fanfare.
A bill introduced this month by Assemblyman Richard Gottfried and Sen. Diane Savino, both downstate Democrats, would make it a lot easier for patients to get medical marijuana in the state, following years of concerns about access from patients, providers and industry insiders.
Building on proposals in Gov. Andrew Cuomo's executive budget, the bill would allow health care providers to decide who should have access to the drug, increase the number of dispensaries statewide, eliminate patient registration fees, and remove a ban on the sale of smokable marijuana bud.
"One of the things that's been abundantly clear from the very beginning is that this was a narrow program that only served a small number of patients," Savino said. "We saw some improvements over the years, but now we're trying to really close those remaining gaps."
New York legalized marijuana for medicinal use in 2014, but a program wasn't implemented until January 2016. Since then, the Department of Health has certified 100,283 patients for its medical marijuana program.
That's fairly low compared to similarly sized states with medical programs. Florida, for example, has enrolled nearly three times as many patients (294,700) in half the time (its program launched 18 months after New York's).
Industry leaders theorize the slow growth is due to the many limits on New York's program. Only 40 dispensaries are allowed statewide (35 are currently operational) and eligibility is limited to 13 medical conditions. Additionally, patients can only access 30 days' worth of the drug at a time — a major barrier for residents in far-flung areas of the state.
What the bill does
The bill currently under consideration appears to move in the direction of treating medical-grade cannabis like any other medication.
"We believe cannabis is medicine and should be treated as such," said Dr. Stephen Dahmer, chief medical officer at Vireo Health, which operates a dispensary in Albany. "This (bill) attempts to put it on a level playing field."
One obvious example is that it allows health care providers to decide whether their patients would benefit from medical marijuana, removing a requirement that patients have one of 13 state-approved medical conditions in order to qualify. Anyone who is authorized to prescribe a controlled substance, including podiatrists and dentists, could recommend patients for the program.
"It would basically be between you and your doctor, as it should," Savino said.
Dahmer drew a comparison to the medical practice of off-label prescribing, in which a doctor directs a patient to take a drug outside of its intended or approved use, on the belief that it's in their best interest.
The bill would also remove some financial barriers to the program by eliminating a $50 patient registration fee, and allowing the sale of smokable marijuana. This is the cheapest form of retail marijuana, but it's currently banned in New York.
"As a physician, I would prefer other forms over smoke, but I'm also very aware of the financial challenges our patients face when paying out of pocket," Dahmer said.
Insurance companies don't cover medical marijuana, due to its federal illegality. And because pharmaceutical-grade cannabis is so expensive, many patients end up unable to afford medical marijuana.
The bill would also ease travel burdens. Patients are currently limited to a 30-day supply of cannabis. The bill would increase that to 60 days. It would also double the number of allowed dispensaries per registered organization from four to eight, bringing the overall number of allowed dispensaries statewide to 80.
"We have patients who travel up to three hours to a dispensary, some who are wheelchair-bound and severely debilitated," Dahmer said. "We try to access them through delivery, but some are unfortunately outside those zones."
Another big change would enable health care facilities such as nursing homes and group homes for the developmentally disabled to become "designated caregiver facilities" — allowing caregivers to obtain and administer medical marijuana to patients who may be unable to do so themselves.
It would also establish a medical marijuana research program in the state, expand third-party testing of cannabis products beyond the state's Wadsworth Laboratory, and allow companies to contract out ancillary functions such as security or transportation.
"We feel very confident about this bill because the people who opposed medical marijuana in the Senate in 2014 now wholeheartedly support it or are no longer here," Savino said. "In just a few short years, the thinking on this really has changed."
Baron23
Well-Known Member
And now back to that train wreck in progress....NY...sigh
'Traction Is Building' For New Marijuana Bill, But Will Cuomo Support It?
The on-again, off-again effort to legalize marijuana in New York is picking up new momentum, after state lawmakers unveiled a revised legislative package aimed at winning over weed skeptics, social justice advocates, and most crucially, Governor Andrew Cuomo.
The amended Marijuana Regulation and Taxation Act, released by State Senator Liz Krueger and Assembly Majority Leader Crystal D. Peoples-Stokes on Friday, closely resembles the framework put forth by the governor earlier this year. That proposal was dropped from the budget agreement in April, and with the session set to end next month, the prospects for legalization looked bleak. But the bill's sponsors say new compromises could push legalization over the finish line in the next few weeks.
"I think traction is building," Krueger told Gothamist on Tuesday. "When it didn't make it in the budget some people thought that meant goodbye. But we took awhile to put a new bill together that reflects what grew out of discussions with colleagues in both houses, and discussions with the governor."
As conceived in the governor's proposal, the amended law would create a Cuomo-appointed Office of Cannabis Management to regulate both recreational and medicinal marijuana, as well as hemp products like CBD. Taxes on the drug would be upped to $1 per gram, and the state would commit to spending $3 million over three years on training police officers to spot stoned drivers. Under the amended bill, the amount of marijuana a person can legally possess would decrease to three ounces, down from the previous version's threshold of two pounds. The age for adult use is set at 21.
But the revised package also includes concessions to advocates on the left, some of whom have been pushing for a more justice-oriented approach to legalization. The bill stipulates that 50 percent of all marijuana revenue would be deposited in a grant reinvestment fund for communities "disproportionately affected by past federal and state drug policies." Those communities would also have access to "incubator programs" offering loans and assistance in joining the potentially lucrative market. And New Yorkers would be able to grow up to six marijuana plants for personal use.
Moreover, new language in the bill would expunge the records of New York residents convicted of low-level marijuana offenses. Previous proposals had called for those records to be sealed, meaning they could still be accessed by members of law enforcement in certain situations.
This change earned plaudits from a coalition of public defender groups on Tuesday, who noted in a press release that marijuana arrest records have "curtailed the opportunities of countless predominately young Black and Latinx New Yorkers." In the first three months of this year, black and hispanic people accounted for 92 percent of low-level marijuana arrests in the city.
