At a meeting earlier this month, the Cannabis Association of New York announced Damien Cornwell will serve as the organization’s new president.
Cornwell, who has served on CANY’s board, owns and operates CAURD dispensary Just Breathe in Binghamton, and previously owned a restaurant and radio station. He takes the reins at CANY during a time of transition for New York’s cannabis market, as the Office of Cannabis Management prepares to start issuing general licenses for all areas of the state’s legal marijuana supply chain.
In an interview with NY Cannabis Insider, Cornwell discussed current events in New York’s cannabis market, CANY’s plans for 2024 and his plans to shift CANY’s focus and serve as a weed industry Chamber of Commerce.
This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
As CANY’s new president, what are your top priorities for 2024?
One of the things that are important to me is to kind of restructure the way CANY works. By that, I mean, I think that it’s important going forward, that we can be more like a Chamber of Commerce for the industry. I think that’s important, because when CANY started in its infancy, it was built around some of the things needed to get the legal hemp market going, and then to get the supply chain going with Adult-Use Conditional Cultivators and Adult-Use Conditional Processors.
I often equate CANY to the life of a child; in the beginning it was an infant, but now it’s an adolescent. So we’re seeing the market explode with different services, and there’s a lot of money in the state. We’re looking at about 700 licensees that may come in soon, and eventually there’ll be 1,500, or maybe even more. So going forward, if we don’t change our focus, we’re going to have an ecosystem within CANY, where there’s too many winners and losers. Whereas if we can focus on the market and industry as a whole, and just have pro-growth strategies, I think we can make it a win-win scenario for everyone involved.
Can you talk a little bit about your professional experience both inside and outside of the cannabis industry?
Most of my business acumen I got from my days working at United Parcel Service – as a driver and in corporate. At one point, I was a driver who became an engineer and wrote business plans for divisions. So my background is really in logistics and transportation. From a structural perspective, managing an operation and how operations work is really significant and quite important to me.
Looking at cannabis, it’s really no different. One of the things I find, when I look at this industry from 1000 feet above, is that we lack alignment. There are many, many people in this industry that want the same things. However, I find that we are always fighting and never on-message to get the proper regulation and legislation passed, and it’s almost like our biggest detractors and enemies come within. This is why I’m proposing that CANY turn into a Chamber of Commerce for the industry, where we find a great way to create two-way communication with industry, our members in the grassroots and then turn that into an agenda.
I’m also director of operations for the Broome County Urban League. At one time, I owned a bar/restaurant, and I also had a radio station and a multimedia facility in New York.
You mentioned the idea of shifting CANY’s focus to be more like a traditional business lobby – similar to the Chamber of Commerce. With that approach, what do you think CANY should do more of, and what should the organization do less of?
I think one of the biggest things we need to do is make sure that we have a solid structure in place to ensure two-way communications with industry leaders, and our own constituency. So we’re going to create an advisory council, with representation from actors all over the entire ecosystem. The idea would be to have that advisory council hear the concerns that come into CANY, and then spit out ideas to our committees that then can create the plans that determine what we drive for our legislative and regulatory agenda.
In the past, when we listen to members, people have felt like lots of decisions have been made in CANY at the executive level, or the board level – and they haven’t always felt validated, or that their concerns were baked in the cake.
That fostered resentment … nothing is worse than not feeling validated and feeling unheard. CANY’s value doesn’t come from its leadership, CANY’s value comes from its members. It’s a melting pot of the brightest minds this industry has to offer, and they’re right here within this organization. So the way I see it is, if we can refocus our agenda and our efforts around those minds, and those concerns that people see every day in their lives, then I think we’ll be able to make significant change. This is very important. We’ll also be better partners for OCM as well as our electeds in the state because we would have a pulse on the industry and really be a common sense partner to help drive legislation and regulatory compliance in a way that works for everyone.
The Cannabis Control Board and OCM were ready to sunset the Cannabis Growers Showcase events, but have recently said they’ll continue the program. What are your thoughts on these events, and do you think this is something CANY will have to advocate for in 2024?
We’ve always been a proponent of the Growers Showcases, we’ve always thought they were necessary, especially if they were located within a cannabis desert. We also thought they were a decent stopgap measure to help our partners on the supply side.
At the same time, we also know that at times, there have been some regulatory issues and bad actors within the arena. I’ve said that a few bad apples shouldn’t spoil the bunch. Moving forward, we were huge advocates of extending the CGS and at least letting them sunset while new stores came online in those areas. In other words, if you had an extension, leave those CGS’ in place, and then shut them off when the retail floor for the area comes up, and then that way, people could still pay their bills and maintain their farms, etc.
Enforcement on illicit operators is another important issue in New York Cannabis. How should the state go about enforcement in a way that doesn’t return New York to the War on Drugs era policies that have been damaging to many communities?
This is a really touchy issue, but to me, it’s clear that you have to have the rule of law. As it is with anything else in the world, you need clear lines that illustrate what the guidance and what the penalties are. Otherwise you end up in this Lord of the Flies situation.
You’re going to get a situation where you’re going to have selective enforcement, because really the people that will hurt the most are the ones with the smallest pocketbooks, because people will push the envelope and have more risk tolerance because they’re making more money. Then unfortunately, other actors in the arena that don’t have as much money that are trying to get the stores off the ground, will be too scared to push the envelope, because they can’t afford the penalty.
Personally, and as somebody representing CANY, I always advocate for just a clearer picture on exactly what the rules are, and what standards of accountability are going to be in place. Moving forward, you have to develop clear lines of accountability. Otherwise, you really are endangering the health of every stakeholder in the market, and it’s really a huge giveaway to the illicit market, which is really unfair for those that are following the rules.
This time next year, what do you think New York’s legal cannabis market will look like in a best-case scenario and a worst-case scenario?
Best case scenario is that it’s balanced: there’s lots of stores running and everything’s even and places running smoothly. Worst case scenario: we don’t have balance, and we either have a massive dismantling of the market by a race to the bottom by illicit operators and medical cannabis Registered Operators.