On May 4, 2023, the New York Office of Cannabis Management (OCM) formally announced a Cannabis Control Board (CCB) on May 11, 2023. Why is this such a big deal? Well, as we wrote about here, OCM’s Chief of Staff and Senior Policy Director Axel Bernabe provided this response to a question by Green Market Report’s John Schroyer about the timeframe for the final adult-use cannabis rules and regulations:
“What’s the timeframe for when New York industry regulations will be finalized and done?”
“The regulations that we filed for public comment, we’re really trying to get them done by our May 11 board meeting. If we get it done by then, we should be able to file final regs by the end of August. Then we can start opening the general application period within a couple months of that.”
Where does this leave us?
Based on Mr. Bernabe’s comments, we are hopeful that the upcoming CCB meeting will come with the release of the revised adult-use rules and regulations after the initial 60 day public comment period that ended in February of 2023. We should know for sure in the day or so before the May 11 meeting, as the OCM generally publishes a meeting agenda leading up to the meeting itself. In fact, there is a good chance the revised rules and regulations will be released a few days in advance, as was the case when the initial adult-use rules and regulations were released in the days leading up to the November 21, 2022 CCB meeting.
Where to go for New York cannabis updates
Anyone who is interested in applying for an adult-use cannabis license should check the OCM’s website (and the Canna Law Blog) as we get closer to the May 11 meeting, and should strongly consider watching the meeting itself (which is live streamed). Stay tuned!