According to Melissa Moore of the Drug Policy Alliance, the challenges of record-clearing have been among the biggest lessons gleaned from watching other states go through the legalization process. "Any efforts to address records must be as robust and comprehensive as possible," she told Gothamist. "It's beneficial, as we're going into the ending sprint of sessions, to be starting from a place that takes into account some of the concerns that members voiced during the budget process."
But as advocates framed the new updates as a worthy compromise, the governor has yet to give any indication that he is ready to re-prioritize marijuana legalization.
"I just don't believe—and the senators say—they don't have the votes, and at the end of the day, if you don't have the votes, you don't have the votes," Cuomo told WNYC's Brian Lehrer on Tuesday morning.
Democratic leaders in the senate say they've made no such declaration. Several senators previously told Gothamist/WNYC that they were waiting to see the revised bill before making a final decision; those lawmakers are presumably still pouring over the 109-page document that dropped on Friday.
According to the bill's sponsors, the votes for legalization are out there, though they may be contingent on Cuomo's support.
"I have no crystal ball. But the situation would need to be as follows: the Assembly passes the bill, the governor offers full-throated support, and then the Senate can hopefully pull it together," predicted Krueger. "I need [Governor Cuomo] to come out with strong support for the package, and I don't think we've heard that yet."
Asked why the governor might not work with fellow Democrats on their final push for marijuana legalization this year, Krueger replied, "I never try to make assumptions about why Andrew Cuomo does anything."
A spokesperson for the Governor's Office did not respond to Gothamist's inquiries about his position on the revised bill.
Cuomo cites marijuana legalization as a top priority
Governor outlines 10 lingering issues the Legislature should tackle this session
ALBANY — Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo began lowering expectations on Tuesday for what state lawmakers may accomplish before leaving Albany on June 19.
The governor outlined an aggressive to-do list for the final four weeks of the legislative session, including legalization of marijuana and allowing driver's licenses for undocumented immigrants. Cuomo also cast doubt on whether the state Senate shares his commitment.
"They have work to do," he told WAMC News on Tuesday, claiming they are blocking a majority of his agenda.
Senate Democratic spokesman Mike Murphy responded that the governor's critique "is not based in reality," and he noted that the chamber had adopted a host of big-ticket, liberal items in the first five months of the legislative session.
"In this age of Trump, Democrats should work together to make New York a progressive beacon not tear each other down in silly political games," Murphy said.
The aggressive tact by the governor allows him to simultaneously apply pressure on state senators, who might be squeamish about far-left legislation, and provide political cover if his priorities aren't enacted.
A Capitol insider, speaking on the condition of anonymity, said the governor's commitment to his agenda can be measured by the amount of political capital he spends in the next four weeks. The latest legislative push hasn't included any rallies, visits to lawmakers' districts or television advertisements, which accompanied previous advocacy efforts by Cuomo.
It's possible Cuomo's support could ramp up in the coming days, as he told WAMC his focus is returning to his legislative agenda "because it's now ripe again."
Cuomo's other high-profile priorities are the legalization of paid surrogacy contracts, creating a lower threshold for workplace sexual harassment, expanding the use of artificially high wages on construction projects and extending rent regulations in New York City.
Most of the governor's skepticism about legislative action in the final month of the session revolves around recreational adult-use of marijuana, which Cuomo had hoped to address in the first 100 days of his new administration. But negotiations with state lawmakers stalled and it was dropped from the final budget.
In an attempt to find common ground with the governor, Democratic lawmakers amended their proposal on Friday. The new language mirrors Cuomo's proposal, including the adoption of his idea for an Office of Cannabis Management.
But speaking Tuesday on WNYC, Cuomo was less concerned about policy differences, such as whether marijuana-related crimes should be expunged from criminal records or allowing New Yorkers to grow their own marijuana, and more focused on the political challenges facing the legislation.
"The political reality (is) that you don't have the votes in the Senate," Cuomo said.
While Senate Majority Leader Andrea Stewart-Cousins enthusiastically backs legalization, some of her Democratic colleagues — especially those representing suburban communities — have been more cagey about the issue and a majority of senators have yet to publicly support it.
Additionally, reservations have been raised by Assembly Democrats, including members in the Capital Region.
The governor also discounted the possibility of passing additional "ethics reform" measures this year, appearing resigned to the idea that lawmakers wouldn't revisit the issue. He did seem interested, though, in legislation requiring state lawmakers and statewide elected officials in New York to release their tax returns annually.
Cuomo said that he intends to sign a bill approved by the Legislature last week enabling state officials to release copies of the president's state tax returns to certain congressional committees if they are requested. But Cuomo noted that Democrats in Congress had not asked New York to do that, and the Legislature should in turn agree to make their tax returns public, "just to show that they don't have any outside income."
In his summary on Tuesday, Cuomo added that he doesn't believe the Legislature is ready to legalize physician-assisted suicide in New York this session.
New York marijuana: What to know about politics, money and new medical cannabis legislation
Newly reported details of MedMen-related lobbying and political donations targeting key lawmakers, including Savino, underscored how powerful cannabis companies aim to influence New York’s drug laws.
New York’s medical marijuana program would be overhauled by new legislation removed from the recreational pot debate, but still steeped in cannabis industry political spending.
From expanding patient eligibility to allowing smokable medical marijuana, the bill backed by state Sen. Diane Savino, D-Staten Island, includes many reforms requested by patients and pro-marijuana groups.
Some of Savino’s other changes, however, benefit politically active cannabis companies, despite marijuana opponents suggesting New York lawmakers prioritize lobbying and campaign donations over public health and social equity.
For example, MedMen Enterprises, a California-based cannabis conglomerate, has sought to double the number of dispensaries it owns in New York to eight, but legal hurdles stalled the expansion.
