New York Medical Marijuana News
New York state regulators on Wednesday awarded another 30 licenses to operate recreational marijuana stores, though a pending lawsuit is still blocking adult-use retail in key locations across the state.
As many as 1,400 unlicensed stores are selling marijuana products in New York City, the result of a “rapid and unchecked expansion” of an illicit market that jeopardizes the state’s slowly evolving adult-use market.
New York-based marijuana multistate operator Columbia Care is laying off 25% of its corporate headcount as part of a larger effort to slash costs, reduce cash burn and improve performance.
A second licensed adult-use cannabis retailer is set to open in New York.
Canada-based cannabis and alcohol company Tilray Brands reported a second-quarter net loss of $61.6 million ($82.4 million Canadian dollars) on net revenue of $144.1 million.
Opportunities in the U.S. cannabis industry continue to expand, despite some notable setbacks in the November 2022 elections and continuing resistance at the federal level to marijuana reform.
It fell to Chris Alexander, the executive director of New York’s Office of Cannabis Management, to personally usher in the era of legal adult-use marijuana sales in the state on Dec. 29.
But it will take more than Alexander – and more than the $95 cash he paid for an eighth of an ounce of New York-grown cannabis and a 100-milligram package of watermelon-flavored THC gummies – for New York’s legal market to fulfill its lofty social justice promises and its multibillion-dollar potential.
