Medical marijuana’s entry into the adult use space in New York is being misunderstood by some.
That’s according to Jeremy Unruh, senior vice president of public and regulatory affairs for PharmaCann, one of the country’s largest vertically integrated cannabis companies.
He was responding to comments made by the Cannabis Association of New York (CANY), a group that represents the recreational cannabis supply chain in the state.
Amid a shaky roll-out of New York’s adult-use marijuana market, the Office of Cannabis Management (OCM) proposed revised regulations in May to allow medical marijuana operators to enter the market by the end of the year.
A CANY board member told Capital Tonight on Monday that medical marijuana’s pending emergence into the recreational market will hurt the very justice-involved marijuana start-ups that New York state’s marijuana law is supposed to support and will ultimately weaken the intention of the law.
Unruh disagreed.
“It does not weaken the intention of the law because the Registered Organizations (RO), or the medical operators, are explicitly and specifically baked into the adult use law,” Unruh explained.
The law states that medical operators may operate under one of two licenses in the state: A wholesale license which would allow them to sell products wholesale to any of the adult use retailers in the state, or, after paying a fee, they may sell their products to adult use consumers.
The Office of Cannabis Management (OCM) is hoping that that fee helps kick-start the state’s justice-involved marijuana retailers and cultivators: The one-time $20 million special licensing fee will support a Social Equity & Economic Plan, which will, in turn, support small adult-use start-ups.
At one point, the fee was paid out all at once, but not anymore. The fee structure is now $5 million due at the time the license is issued, with the remainder paid out in installments depending on revenue generated.
Unruh said the growing pains the adult-use market is feeling currently will eventually dissipate.
“It’s not unusual at the advent of a transition from a state’s medical framework to a broader, larger adult use framework for there to be a lot of that consternation that you talk about because so many people have these pieces of paper but nothing behind them,” said Unruh. “It’s only when these various groups of licensees begin to engage with one another and create positive trading relationships that alignment comes, and an eco-system is built.”
Some think it will hurt justice-involved marijuana ops. Read More