The new MedMen cannabis factory is shown on Wednesday, April 11, 2018 east of Reno-Sparks. The 45,000-square-foot facility includes a 26,000-square-foot greenhouse. (Photo: Jason Hidalgo, RGJ)
Currently, a company can only have four dispensaries under state law, and Savino’s legislation increases the limit to eight.
Newly reported details of MedMen-related lobbying and political donations targeting key lawmakers, including Savino, underscored how powerful cannabis companies aim to influence New York’s drug laws.
PRO: Here's the money behind marijuana legalization push in New York
OPPOSITION: What to know about anti-pot lobbying, pharma, alcohol and tobacco
A Savino spokesman addressed the campaign contributions in a brief statement.
"No contribution to Senator Savino's campaign has any influence on her government and policy decisions," said Thomas Musich, a spokesman for Savino.
MedMen did not answer emailed questions about lobbying and campaign donations for this story.
Both Savino and MedMen issued broad statements about cannabis reforms.
"This legislation is about increasing access to medical cannabis for patients with real needs who have had trouble obtaining a prescription," Savino said.
"In the past, we have proudly supported Sen. Savino and her mission to expand patient access," MedMen officials said. "We strongly believe that a world where cannabis is legal and regulated is safer, healthier and happier."
Cannabis money, politics
A $10,300 campaign donation to Savino’s re-election bid last year appears connected to MedMen. The money flowed through a limited liability company with a California address linked to MedMen, state records show.
The donation to Savino’s campaign was disclosed as MedMan Enterprises USA LLC, a different spelling that makes database searches difficult. But the donation address matched other New York political donations linked to MedMen at the time.
Further, MedMen and affiliates have spent more than $100,000 on lobbying key New York lawmakers, including Savino, since 2018. In addition to various medical marijuana reforms, it has sought to influence the ongoing push to legalize recreational pot for adults, state records show.
The spending is part of more than $3 million in New York lobbying connected to the cannabis industry since 2013.
MedMen’s New York expansion plan was revealed last year as part of its pending $682 million acquisition of PharmaCann, which owns four New York dispensaries. But the deal stalled due to the four-dispensary ownership cap first reported by the Albany Times Union.
To understand the stakes, consider that MedMen described its takeover of PharmaCann as the largest acquisition in U.S. cannabis history.
The deal would double the number of states where MedMen has licenses to 12, accounting for over 50 percent of the projected U.S. marketplace, the company reported. It involved 66 retail stores and 13 cultivation and production facilities, including pending acquisitions by MedMen.
The New York State Department of Health, which regulates medical marijuana, is currently reviewing MedMen’s formal merger request with PharmaCann, which they submitted in January, said Jill Montag, an agency spokeswoman.
Yet the new Savino legislation would allow MedMen’s plan to proceed in New York, but it comes amid mounting criticism of out-of-state cannabis businesses taking over marijuana.
Recreational, medical overlap
Gov. Andrew Cuomo in January spoke to public concerns about cannabis industry power when pushing recreational pot legislation.
"We have to do it in a way that creates an economic opportunity for poor communities and people who paid the price and not for rich corporations who are going to come in to make a buck," he said.
Still, political donations totaling $130,000 linked to MedMen and affiliates have flowed to Cuomo, who has changed course on legalizing marijuana after years of opposition. He signed New York’s medical marijuana law in 2014 and introduced recreational pot legislation this year.
Cuomo didn’t respond to an interview request about why he changed positions on medical and recreational marijuana.
Cuomo’s cannabis legislation, which failed to pass as part of the state budget in April, included key concessions for existing medical marijuana companies in New York.
For example, a key pillar of the governor's social equity plan is a ban on recreational marijuana growers from owning retail pot shops. In theory, this would keep big cannabis corporations from taking over the entire industry.
Existing medical marijuana companies, however, would be exempt from the ban at state regulators discretion, the legislation shows.
That means the companies could start growing and selling recreational marijuana within their system of existing greenhouses and dispensaries.
The potentially lucrative exemption would aid several powerful cannabis industry leaders and raises the stakes for MedMen’s effort to add dispensaries through a takeover of PharmaCann.
MedMen entered the New York market by purchasing Bloomfield Industries, a deal approved by the state Health Department in 2017.
Other mergers
The Health Department previously rejected merger requests submitted regarding Valley Agriceuticals, doing business as Remedy-NY, and Fiorello Pharmaceuticals, doing business as FP Wellness, and running a dispensary in Rochester.
Both companies recently re-submitted their requests, which are currently under review. Cannabis conglomerate Cresco seeks to merge with Remedy-NY, and Green Thumb Industries, or GTI, with FP Wellness.
At the time of the initial requests, the two companies had insufficient tangible operational assets to sell to the prospective buyers except their registrations, which is prohibited by regulation.
Medical marijuana reforms
In addition to the dispensary limits, Savino’s legislation addresses a range of other high-profile medical marijuana issues.
One is that it would allow medical professionals to use their clinical judgement to certify patients, a significant change from the current law that limits patient eligibility to a list of state-approved health conditions.
Initially, the list of 10 eligible diseases consisted of cancer, epilepsy and other serious illnesses as diagnosed by doctors registered in the program.
Then, as criticism mounted over limited patient access, regulators began expanding eligibility of conditions, such as chronic pain and post-traumatic stress disorder.
As a result, the tally of certified patients has increased steadily to 100,000, which is up from a couple thousand in the beginning of the program in 2016.
Savino’s legislation would maintain a state-sanctioned list of recommended health conditions, but it adds the clinical discretion and expands the eligibility of medical professionals to certify patients, a recommendation of a recent state Department of Health report.
It also removed some of the legal language, such as “serious” and “severe debilitating or life threatening” from the definition of conditions, which would allow for broader medical judgment.
