It's official: New York's first cannabis dispensaries will be owned by social equity applicants who have prior cannabis-related convictions.
During Thursday's meeting, the Cannabis Control Board ("CCB") voted to adopt final regulations for the (CAURD) licenses. The Board also signed off on a mockup of the application, which can be found here. In order to qualify for a CAURD license, applicants must prove they are justice-involved (meaning they or a direct family member were convicted of a marijuana crime before March 31, 2021) and that they have at least two years experience owning a profitable business, in addition to other numerous requirements. While the regulations were passed with little to no changes from the proposed regulations, notably, the definition of a qualifying "justice-involved" individual is also being expanded to include people who were arrested for marijuana but convicted for a lesser offense.
The CCB also approved another 20 conditional adult-use cultivator licenses, bringing the total number of licensed cultivators to 223.
During the meeting, the CCB also approved revised regulations for the medical cannabis program, which include, among other changes:
- Streamlining patient registration to allow for auto-registration
- Revised packaging, labeling, marketing, and advertising requirements to more closely align with rules for the adult-use program
- Removing prior written approval requirements for new medical cannabis products; and
- Revised pharmacist supervision requirements to be-in person.
The filing of the revised medical program regulations triggers a new 45 day public comment period that begins on August 3rd, which is the first opportunity for the regulations to appear in the state register.
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