NY Cannabis Insider Legal Weed Week for March 10, 2023

The past week has been a busy one at NY Cannabis Insider, so let’s dive in and take a look at the stories we’ve covered:

Editor/publisher Brad Racino on Thursday published an important article about the MSO-led coalition that filed a lawsuit against the New York Office of Cannabis Management. The group, which includes some New York medical cannabis companies, is asking a judge to order state regulators to immediately open licenses to all retail dispensary applicants.

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I spoke with several legal experts in the New York cannabis market to find out what they think of this lawsuit and what the implications could be for the legal marijuana industry in the state. The lawyers I spoke to were hardly surprised that the lawsuit was filed, saying that some of the plaintiffs’ arguments were predictable.

Earlier this week, we published an article about the advertising regulations recently adopted by the Cannabis Control Board that prohibit marijuana growing companies from advertising on billboards. Industry advocates I spoke with said it was unfair to ban weed companies from using the same marketing methods as other legal sectors, namely alcohol, and therefore stigmatize marijuana businesses.

NY Cannabis Insider is working with Syracuse University students on a series of stories about cannabis education programs across the state. SU journalist Sydney Mayfield Pollack wrote about the SUNY Orange program, which teaches students the skills needed, from growing to selling, for a career in cannabis.

Wayne Margulis of HUB International gave a guest column in which he told a cautionary (fictitious) story about three conditional license farmers and what happened when they decided to delay getting insurance.

As part of our efforts to track the progress of conditional license holders in reopening their business, I spoke with Linsay Villarreal, Vice President of Operations for FlowerHouse New York, a Walden-based company licensed for adult conditional cultivation and currently has products available in adult dispensaries in the state. Villarreal answered questions about how the company was doing in the early days of the legal adult use market in the Empire State, and how it thinks regulators oversee it.

Continuing our “People to Know at NY Cannabis” series, last week we introduced Nicholas Agrippino, VP of Finance at Cirona Labs. We also featured Shakuanna “Shay” Thomas in our Women in Cannabis series.

Thanks for reading everyone, we’ll be back with more next week!