Among other reforms in Savino’s legislation:
New Yorkers are drawn to East Coast’s first recreational cannabis dispensaries
For years New York has been known as a city where black-market marijuana can be delivered faster than pizza. But for the past five months, thousands of New Yorkers have been making the two-and-a-half-hour drive to Great Barrington, Mass., to stand on a line typically 70-people long outside the doors of Theory Wellness.
The shop, which opened in 2017 as a medical-marijuana dispensary, launched its recreational-cannabis retail operation Jan. 11, the first such business in Berkshire County to take advantage of a 2016 state ballot initiative that legalized sales of adult-use marijuana. The store has the added distinction of being closer to New York City than any other recreational dispensary in the country.
Being first to market in a town that is already a tourist destination has been a boon to Theory Wellness’s business. In less than five months, its sales have totaled $11 million, the owners say, with half of its 50,000 customers coming from New York state and 25% from the New York metro area. (The proprietors can access ZIP codes—without compromising customer privacy—because state law requires store patrons to submit identification as part of the purchasing process.)
For New Yorkers, visiting the well-stocked dispensary, with its five-page menu of weed strains, edibles and extracts, provides a glimpse of what legalization could look like, should a state bill find enough supporters in the Legislature. Although Gov. Andrew Cuomo included a legalization plan as part of the state budget in January, it became subject to intense debate and was subsequently removed. A new bill that combines some of the governor’s proposal with an earlier bill was introduced just last Friday by its co-author Buffalo Assemblywoman Crystal Peoples-Stokes. Insiders, however, are pessimistic about its chances for passage before the legislative session ends June 19.
Head trip
The crowd in the Theory Wellness parking lot illustrates the appeal of legal cannabis across a broad range of consumers. Great Barrington itself is demonstrating the wider economic impact that legalization can have, as some businesses in the area report a boost to their sales.
"Our business is drawing 1,000 people a day into town, about 90% of whom would otherwise not be here," said Brandon Pollock, chief executive of Theory Wellness, which is independently owned. "You see folks from New York City doing aggressive carpooling, with four or five people packed into a Zipcar."
That figure of a thousand people applies mainly to weekends and includes some visitors who came along for the ride and did not necessarily purchase weed. Even so, business for the recreational dispensary has so far been double what Pollock and his partners had projected, pushing the dispensary to add more than 40 employees, for a total of nearly 50, to deal with the demand. Several local shops have told him of a ripple effect on their business, with double-digit increases in sales since Theory added recreational offerings.
On a recent Saturday, the line that wound around the side of the parking lot included a handful of city residents as well as visitors from Albany; Saratoga Springs; Glens Falls; Newark, N.J.; Philadelphia; Hartford, Conn.; and Clemson, S.C. All had made the drive exclusively to shop at the dispensary—despite having connections to black market dealers at home. Though they knew they would pay more at a legal shop, they felt it was worth the added expense to be assured a safer product that they could buy in the open.
"I know a dealer, but I don't know where [his product] is coming from," said Steve, a middle-school math teacher in Brooklyn who was making his fourth monthly trip to Theory Wellness.
He planned to buy vape pens and cartridges costing between $200 and $300 that he said would help him relax and ease the pain in his leg from a motorcycle accident. He said he would combine the trip with a stop at the MGM Resorts casino, about an hour away in Springfield, Mass., but would have preferred buying his cannabis at home.
"Why do I have to drive 140 miles to come here?" Steve asked. "I'm just trying to get a little pain management."
For other New Yorkers, the excursion was more like a holiday. Bronx resident Priscilla, who works at a nonprofit for the homeless, had driven up with her husband and planned to stay at a nearby bed-and-breakfast.
"I said, 'Come on, it's legal!'" she recalled. "'We'll spend the whole weekend here, honey!'"
She had learned of Theory Wellness from her son-in-law, whom she said suffers from an anxiety disorder and prefers cannabis to his prescription medicine. Anxiety is not a qualifying condition for a medical-marijuana prescription in New York, so he has been driving up on a regular basis from the city.
Even those who were satisfied with their dealers were looking forward to making a legal purchase.
"We wanted to experience going into a store and being able to shop," said Anthony, an operations manager in Queens who had arranged the weekend trip as a birthday present for his girlfriend. "Usually, with a dealer, there's just one or two options."
The variety, he added, would make up for the higher prices. An eighth of an ounce of smokable weed—"flower" on the Theory Wellness menu—averages $50, plus $10 from the 20% sales tax, compared to black market prices in the city of $25 to $30. Anthony was prepared to spend as much as $350.
"My mother actually wants edibles," he added. "A few people put in orders with us."
Gregory Cherin
Brandon Pollock, CEO of Theory Wellness.
Side effects
Supporters of legalization in New York hope the Massachusetts model serves as a blueprint.
"Clearly there is a legal market for this, just based on what they're doing in Massachusetts," Peoples-Stokes said. "We hope we can convince people there is some value in turning a multibillion-dollar underground market into an above-ground market."
But critics say that Massachusetts is setting the wrong example.
"Any report that says people are rushing across state lines to buy pot doesn't acknowledge the vast majority of the population that isn't clamoring for pot shops in their community," Kevin Sabet, president of Smart Approaches to Marijuana, which has campaigned against legalization, wrote in an email. "New York's leaders should be protecting their communities from this addiction-for-profit industry, not throwing the doors wide open."
Legalization in Massachusetts has not been without controversy. About a third of municipalities have opted to ban recreational dispensaries from opening within their borders. In addition, the slow pace of licensing by the Cannabis Control Commission has led to the collection of just $18 million in marijuana tax revenue through the beginning of May, less than a third of the state's forecast of $63 million for the fiscal year ending in June. The state keeps 17% of the 20% sales tax.
Even Great Barrington, which worked quickly to enact zoning laws to speed the opening of dispensaries, is seeing some pushback as four more shops await state approval to open.
"People are saying, 'It's too many. We're going to be known as Pot Town,'" said Select Board member Ed Abrahams.
