On Thursday, New York regulators doubled the number of available marijuana retail licenses for adult-use cannabis social equity applicants to 300. According to news outlet CNYCentral, recreational marijuana retail licenses will increase proportionally in each state’s dedicated region and will be awarded from the existing pool of Conditional Adult-Use Retail Dispensary (CAURD) applicants– New York’s spin on efforts for social equity.
The news comes as a relative shock to the pro-marijuana community, especially in light of New York’s snail’s pace disbursal of the initial 66 licenses. From this, we can only deduce that the administrative backlog will only become much more difficult to deal with. Read more to find out what the news entails for licensees and potential licensees in New York’s feat for adult-use marijuana sales moving forward.
Trickling In Or Just A Slow Uptake?
In October of last year, Beard Bros reported that New York received some 900 applications for adult-use marijuana retail licenses. There has been a ridiculously delayed rollout by the New York Cannabis Control Board of the first phase of 66 provisional licenses, with only four currently open to the public. Considering this, it doesn’t seem very feasible to increase this amount to 300, when they face a tremendous backlog already.
However, according to CAURD applicant and co-founder of marijuana lifestyle brand Happy Munkey, Vladimir Bautista, the announcement was well-received, and one he touted was a step in the right direction. On the contrary, the announcement is far short of market expectations as projected by regulators and the state’s representatives in the run-up to the December 29 launch of adult-use sales.
The stop-start rollout has faced numerous challenges. It has since been plagued by lawsuits, funding challenges by both applicants and licensees, and shortfalls from state-funded property and lease assistance programs for retailers together and with the flourishing illicit market in the background.
Adult-use retail licensees are also at odds with a gross lack of funding by the Dormitory Authority of the State of New York (DASNY), which would otherwise be responsible for availing and financing the infrastructure for up-and-coming retail outlets as they obtain their marijuana retail license.
Further obstacles to take off for adult-use marijuana sales and retailers remains, such as the licensing requirement that outlets remain a minimum of 1,000ft apart. This means there will barely be a substantial enough physical distance between retail outlets in Manhattan, potentially oversaturating the region and the adult-use market.
A Thriving Marijuana Black Market
The thriving illicit marijuana market throughout the US seems to deal a continuous blow to efforts for fairer regulation. And even in the face of the state’s projected $1 billion market potentially coming to fruition and teeming with hundreds of licensed retailers, these will still have to compete fiercely against hundreds more that operate illegally across New York City– an illness that has gone widely unchecked for years.
It is reported that the deluge of remaining CAURD licenses in eligible regions will be considered at an upcoming April board meeting.
While the logic behind New York’s push for licensing poses a big question mark given the current trajectory, there’s no doubt that an efficiency-challenged New York Cannabis Control Board has its work cut out for time to come. And as hundreds of hopeful would-be licensees await their fate, licensing the now-300 applicants will be a great feat– one we’ll definitely be keeping an eye on.
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