The Future of Cannabis

Whenever someone asks me about how the cannabis world is going, it is hard to give a one-liner. The complexity, including the constant change, can be overwhelming, depending on the day. In NY State, the license roll-out has been slow. Many CAURD licensees are selling their licenses to others backed up with legal paperwork, those who have been given proximity protection do not have the proper paperwork needed, and no diligence is being done on the reality of each of these properties; zero money has flowed into CAURD licenses and never will.

The OCM’s (Office of Cannabis Management) desire to do good has been short-sighted and unrealistic. Most licensees are not paying their farmer bills, so the Government announced $125m to help the farmers stay afloat. In California, the licensees are not paying the farmers either.

I know that we have tried to do the right thing at Gotham. We pay our employees more than the hourly wage and give them full health care without paying into the system. We give them four weeks of vacation as a budtender. We promote from within and are going to give personal finance training. That is how we create a burgeoning industry.

Where will all this go? My gut is a decade from now, this is how it will all play out. The other major thing, unfortunately, is that most of the licenses given out today will either never open or will find themselves having to close owing money to farms and the taxman.