But so far the town, at its annual meeting, has voted only to "consider" limits on new dispensaries. Abrahams said that being first to market with Theory Wellness proved to be "a windfall" for Great Barrington.
"I saw a million-and-a-half-dollar advantage to being first," he said of what he expects the town to receive in local taxes on the dispensaries' revenue each year if it continues at its current rate of more than $6 million in quarterly sales. The town collects a 3% tax on sales and an additional 3% community-impact fee, which comes out of the dispensary's pocket and likely will be spent on health, wellness and drug education initiatives.
Others are benefiting too.
"We've seen a double-digit percentage increase in our sales for the first two quarters," said Robin Helfand, owner of Robin's Candy Shop, on the town's Main Street. The increase was "significant," she said, because it encompassed the region's slow period between the end of ski season and the beginning of summer.
Helfand, who distributes coupons to people waiting on the Theory Wellness line, has extended her shop hours, added staff and put in a section of salty snacks that Theory Wellness customers have requested. She is looking forward to another dispensary, Calyx Berkshire, opening directly across the street. Its owner plans to emphasize advance orders, letting shoppers stroll around town until a phone app or buzzer tells them their goods are ready.
If the plan works, it could spread the windfall around.
"It will keep people from blocking the sidewalk," Helfand said. "And it will build business for everyone." ■
'Traction Is Building' For New Marijuana Bill, But Will Cuomo Support It?
The on-again, off-again effort to legalize marijuana in New York is picking up new momentum, after state lawmakers unveiled a revised legislative package aimed at winning over weed skeptics, social justice advocates, and most crucially, Governor Andrew Cuomo.
The amended Marijuana Regulation and Taxation Act, released by State Senator Liz Krueger and Assembly Majority Leader Crystal D. Peoples-Stokes on Friday, closely resembles the framework put forth by the governor earlier this year. That proposal was dropped from the budget agreement in April, and with the session set to end next month, the prospects for legalization looked bleak. But the bill's sponsors say new compromises could push legalization over the finish line in the next few weeks.
"I think traction is building," Krueger told Gothamist on Tuesday. "When it didn't make it in the budget some people thought that meant goodbye. But we took awhile to put a new bill together that reflects what grew out of discussions with colleagues in both houses, and discussions with the governor."
As conceived in the governor's proposal, the amended law would create a Cuomo-appointed Office of Cannabis Management to regulate both recreational and medicinal marijuana, as well as hemp products like CBD. Taxes on the drug would be upped to $1 per gram, and the state would commit to spending $3 million over three years on training police officers to spot stoned drivers. Under the amended bill, the amount of marijuana a person can legally possess would decrease to three ounces, down from the previous version's threshold of two pounds. The age for adult use is set at 21.
But the revised package also includes concessions to advocates on the left, some of whom have been pushing for a more justice-oriented approach to legalization. The bill stipulates that 50 percent of all marijuana revenue would be deposited in a grant reinvestment fund for communities "disproportionately affected by past federal and state drug policies." Those communities would also have access to "incubator programs" offering loans and assistance in joining the potentially lucrative market. And New Yorkers would be able to grow up to six marijuana plants for personal use.
Moreover, new language in the bill would expunge the records of New York residents convicted of low-level marijuana offenses. Previous proposals had called for those records to be sealed, meaning they could still be accessed by members of law enforcement in certain situations.
This change earned plaudits from a coalition of public defender groups on Tuesday, who noted in a press release that marijuana arrest records have "curtailed the opportunities of countless predominately young Black and Latinx New Yorkers." In the first three months of this year, black and hispanic people accounted for 92 percent of low-level marijuana arrests in the city.
According to Melissa Moore of the Drug Policy Alliance, the challenges of record-clearing have been among the biggest lessons gleaned from watching other states go through the legalization process. "Any efforts to address records must be as robust and comprehensive as possible," she told Gothamist. "It's beneficial, as we're going into the ending sprint of sessions, to be starting from a place that takes into account some of the concerns that members voiced during the budget process."
But as advocates framed the new updates as a worthy compromise, the governor has yet to give any indication that he is ready to re-prioritize marijuana legalization.
"I just don't believe—and the senators say—they don't have the votes, and at the end of the day, if you don't have the votes, you don't have the votes," Cuomo told WNYC's Brian Lehrer on Tuesday morning.
Democratic leaders in the senate say they've made no such declaration. Several senators previously told Gothamist/WNYC that they were waiting to see the revised bill before making a final decision; those lawmakers are presumably still pouring over the 109-page document that dropped on Friday.
According to the bill's sponsors, the votes for legalization are out there, though they may be contingent on Cuomo's support.
"I have no crystal ball. But the situation would need to be as follows: the Assembly passes the bill, the governor offers full-throated support, and then the Senate can hopefully pull it together," predicted Krueger. "I need [Governor Cuomo] to come out with strong support for the package, and I don't think we've heard that yet."
Asked why the governor might not work with fellow Democrats on their final push for marijuana legalization this year, Krueger replied, "I never try to make assumptions about why Andrew Cuomo does anything."
A spokesperson for the Governor's Office did not respond to Gothamist's inquiries about his position on the revised bill.
Cuomo cites marijuana legalization as a top priority
Governor outlines 10 lingering issues the Legislature should tackle this session
ALBANY — Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo began lowering expectations on Tuesday for what state lawmakers may accomplish before leaving Albany on June 19.
The governor outlined an aggressive to-do list for the final four weeks of the legislative session, including legalization of marijuana and allowing driver's licenses for undocumented immigrants. Cuomo also cast doubt on whether the state Senate shares his commitment.
"They have work to do," he told WAMC News on Tuesday, claiming they are blocking a majority of his agenda.
Senate Democratic spokesman Mike Murphy responded that the governor's critique "is not based in reality," and he noted that the chamber had adopted a host of big-ticket, liberal items in the first five months of the legislative session.
