Cannabis industry leaders, lobbyists and advocates are expected to flock to lawmakers in hopes of influencing legislation based on Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s pot proposal.
Some key issues outlined by Cuomo in his state of the state speech include protecting minors under 21, improving drugged driving enforcement and limiting major cannabis companies control of the industry. Others involve plans for spending cannabis taxes and reducing public-health risks.
What follows is an overview of the legislative debates to watch during the coming weeks and months:
Marijuana biz big and small
Cuomo vowed to empower poor communities hit hardest by decades of racially biased marijuana policing by creating cannabis business opportunities for them. His plan to achieve that appears focused on banning marijuana growers from owning pot retail shops.
Yet cannabis industry players in New York and across the country are expected to push back.
Some have invested millions of dollars in medical marijuana growing operations and dispensaries awaiting the addition of recreational pot.
For example, Citiva Medical plans to open a Dutchess County medical marijuana dispensary this year. It is affiliated with the pot conglomerate, iAnthus Capital, which has medical and recreational retail operations in Colorado, Massachusetts and other states.
Citiva is building a 39,500-square-foot medical marijuana grow operation in Orange County, and is poised to add recreational weed, if legalized. The company has also already spent more than $160,000 lobbying marijuana issues in New York.
The New York Medical Cannabis Industry Association, a trade group representing many existing companies, further urged Cuomo to allow for co-located dispensaries selling medical and recreational marijuana.
They pointed to the dispensary models used in other states, such as those recently opened in Massachusetts, and described co-location as crucial to keeping medical marijuana businesses open.
“We are hopeful the adult-use legislation allows the existing medical providers to participate fully, as that is the only way to keep prices low enough to ensure patients continue to receive the care they need and to protect against an illicit market,” the group said.
Further, the cannabis industry has built a myriad of affiliations and loose partnerships across the country. Many of the medical marijuana companies in New York have already changed names and ownership stakes since opening in 2016.
That dark world of cannabis money could make it difficult for regulators trying to keep corporate influence out of pot retail shops in New York.
The other sparse details released in Cuomo’s budget for promoting small marijuana businesses included incubators, training and loan programs. Efforts to encourage craft growers and cooperatives were also mentioned.
There will also be an undetermined cap on the number of producers and dispensaries to guard against a market collapse, the budget documents show.
These would all be part of Cuomo’s push to “ensure meaningful and sustained participation by communities disproportionately harmed by cannabis prohibition.”
Pot rules and regulation
Creating a new Office of Cannabis Management is a big part of Cuomo’s plan, despite the lack of details on how it would operate.
The cannabis office would take over regulation of medical marijuana in addition to the newly added recreational businesses under the plan.
The Department of Health currently oversees medical cannabis and has drawn criticism for limiting access to the drug for seriously ill patients during the program’s early years. The agency has since loosened restrictions and boosted participation by medical professionals and patients.
One key unknown is how the new office would control a legal weed marketplace threatened by illicit trade.
For example, medical marijuana regulators in New York and across the country have struggled to track cannabis oils, including as part of a high-profile criminal case that raised questions about interstate smuggling and technology used to monitor the industry.
Cuomo’s plan also seems to prohibit New Yorkers from growing their own marijuana, but enforcement could prove difficult as local prosecutors increasingly shift away from pursuing charges against marijuana possession.
Public health and safety
Marijuana opponents fear legal weed will follow the big tobacco playbook of addictive chemicals and marketing to youth, but Cuomo pledged to protect minors and vulnerable New Yorkers.
His plan mentions limiting excessive commercialization of THC products, the active psychoactive ingredient.
While unclear, cannabis product restrictions would address some concerns about highly-potent marijuana candies and edibles targeting young people. It will likely join similar efforts to curb flavored e-cigarettes behind a youth vaping epidemic.
There would also be public education and outreach in partnership with the state Office of Alcoholism and Substance Abuse Services and Office of Mental Health to limit the harm of legal pot on vulnerable populations, Cuomo’s plan said.
His plans for drugged driving enforcement include increasing the number of police specially trained in detecting high drivers, known as drug recognition experts.
There would also be an undetermined amount of money used for boosting research on roadside testing for impairment, such as the marijuana breathalyzers being developed.
Other issues likely to be part of the upcoming debate include rules for limiting secondhand marijuana smoke harm in public places and housing.
Marijuana taxes
Much of the money for Cuomo’s plans appears to be based on the roughly $300 million in projected tax revenues from legalizing adult-use marijuana.
Cuomo’s legislation, called the Cannabis Regulation and Taxation Act, would impose three taxes on the industry.
The first tax is imposed on the cultivation of cannabis at the rate of $1 per dry weight gram of cannabis flower and $0.25 per dry weight gram of cannabis trim.
The second tax is imposed on the sale by a wholesaler to a retail dispensary at the rate of 20 percent of the invoice price.
The third tax is imposed on the same sale by a wholesaler to a retail dispensary at the rate of 2 percent of the invoice price, but collected in trust for and on account of the county in which the retail dispensary is located.
Marijuana companies are already saying the restrictions on retail ownership could harm pricing, so the debate is sure to include concerns high taxes would trickle down to small businesses and consumers, driving some to the black market.