Viability of New York MMJ Timeline in Question

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Some stakeholders in New York are already voicing concerns about whether or not medical cannabis will be available for purchase in January, as required by state law.

A mother with a severely epileptic daughter told one NBC affiliate that there’s “no way” MMJ will be ready for sale in New York if the medicine has to be grown and manufactured in-state, given that one of the license winners has said that its manufacturing plant won’t be up and running until December.

The same mother is also worried that the licensees may not fully understand what type of medicine is really needed by patients, since the state only allows non-smokable MMJ.

She said that the co-founder of a licensed medical cannabis company she spoke to told her that medicine would be in the form of “sprays, sub-linguals (oil drops) and a vaporizer,” but that what she needs are concentrated oils or capsules for her seizure-stricken child.

The state recently awarded tentative licenses to five companies to grow, process and sell medical cannabis. But under the law they have six months from the date of issue, which was July 31, to get MMJ ready for sale. That puts the deadline at the end of January.

While some of the five companies have been forthcoming with statements about their company status, others have been much quieter about where they stand and whether they’re confident they’ll be able to meet the six-month deadline.