https://www.benzinga.com/markets/cannabis/21/07/22112492/advocacy-coalit...

New York Cannabis United is calling on both the Cuomo Administration and New York State Legislators to uphold the promises made in the new law by swiftly appointing leadership to the Cannabis Control Board.

By Imani A. Dawson

Senator Jeremy Cooney of New York introduced a bill on July 20 that would build upon the state’s recreational cannabis law with a focus on getting cultivation up and running.

Several new doors are being opened in New York State due to the legalization of recreational marijuana. You can now take your stash with you when you travel on an airplane.

The St. Regis Mohawk Tribe is poised to open the first adult-use cannabis shop in New York State, beating out the non-tribal retailers by up to a year…or more.

The tribe, located in northern New York along the U.S.-Canada border, adopted its own ordinance regarding legal marijuana last month, following New York state’s April 1 legalization.

How and why

Their ordinance went further than the state’s law, created under the Marijuana Regulation and Taxation Act (MRTA), by setting up rules for growing and processing cannabis, licensing retail shops and declaring that everything, from seed to sale, must take place on tribal territory.

The big uncertainty was whether New York’s local jurisdictions would embrace the cannabis industry. Riverhead voting against opting out is a very positive development.

As we continue to wait for Governor Andrew Cuomo to nominate a Chairperson for the Cannabis Control Board (CCB), effectively kickstarting the rule making process, a surprising and welcome piece of news came down. On July 7, 2021, the Town of Riverhead voted not to opt out of allowing retail dispensaries and on-site consumption locations in Riverhead.

While New York State is moving in a direction that has appeared to support the marijuana industry, the federal government has been giving mixed messages.

Clarence Thomas, one of the Supreme Court’s most conservative justices, has called the federal government’s stance “half in half out” and that their approach to regulating marijuana is no longer working.

While it remains illegal federally to possess marijuana, thirty six states have currently created medical marijuana laws and eighteen states allow it to be used recreationally.

Lawrence Levy, a Hofstra University professor, says comments like Thomas’s could greatly influence that small conservative communities in New York State.

As goes New York goes, so goes the world.

A few months ago, Governor Andrew Cuomo signed New York's Senate Bill S854A, the Marijuana Regulation and Taxation Act (MRTA), legalizing adult-use cannabis in New York. Despite having just passed, the MRTA has already positioned New York at the center of the legal cannabis movement. 

Cannabis-laced snacks that mimic popular brand names — including “Trips Ahoy!” and “Double Stuf STONEO” — are being hawked to kids and should be banned by the state Health Department, Nassau County elected officials said at a press conference Wednesday.

The products, which are currently legal under the state’s medicinal marijuana program, contain delta-8 THC and were being sold as of Wednesday at a store in Long Beach, said State Sen. Todd Kaminsky, D-Long Island.

“It is also being marketed aggressively to kids,” Kaminsky tweeted.

The actual nomination of a Cannabis Control Board chairperson is the first tangible step towards a functioning cannabis industry in NY.

In all of the excitement over New York’s passage of the Marijuana Regulation and Taxation Act (MRTA), one of the things that often gets lost is that legalization was just the first step towards the issuance of adult-use cannabis licenses. The single most important administrative action item is the formation of the primary regulatory governing body, the Cannabis Control Board (CCB).