"In this age of Trump, Democrats should work together to make New York a progressive beacon not tear each other down in silly political games," Murphy said.
The aggressive tact by the governor allows him to simultaneously apply pressure on state senators, who might be squeamish about far-left legislation, and provide political cover if his priorities aren't enacted.
A Capitol insider, speaking on the condition of anonymity, said the governor's commitment to his agenda can be measured by the amount of political capital he spends in the next four weeks. The latest legislative push hasn't included any rallies, visits to lawmakers' districts or television advertisements, which accompanied previous advocacy efforts by Cuomo.
It's possible Cuomo's support could ramp up in the coming days, as he told WAMC his focus is returning to his legislative agenda "because it's now ripe again."
Cuomo's other high-profile priorities are the legalization of paid surrogacy contracts, creating a lower threshold for workplace sexual harassment, expanding the use of artificially high wages on construction projects and extending rent regulations in New York City.
Most of the governor's skepticism about legislative action in the final month of the session revolves around recreational adult-use of marijuana, which Cuomo had hoped to address in the first 100 days of his new administration. But negotiations with state lawmakers stalled and it was dropped from the final budget.
In an attempt to find common ground with the governor, Democratic lawmakers amended their proposal on Friday. The new language mirrors Cuomo's proposal, including the adoption of his idea for an Office of Cannabis Management.
But speaking Tuesday on WNYC, Cuomo was less concerned about policy differences, such as whether marijuana-related crimes should be expunged from criminal records or allowing New Yorkers to grow their own marijuana, and more focused on the political challenges facing the legislation.
"The political reality (is) that you don't have the votes in the Senate," Cuomo said.
While Senate Majority Leader Andrea Stewart-Cousins enthusiastically backs legalization, some of her Democratic colleagues — especially those representing suburban communities — have been more cagey about the issue and a majority of senators have yet to publicly support it.
Additionally, reservations have been raised by Assembly Democrats, including members in the Capital Region.
The governor also discounted the possibility of passing additional "ethics reform" measures this year, appearing resigned to the idea that lawmakers wouldn't revisit the issue. He did seem interested, though, in legislation requiring state lawmakers and statewide elected officials in New York to release their tax returns annually.
Cuomo said that he intends to sign a bill approved by the Legislature last week enabling state officials to release copies of the president's state tax returns to certain congressional committees if they are requested. But Cuomo noted that Democrats in Congress had not asked New York to do that, and the Legislature should in turn agree to make their tax returns public, "just to show that they don't have any outside income."
In his summary on Tuesday, Cuomo added that he doesn't believe the Legislature is ready to legalize physician-assisted suicide in New York this session.
New York marijuana: What to know about politics, money and new medical cannabis legislation
Newly reported details of MedMen-related lobbying and political donations targeting key lawmakers, including Savino, underscored how powerful cannabis companies aim to influence New York’s drug laws.
- A $10,300 campaign donation to Savino’s re-election bid last year appears connected to MedMen
- MedMen and affiliates have spent more than $100,000 on lobbying key New York lawmakers since 2018
- New York State Department of Health is currently reviewing MedMen’s merger request with PharmaCann
- Political donations totaling $130,000 linked to MedMen and affiliates have flowed to Gov. Andrew Cuomo
New York’s medical marijuana program would be overhauled by new legislation removed from the recreational pot debate, but still steeped in cannabis industry political spending.
From expanding patient eligibility to allowing smokable medical marijuana, the bill backed by state Sen. Diane Savino, D-Staten Island, includes many reforms requested by patients and pro-marijuana groups.
Some of Savino’s other changes, however, benefit politically active cannabis companies, despite marijuana opponents suggesting New York lawmakers prioritize lobbying and campaign donations over public health and social equity.
For example, MedMen Enterprises, a California-based cannabis conglomerate, has sought to double the number of dispensaries it owns in New York to eight, but legal hurdles stalled the expansion.
The new MedMen cannabis factory is shown on Wednesday, April 11, 2018 east of Reno-Sparks. The 45,000-square-foot facility includes a 26,000-square-foot greenhouse. (Photo: Jason Hidalgo, RGJ)
Currently, a company can only have four dispensaries under state law, and Savino’s legislation increases the limit to eight.
Newly reported details of MedMen-related lobbying and political donations targeting key lawmakers, including Savino, underscored how powerful cannabis companies aim to influence New York’s drug laws.
PRO: Here's the money behind marijuana legalization push in New York
OPPOSITION: What to know about anti-pot lobbying, pharma, alcohol and tobacco
A Savino spokesman addressed the campaign contributions in a brief statement.
"No contribution to Senator Savino's campaign has any influence on her government and policy decisions," said Thomas Musich, a spokesman for Savino.
MedMen did not answer emailed questions about lobbying and campaign donations for this story.
Both Savino and MedMen issued broad statements about cannabis reforms.
"This legislation is about increasing access to medical cannabis for patients with real needs who have had trouble obtaining a prescription," Savino said.
"In the past, we have proudly supported Sen. Savino and her mission to expand patient access," MedMen officials said. "We strongly believe that a world where cannabis is legal and regulated is safer, healthier and happier."
Cannabis money, politics
A $10,300 campaign donation to Savino’s re-election bid last year appears connected to MedMen. The money flowed through a limited liability company with a California address linked to MedMen, state records show.
The donation to Savino’s campaign was disclosed as MedMan Enterprises USA LLC, a different spelling that makes database searches difficult. But the donation address matched other New York political donations linked to MedMen at the time.
Further, MedMen and affiliates have spent more than $100,000 on lobbying key New York lawmakers, including Savino, since 2018. In addition to various medical marijuana reforms, it has sought to influence the ongoing push to legalize recreational pot for adults, state records show.
The spending is part of more than $3 million in New York lobbying connected to the cannabis industry since 2013.
