Happy weekend, everyone!
We’ve had a busy couple of weeks covering legislative, regulatory and business stories in New York’s cannabis industry. Let’s take a look at what we wrote about.
Reporter Mel Hyman contributed a story about the first cannabis dispensary set to open in Woodstock stymied by distance requirements. Currently, there are no dispensaries in the town, and the one applicant with a recently approved license is unable to open because of a battle brewing between the town and the state Office of Cannabis Management over distance requirements to a house of worship.
Woodstock Supervisor Bill McKenna made no bones about where he stands on the matter, Hyman wrote. “It’s horrible. It’s terrible,” the way OCM has “violated” its own distance regulations by approving a cannabis store site application within 200 feet of a church, McKenna said.
We checked in with Paul Lepore, the president of Long Island dispensary Happy Days, to see how business has been going at the shop since it opened its doors on Jan. 2.
In its first few months of business, the store has been attracting a customer base that’s older than some Happy Days partners initially expected, Lepore said. The shop’s customers mostly consist of people over the age of 55.
In a story about how cannabis rescheduling may affect employer drug-testing policies, we spoke with three New York attorneys whose practice areas include cannabis and/or employment – and other labor experts – about their thoughts on the matter.
Among the attorneys, union officials and labor law experts who spoke with NY Cannabis Insider about the issue, some say rescheduling will make it virtually impossible to discipline medical patients for positive THC tests, while others say legal technicalities will maintain the status quo.
Matthew Krupp, the co-founder of Canterra – Western New York’s first cannabis e-commerce platform and delivery service – contributed a guest column which argues that a lack of guidance and communication by the OCM is threatening cannabis delivery operators.
“I’ve struggled against numerous obstacles, the most pressing being the impending expiration of our Temporary Delivery Operator (TDO) license, which the state has repeatedly denied extending,” Krupp wrote.
We added a new entry to our “People to know in NY cannabis” series: Nicole N’diaye, the CEO of hemp cultivation company NAHE LLC and founder of hemp brand Bossiee Budz.
Lastly, we posted a new edition of attorney Jeffrey Hoffman’s Ask Me Anything segment, in which Hoffman answers questions about the application review process, the most recent state legislative session and more.
Have a great weekend everyone, we’ll be back with plenty more next week.