Another Voice: Cannabis industry in New York needs to unify

New York’s cannabis farmers have been harmed. The initial batch of conditionally licensed farmers was asked to grow cannabis before stores were licensed. They took it on faith that when their products were ready for market, there’d be somewhere for them to land. But that first year ended with one store opening.

At fault is a state that hasn’t gotten its act together. Getting it there will take more than the report Gov. Kathy Hochul issued in May that called for more hiring and improved processes. It’ll require the cannabis industry to come together with a unifying voice. We’re now an alphabet soup — Cannabis Farmers Alliance, New York Cannabis Retail Association, Empire Cannabis Manufacturers Association, Association of New York Cannabis Processors. We must solidify around principles to drive the state toward action that’ll stop the lawsuits and let this industry flourish.

To start, the state must follow a data-driven, transparent process.

As the Farmers Alliance lawsuit says, after an initial “stumble, OCM (Office of Cannabis Management) now grants licenses without, upon information and belief, any analysis on the impact to the marketplace.” It cites as an example the Cannabis Control Board’s awarding to dozens of new cultivators the same type of licenses held by the alliance’s members. The board did so, “despite the fact that the CFA Members are financially distressed and risk becoming financially insolvent,” the lawsuit says.

The state must also find sensible solutions to the problems it faces.

The farmers’ lawsuit disparages the state for allowing unregulated products into the legal market. This inversion takes products, often grown out of state, and diverts them into the legal system, undermining the ability of those operating in accordance with the regulations.

The solution is a sensible one and is prescribed by law: implementing a seed-to-sale tracking system. However, the program has yet to be fully implemented more than two years after the first seeds were put in the ground. Yes, they need to be sure there’s time to implement the program correctly, but the work of doing that should have started long ago.

A data-driven, transparent process, and following sensible solutions are two principles everyone in this industry can get behind. We must unite as an industry to push the state so we can end the problems driving these lawsuits. With one voice, together we can drive the state to build the market we all envisioned from the outset.

Damien Cornwell is president of the Cannabis Association of New York.