MedMen’s New York expansion plan was revealed last year as part of its pending $682 million acquisition of PharmaCann, which owns four New York dispensaries. But the deal stalled due to the four-dispensary ownership cap first reported by the Albany Times Union.
To understand the stakes, consider that MedMen described its takeover of PharmaCann as the largest acquisition in U.S. cannabis history.
The deal would double the number of states where MedMen has licenses to 12, accounting for over 50 percent of the projected U.S. marketplace, the company reported. It involved 66 retail stores and 13 cultivation and production facilities, including pending acquisitions by MedMen.
The New York State Department of Health, which regulates medical marijuana, is currently reviewing MedMen’s formal merger request with PharmaCann, which they submitted in January, said Jill Montag, an agency spokeswoman.
Yet the new Savino legislation would allow MedMen’s plan to proceed in New York, but it comes amid mounting criticism of out-of-state cannabis businesses taking over marijuana.
Recreational, medical overlap
Gov. Andrew Cuomo in January spoke to public concerns about cannabis industry power when pushing recreational pot legislation.
"We have to do it in a way that creates an economic opportunity for poor communities and people who paid the price and not for rich corporations who are going to come in to make a buck," he said.
Still, political donations totaling $130,000 linked to MedMen and affiliates have flowed to Cuomo, who has changed course on legalizing marijuana after years of opposition. He signed New York’s medical marijuana law in 2014 and introduced recreational pot legislation this year.
Cuomo didn’t respond to an interview request about why he changed positions on medical and recreational marijuana.
Cuomo’s cannabis legislation, which failed to pass as part of the state budget in April, included key concessions for existing medical marijuana companies in New York.
For example, a key pillar of the governor's social equity plan is a ban on recreational marijuana growers from owning retail pot shops. In theory, this would keep big cannabis corporations from taking over the entire industry.
Existing medical marijuana companies, however, would be exempt from the ban at state regulators discretion, the legislation shows.
That means the companies could start growing and selling recreational marijuana within their system of existing greenhouses and dispensaries.
The potentially lucrative exemption would aid several powerful cannabis industry leaders and raises the stakes for MedMen’s effort to add dispensaries through a takeover of PharmaCann.
MedMen entered the New York market by purchasing Bloomfield Industries, a deal approved by the state Health Department in 2017.
Other mergers
The Health Department previously rejected merger requests submitted regarding Valley Agriceuticals, doing business as Remedy-NY, and Fiorello Pharmaceuticals, doing business as FP Wellness, and running a dispensary in Rochester.
Both companies recently re-submitted their requests, which are currently under review. Cannabis conglomerate Cresco seeks to merge with Remedy-NY, and Green Thumb Industries, or GTI, with FP Wellness.
At the time of the initial requests, the two companies had insufficient tangible operational assets to sell to the prospective buyers except their registrations, which is prohibited by regulation.
Medical marijuana reforms
In addition to the dispensary limits, Savino’s legislation addresses a range of other high-profile medical marijuana issues.
One is that it would allow medical professionals to use their clinical judgement to certify patients, a significant change from the current law that limits patient eligibility to a list of state-approved health conditions.
Initially, the list of 10 eligible diseases consisted of cancer, epilepsy and other serious illnesses as diagnosed by doctors registered in the program.
Then, as criticism mounted over limited patient access, regulators began expanding eligibility of conditions, such as chronic pain and post-traumatic stress disorder.
As a result, the tally of certified patients has increased steadily to 100,000, which is up from a couple thousand in the beginning of the program in 2016.
Savino’s legislation would maintain a state-sanctioned list of recommended health conditions, but it adds the clinical discretion and expands the eligibility of medical professionals to certify patients, a recommendation of a recent state Department of Health report.
It also removed some of the legal language, such as “serious” and “severe debilitating or life threatening” from the definition of conditions, which would allow for broader medical judgment.
Among other reforms in Savino’s legislation:
- Allows patients to possess up to 60-day supply of the dosage, up from the current 30.
- Permits patients to be certified to use smokable medical marijuana, but they must follow the same restrictions prohibiting tobacco smoking in many public places.
- Establishes a medical marijuana research licensing process to regulate using the drugs for medical and clinical research, as well as other studies.
- It allows companies to set and change the prices, but gives the health commissioner the ability to modify “if necessary to maintain public access to appropriate medication.”
- Establishes designated caregiver facility rules for hospitals and other health-related settings. They would register to assist certified patients with the acquisition, possession, delivery, transportation or administration of medical marijuana.
New Yorkers are drawn to East Coast’s first recreational cannabis dispensaries
For years New York has been known as a city where black-market marijuana can be delivered faster than pizza. But for the past five months, thousands of New Yorkers have been making the two-and-a-half-hour drive to Great Barrington, Mass., to stand on a line typically 70-people long outside the doors of Theory Wellness.
The shop, which opened in 2017 as a medical-marijuana dispensary, launched its recreational-cannabis retail operation Jan. 11, the first such business in Berkshire County to take advantage of a 2016 state ballot initiative that legalized sales of adult-use marijuana. The store has the added distinction of being closer to New York City than any other recreational dispensary in the country.
Being first to market in a town that is already a tourist destination has been a boon to Theory Wellness’s business. In less than five months, its sales have totaled $11 million, the owners say, with half of its 50,000 customers coming from New York state and 25% from the New York metro area. (The proprietors can access ZIP codes—without compromising customer privacy—because state law requires store patrons to submit identification as part of the purchasing process.)
For New Yorkers, visiting the well-stocked dispensary, with its five-page menu of weed strains, edibles and extracts, provides a glimpse of what legalization could look like, should a state bill find enough supporters in the Legislature. Although Gov. Andrew Cuomo included a legalization plan as part of the state budget in January, it became subject to intense debate and was subsequently removed. A new bill that combines some of the governor’s proposal with an earlier bill was introduced just last Friday by its co-author Buffalo Assemblywoman Crystal Peoples-Stokes. Insiders, however, are pessimistic about its chances for passage before the legislative session ends June 19.
