Happy weekend everyone. We at NY Cannabis Insider have been covering some important developments in New York’s legal weed industry, and considering the less than ideal weather, why not spend some time indoors checking out the stories we covered.
Let’s recap:
New York’s Cannabis Control Board unanimously voted to approve a settlement agreement, which will lift an injunction currently preventing hundreds of Conditional Adult-Use Retail Dispensaries from opening – if NY State Supreme Court Judge Kevin Bryant approves the motion.
The injunction came as part of a lawsuit brought against the state by four service-disabled veterans who intend to apply for dispensary licenses. The veterans were later joined by the Coalition for Access to Regulated & Safe Cannabis – a group representing some of New York’s medical cannabis companies that is also suing the CCB in a separate case, and has also entered into a proposed settlement agreement with state regulators.
We also ran a story about details of the proposed settlements in the two lawsuits, which – if approved – will award retail licenses and site protection to the plaintiffs.
It will also mark the second and third time the state has resolved challenges to the constitutionality of its CAURD program by issuing licenses (Variscite NY One filed suit in September of 2022 and the CCB later settled and granted the company a retail license).
Colin Decker, owner and founder of 7 SEAZ – New York’s first legacy-to-legal adult-use cannabis brand – contributed a guest column, which takes New York cannabis regulators to task for restrictions they’ve put on marketing for weed companies.
“Many have questioned why the now legal cannabis market is so excessively over regulated from a marketing standpoint and almost demonized in its existence by those who have written the rules,” Decker wrote.
NY Cannabis Insider held its final live event of 2023 in White Plains on Nov. 16, and we ran a story recapping the extensive weed industry content featured at the all-day conference.
Held at the Sonesta White Plains Downtown, the event featured panel discussions about the state of New York’s legal cannabis industry in addition to 10 breakout sessions in which experts ran basic and advanced clinics on topics including accounting, insurance, real estate and more.
We published a story looking into some medical cannabis companies and ancillary services operating in New York that are possibly violating state regulations by advertising discounted registration appointments to medical patients.
Cannabis telemedicine company Leafwell, in partnership with medical cannabis company Curaleaf – and possibly other medical operators in New York – have been emailing medical cannabis patients who have subscribed to mailing lists with offers of lower-cost telehealth certifications. Both companies said they only send these mailers to patients who actively opt in to their list.
Lastly, we added a new entry to our “People to know in NY cannabis” series: Niriksha Kannan, director of people & social impact at LeafLink, a wholesale cannabis marketplace.
Have a great weekend, we’ll have plenty more for you next week.