New Guidelines Released For New York’s First Retail Weed Dispensaries
New York’s Office of Cannabis Management published new guidelines for the state’s first cannabis retail license holders, clearing a significant hurdle toward weed sales later this year.
A 27-page document reviewed by NY Cannabis Insider outlines OCM’s rules for conditional adult-use retail dispensaries.
It comes about two months before New York’s self-imposed deadline to open its first adult-use dispensaries at the end of the year. The guidelines cover everything from recordkeeping requirements to staff training requirements.
Before the market can open fully, OCM must publish regulations governing the industry, and estimates of when these will be released have been pushed back time and again.
Consequently, some in the cannabis industry and around it in NY have questioned the likelihood of meeting the deadline by the end of the year.
Kaelan Castetter, managing director of consulting company Castetter Cannabis Group, said shortly after reviewing the rules late Friday afternoon that the paper OCM produced seemed mainly decent and very typical; nevertheless, he believes one item might pose severe concerns.
Retail dispensaries’ true parties of interest, passive investors and service providers cannot have interests in any businesses that cultivate, process or distribute cannabis, in New York or elsewhere. NY effectively prohibits vertically integrated multistate cannabis retailers.
According to Castetter: “I see what they’re trying to do, but it’s a very protectionist approach. What it basically says is: if you are in business in any other state – unless you only own a dispensary in another state – you can’t be part, in any way shape or form, a retailer here … it’s very anti-MSO.”
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