New York’s authorized hashish business hit a brand new excessive this week — with greater than 100 licensed pot retailers now open throughout the Empire State, officers mentioned Thursday.
Of the 103 marijuana sellers in enterprise, 44 are positioned in New York Metropolis.
Nineteen different licensed weed operators will open shortly and 35 different retail licenses had been permitted by the state Hashish Management Board Thursday.
“We haven’t even tipped the iceberg but,” CCB chairwoman Tremaine Wright mentioned throughout Thursday’s public assembly.
Authorized marijuana gross sales from hashish retailers jumped 32% for the primary three months of 2024, to $85 million from $62 million over the last quarter of 2023, reported John Kagan, the state Workplace of Hashish Administration’s coverage director.
The variety of hashish shops opening has dramatically picked up up to now few months. However state regulators admitted that the big illicit weed market continues to be an enormous drawback and hoped Gov. Kathy Hochul and Albany approve a harder regulation as a part of subsequent 12 months’s finances to make it simpler to close down unlicensed retailers.
Marijuana customers nonetheless have “hundreds of choices within the state” due to the large black market of illicit shops, mentioned CCB member Jennifer Gilbert Jenkins.
“Now we have all these unlawful shops that should be closed,” she mentioned.
A key negotiator for the state Senate mentioned Thursday a harder padlock regulation will likely be a part of an eventual accord on the finances, which was due April 1.
There will likely be a “massive increase in enforcement” with “unlawful store closing choices,” Senate Finance Committee Chairwoman Liz Krueger (D-Manhattan) informed The Submit.
The state regulation legalizing marijuana was permitted in March 2021 — however the rollout had been hampered by political and bureaucratic hurdles and lawsuits.
There was a delay in appointing members to the CCB and hiring of workers when former Gov. Andrew Cuomo resigned amid a sexual misconduct scandal and was changed by Gov. Kathy Hochul.
The primary hashish store opened in December 2022 however lawsuits, a backlog of functions for licensing of dispensaries, difficulties with financing and the failure to cease the unchecked development of unlawful retailers slowed development.
Farmers had been left within the lurch, with a whole bunch of kilos of flowered marijuana they’d nobody to promote to.
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