New licenses approved across NYS for sale of recreational cannabis
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ROCHESTER, N.Y. — Recreational cannabis is expanding in New York State.
The Office of Cannabis Management approved 212 new licenses across the state Wednesday — including nine here in the Finger Lakes Region.
This means we now have a total of 16 licensed dispensaries in our region. Those licenses are conditional adult-use retail dispensary licenses. They’re given to dispensary owners — the sellers.
The 212 licenses are a huge help for the hundreds of sellers with stores ready and waiting for cannabis products.
Now the growers, up until this meeting, were stuck waiting for dispensary owners to get licenses. But the board just launched a new program for those cannabis farmers and processors, too.
It’s called the Cannabis Growers’ Showcase. It marks the first time cannabis will be sold legally outside the walls of a dispensary.
New York cannabis farmers can now get together and partner with a licensed seller to hold pop-up showcases. They must have a minimum of three cultivators — that’s the grower — and at least one licensed dispensary.
Office of Cannabis Management Director of Policy John Kaiga explained the proposal during the meeting. He highlighted how it will especially benefit consumers.
“It will give a chance for the consumers to meet the producers who are manufacturing the cannabis products and growing the cannabis that they are consuming,” Kaiga said. “Which is, we view, a critical part of the development of this market.”
There are, of course, lots of hoops to jump through to get a cannabis growers showcase going. First, they need approval from the municipality. This means that towns like Pittsford and Webster — which have opted out of retail dispensaries — won’t be seeing these pop-ups, either.
Click here to see the Office of Cannabis Management’s full list of municipalities that have opted out.
The board also talked about their crackdown on unlicensed businesses.
So far, the Office of Cannabis Management says they have inspected 53 unlicensed businesses.