Thumbs Up or Thumbs Down?

On August 4, 2022, The New York State Office of Cannabis Management (“OCM”) published 46 pages of comments that were collected during the statutory comment period leading up to approval of Part 116, CAURD Regulations. Included in the release of the comments were responses from OCM.

Of particular note is a dissonance between the response and an interview with OCM Executive Director Chris Alexander on July 15, 2022 with NY Cannabis Insider (See: The legacy-to-legal conversation: A Q&A with OCM’s Chris Alexander - newyorkupstate.com ) in which Alexander stated that “For the current CAURD opportunity…illicit operations won’t qualify…as those operations have not had to abide by regulations, which our licensees will.”

The term, “illicit operations” and the rejection thereof landed like a kick in the gut for those legacy business owners and their attorneys/accountants (like yours truly!) who had been carefully gathering documents in anticipation of applying for CAURD.

And yet in the responses published on August 4, 2022, OCM again gives hope: “The Board does not intend to bar legacy marihuana business operators from being eligible applicants. Applicants must be able to demonstrate they are eligible, including demonstrating the profitability of their qualified business.”

Are my legacy clients being given the thumbs up or the thumbs down? I suppose only time, and the completion of a CAURD application will tell.

I will be featuring other comments and responses in the coming days, all in anticipation of the CAURD application going live, which we expect to happen in mid-August. In the meantime, you can read the comments and responses here: part-116-apc_1.pdf (ny.gov) .