NY Cannabis Insider's week in legal weed for May 6, 2022

The lineup has been announced for NY Cannabis Insider’s full-day conference in Albany on May 20th! The event features industry thought leaders, panel discussions, lightning-round consultations, networking opportunities, lunch, a happy hour and vendor fair. Get your tickets here.

Yesterday’s Cannabis Control Board meeting saw another round of growers awarded conditional licenses, bringing the total number of New York farms allowed to cultivate marijuana to 88.

OCM’s Chris Alexander said during the short meeting that the agency has received about 200 applications, and will soon submit more for board approval.

“There are stringent background, compliance checks going on currently,” Alexander said. “I think that we have another 100 or so that could be coming along the pipeline quickly.”

We’re maintaining a running list of these growers, which you can find in our latest story.?

In other news you may have missed this week, dispensary pharmacist Geoff Brown argued in a guest article for NY Cannabis Insider that the OCM’s proposed regulations around medical marijuana put profits first, patients second. The story sparked an interesting discussion on Linkedin, including comments about how the role of pharmacists at dispensaries has played out in other states.

Freelance reporter Tom Wanamaker wrote this week about the obstacles to funding social equity cannabis businesses in NY. The story got into the critical role of banking and the current roadblocks that lie outside of Albany’s control, and included insights from Amber Littlejohn, executive director of the Minority Cannabis Business Association; Anthony Gaddy, president and CEO of the UpState New York Black Chamber of Commerce; and Henry Meier, general counsel for the New York Credit Union Association.?

Lastly, NY Cannabis Insider announced our full slate of panelists for our upcoming Albany conference on May 20 at the Crowne Plaza Hotel. They include:?

• Ngiste Abebe, VP of Public Policy at Columbia Care, President of NY Medical Cannabis Industry Association
• Geoffrey Brown, Medical Marijuana Pharmacist at MedMen and Publisher of CannaBuff
• Lee Buttolph, COO of Taproot Fields
• Brittany Carbone, Founder of Tonic
• Gareth Charter, Vice President of Sales and Marketing at Cannabis360
• Paula Collins, Founder and Attorney at Law Office of Paula Collins, LLC
• Erica Edwards, Founder and Accountant at The Number Grinder
• Meaghan Feenan, Attorney, Cannabis Industry Team Member at Harris Beach
• Wei Hu, Founder and Attorney at MRTA Law
• Charles Johnson, Co-Founder and CEO of LeafSpotz
• Allison Kirchhofer, Owner and CFO of Accounting by Design
• Katie Neer, General Counsel at Lantern, Of Counsel at Dicksinson & Avella
• Cecilia Oyediran, Associate at Foley Hoag
• Jonathan Purow, Attorney at Zuber Lawler and Host of the Cannabis Last Week Podcast
• Sarah Stenuf, Founder and CEO of Ananda Farms, Founder and Director of Veteran’s Ananda Inc.
• Tiffany Yarde, Co-founder of SHOKi

Tickets for the conference are available here.