During New York Cannabis Regulators Meeting, Tensions Flare Over Long Licensing Queue

Just as Thursday’s Cannabis Control Board meeting got going, it was interrupted by an exasperated applicant awaiting license approval.

After Board Chair Tremaine Wright welcomed attendees and turned to the day’s agenda, which ranged from business license approvals to updates on sales and ongoing trade practice investigations, an audience member interjected.

“We have been patiently waiting for a year and a half,” she said, in reference to the application window that closed in December 2023. “People are losing money. People have invested everything. They are putting their lives on hold.”

Here, and during public comment at the end of the meeting, applicants in the queue promised lawsuits.

“We don’t want this slow-walked over the next three to five years. If that is the way you’re gonna do it, then our next public comments will be court,” the audience member said.

Wright resumed the meeting, and the first item on the agenda was adult use license approvals. The Board approved 93, bringing the total to 1,605. During the meeting, the Board also approved six CAURD renewals, and 46 license amendment requests and location changes.

Patrick McKeage, the chief operating officer for the Office of Cannabis Management, said that “there are still over 400 applications from the November queue that are still working through the review process.”

Wright asked McKeage for “an estimate on when we will be able to complete that review and move forward.”

McKeage said he would work on “a more accurate timeline,” but noted that OCM is approving 35 retail applications this week, and that this represents their average each month.

The Board also considered two “public convenience and advantage” requests, which, if approved, allows for a retail applicant to locate nearer to another retail location than the regulations typically allow (at least 1,000 ft in New York City, but farther for localities with smaller populations).

These requests have been controversial, as Cannabis Wire has reported, and the issue has repeatedly come up  at meetings this year. At a January CCB meeting, for example, speakers during public comment expressed concern about Curaleaf, one of the largest cannabis companies in the U.S., seeking to open close to an equity licensee.

In the case of the first request the Board considered on Thursday, however, from an applicant seeking to open in Forest Hills, the only nearby shop is owned by Curaleaf. While OCM recommended denying this applicant’s request, the Board approved it. The applicant also got support from Community Board 6.

“In my mind, I’m seeing more variety being offered to people in this community by having this additional store,” Wright said.

The Board tabled the second request, from an applicant seeking to open in Hudson, until their next meeting because they had outstanding questions about the location and traffic and did not want to deny the application prematurely. The mayor of Hudson supports this applicant’s request.

Next, John Kagia, the director of policy for OCM, provided a market update. To-date, New York shops have sold $1.46 billion worth of cannabis products. This year, they’ve sold $375.5 million, and the industry is on track to top $1.5 billion in 2025 alone.

Looking deeper, sales per store are down as more stores are opening, and prices are down for all product types except pre-rolls. Edible prices are down 14% from one year ago, for example, and vape prices are down 15%.

Kagia also spoke a bit about market control. Even though there are 513 cannabis brands in the state, the top 100 brands control 85% of the market. The top five brands alone control 21% of the market.

Finally, Kagia provided some insight into market share of Registered Organizations, or the state’s medical cannabis operators that were allowed to expand into adult use sales, a list that includes some of the biggest cannabis companies in the U.S. ROs are the only entities in the state that can control their legal products from seed to sale, while no other adult use license holder can hold both a cultivation and a retail license.

Today, the six ROs that have expanded into adult use sales control 10% of all sales in New York. Kagia said his team is looking into “how much of the Registered Organization biomass is being used to make adult use products,” and “how much of the wholesale flower that they’re selling is being used to make adult use brands,” in order to “better understand the total influence” of these entities.

Next, Taylor Randi Lee, the press secretary for OCM, provided an update on behalf of Felicia Reid, OCM’s acting executive director.

The Office, she said, has “concluded the search for a new Chief Equity Officer,” though they did not share her name. The Office received more than 400 applications, she said.

In January, Tabatha Robinson, then acting Chief Equity Officer, announced that she would leave to lead the Maryland Cannabis Administration. Robinson stepped in after Damian Fagon, the first CEO for OCM, resigned in September 2024. As Cannabis Wire reported at the time, Fagon left after an investigation into allegations of retaliation against a licensee cleared him of wrongdoing.

Later in the meeting, James Rogers, director of the Trade Practices Bureau, gave an update on the new entity’s investigations. Last month, as Cannabis Wire reported, the Bureau lifted the hood for the first time.

The first issue Rogers talked about was inversion, or the entry of unlicensed product, either from in-state or out-of-state, into the licensed market.

“We do have, not only a number of complaints about inversion, but we are in the middle of significant investigations into a number of inversion cases,” Rogers said. “We keep getting credible complaints regarding inversion and we will continue to do the work of investigating inversion and stopping it.”

Rogers moved on to what he called “market monopolization” and license “stacking,” and to the issue of non-equity players quietly making deals to take ownership or control of equity licenses.

“All our regulations are designed for a fair playing field. This is not a state where large actors are intended to own all of the market real estate. And so we are involved in a number of investigations right now where individuals and entities are attempting to own more than their share of what the regulation allows,” he said.

Finally, Rogers warned licensees to steer clear of any “pay-to-play” arrangement, such as bonuses for budtenders who push a particular brand, or allowing a brand to pay for shelf space.

At the end of the meeting, during more than an hour of public comment, speakers returned to the December queue topic more often than any other issue. Multiple speakers promised to sue, with one speaker calling it a “promise.”

Jeffrey Hoffman, a cannabis-focused lawyer, touched upon the queue, among other concerns, like proximity waivers.

“I do think it is imperative that we get more clarity and more openness about what is happening and what will happen with the December queue,” he said. “I really encourage the Board to make that available to everyone by the next meeting. This is something we’ve talked about for a long time. And you can see the anger and the concern in the room.”