Upstate New York.
Up until yesterday, parts of Upstate/Western New York were blocked from participating in cannabis sales. A federal judge lifted the injunction that had been blocking the state from issuing licenses to open legal cannabis stores. We probably won't see any stores open up in this region for several months, but now all of New York has access to adult use cannabis. "For the first time, New Yorkers in nearly every region of the state will have access to safer, high-quality, adult-use cannabis products," Gov. Kathy Hochul said in a statement. "I am committed to ensuring New York continues to lead the nation in our safe and equitable approach to the cannabis market." The rollout of adult-use cannabis in New York has been an absolute joke, with a massive emergence of a black market due to the slow-moving licensing process.
New York Medical Market.
The medical cannabis market in New York has to battle with the new adult-use industry as well as the black market, which normally has higher-quality California flowers to sell. It is reported that Acreage Holding has started to lay off employees in New York, and PharmaCann has also acknowledged that they expect layoffs this year. "Our company has been investing between $1 and $2 million into New York each month for eight years," said Jeremy Unruh, PharmaCann's senior VP of public and regulatory affairs. "And we're now at a place after two years since the MRTA was passed where we have a decaying population of medical patients - we just can't do that anymore." New York legalization used to be the biggest tailwind that the street would talk about, and now that it is here, no one is saying it is a meaningful tailwind for the industry.
MCR Labs Letter to the CCC
Last week, MCR Labs underwent an unannounced inspection from eight Massachusetts cannabis control commission agents. MCR alleges in a letter to the CCC that MCR staff were physically assaulted by CCC employees and that CCC staff handled samples without gloves. A quote from one MCR employee states that "I have been in the environmental chemistry industry for 6 years before coming to a cannabis lab, and this was not conducted like any audit I have ever been through. I have been audited by multiple federal agencies, and I have never experienced something so unprofessional in my lab career". This is a very tough look for the state of Massachusetts and hopefully something they can fix in the coming months.