Head trip
The crowd in the Theory Wellness parking lot illustrates the appeal of legal cannabis across a broad range of consumers. Great Barrington itself is demonstrating the wider economic impact that legalization can have, as some businesses in the area report a boost to their sales.
"Our business is drawing 1,000 people a day into town, about 90% of whom would otherwise not be here," said Brandon Pollock, chief executive of Theory Wellness, which is independently owned. "You see folks from New York City doing aggressive carpooling, with four or five people packed into a Zipcar."
That figure of a thousand people applies mainly to weekends and includes some visitors who came along for the ride and did not necessarily purchase weed. Even so, business for the recreational dispensary has so far been double what Pollock and his partners had projected, pushing the dispensary to add more than 40 employees, for a total of nearly 50, to deal with the demand. Several local shops have told him of a ripple effect on their business, with double-digit increases in sales since Theory added recreational offerings.
On a recent Saturday, the line that wound around the side of the parking lot included a handful of city residents as well as visitors from Albany; Saratoga Springs; Glens Falls; Newark, N.J.; Philadelphia; Hartford, Conn.; and Clemson, S.C. All had made the drive exclusively to shop at the dispensary—despite having connections to black market dealers at home. Though they knew they would pay more at a legal shop, they felt it was worth the added expense to be assured a safer product that they could buy in the open.
"I know a dealer, but I don't know where [his product] is coming from," said Steve, a middle-school math teacher in Brooklyn who was making his fourth monthly trip to Theory Wellness.
He planned to buy vape pens and cartridges costing between $200 and $300 that he said would help him relax and ease the pain in his leg from a motorcycle accident. He said he would combine the trip with a stop at the MGM Resorts casino, about an hour away in Springfield, Mass., but would have preferred buying his cannabis at home.
"Why do I have to drive 140 miles to come here?" Steve asked. "I'm just trying to get a little pain management."
For other New Yorkers, the excursion was more like a holiday. Bronx resident Priscilla, who works at a nonprofit for the homeless, had driven up with her husband and planned to stay at a nearby bed-and-breakfast.
"I said, 'Come on, it's legal!'" she recalled. "'We'll spend the whole weekend here, honey!'"
She had learned of Theory Wellness from her son-in-law, whom she said suffers from an anxiety disorder and prefers cannabis to his prescription medicine. Anxiety is not a qualifying condition for a medical-marijuana prescription in New York, so he has been driving up on a regular basis from the city.
Even those who were satisfied with their dealers were looking forward to making a legal purchase.
"We wanted to experience going into a store and being able to shop," said Anthony, an operations manager in Queens who had arranged the weekend trip as a birthday present for his girlfriend. "Usually, with a dealer, there's just one or two options."
The variety, he added, would make up for the higher prices. An eighth of an ounce of smokable weed—"flower" on the Theory Wellness menu—averages $50, plus $10 from the 20% sales tax, compared to black market prices in the city of $25 to $30. Anthony was prepared to spend as much as $350.
"My mother actually wants edibles," he added. "A few people put in orders with us."
Gregory Cherin
Brandon Pollock, CEO of Theory Wellness.
Side effects
Supporters of legalization in New York hope the Massachusetts model serves as a blueprint.
"Clearly there is a legal market for this, just based on what they're doing in Massachusetts," Peoples-Stokes said. "We hope we can convince people there is some value in turning a multibillion-dollar underground market into an above-ground market."
But critics say that Massachusetts is setting the wrong example.
"Any report that says people are rushing across state lines to buy pot doesn't acknowledge the vast majority of the population that isn't clamoring for pot shops in their community," Kevin Sabet, president of Smart Approaches to Marijuana, which has campaigned against legalization, wrote in an email. "New York's leaders should be protecting their communities from this addiction-for-profit industry, not throwing the doors wide open."
Legalization in Massachusetts has not been without controversy. About a third of municipalities have opted to ban recreational dispensaries from opening within their borders. In addition, the slow pace of licensing by the Cannabis Control Commission has led to the collection of just $18 million in marijuana tax revenue through the beginning of May, less than a third of the state's forecast of $63 million for the fiscal year ending in June. The state keeps 17% of the 20% sales tax.
Even Great Barrington, which worked quickly to enact zoning laws to speed the opening of dispensaries, is seeing some pushback as four more shops await state approval to open.
"People are saying, 'It's too many. We're going to be known as Pot Town,'" said Select Board member Ed Abrahams.
But so far the town, at its annual meeting, has voted only to "consider" limits on new dispensaries. Abrahams said that being first to market with Theory Wellness proved to be "a windfall" for Great Barrington.
"I saw a million-and-a-half-dollar advantage to being first," he said of what he expects the town to receive in local taxes on the dispensaries' revenue each year if it continues at its current rate of more than $6 million in quarterly sales. The town collects a 3% tax on sales and an additional 3% community-impact fee, which comes out of the dispensary's pocket and likely will be spent on health, wellness and drug education initiatives.
Others are benefiting too.
"We've seen a double-digit percentage increase in our sales for the first two quarters," said Robin Helfand, owner of Robin's Candy Shop, on the town's Main Street. The increase was "significant," she said, because it encompassed the region's slow period between the end of ski season and the beginning of summer.
Helfand, who distributes coupons to people waiting on the Theory Wellness line, has extended her shop hours, added staff and put in a section of salty snacks that Theory Wellness customers have requested. She is looking forward to another dispensary, Calyx Berkshire, opening directly across the street. Its owner plans to emphasize advance orders, letting shoppers stroll around town until a phone app or buzzer tells them their goods are ready.
If the plan works, it could spread the windfall around.
"It will keep people from blocking the sidewalk," Helfand said. "And it will build business for everyone." ■
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