A pioneer in the legalisation of medical marijuana sales in New York has called state authorities and Governor Kathy Hochul “un-American” for allegedly interfering with his and other enterprises of this kind.
The creator and CEO of Curaleaf, one of the first businesses to launch “seed to sale” cannabis outlets for medical patients in New York ten years ago, is Boris Jordan, a native of Long Island.
However, he claimed that Hochul and the state’s cannabis authorities had been determined to “destroy” his and similar companies in recent years by making it more difficult for them to obtain licenses to sell marijuana to healthy adult consumers as well, as is currently permitted by law.
“New York is directly targeting and hurting our business,” Jordan stated. “New York asked us to invest in the market, and now they’re trying to bring us down.”
“It’s very un-American, to be honest. It’s not the country I grew up in. They asked us to invest, and now they want to destroy us,” he stated.
When medical cannabis companies wish to convert one of their shopfronts for regular adult-use sales, they must pay the state money. Depending on a company’s revenue, this amount might reach a staggering $15 million for just three conversions.
Jordan, who owns five cannabis dispensaries in New York, including one in the city of Forest Hills, Queens, stated that six of the state’s ten original, certified medical marijuana businesses have chosen not to enter the mainstream adult use market due to the additional expenses.
He stated that illegal marijuana being imported from other states and winding up in licensed stores has also gone unchecked by state regulators.
The Empire State’s “seed to sale” law requires that all cannabis sold be grown and cultivated in New York.
However, some growers and vendors are evading the law by using less expensive cannabis and seeds from out of state, which makes it harder for legitimate cannabis businesses to compete on price, Jordan said.
“The state is not doing anything about it,” according to the businessman. “It’s an abomination.”
He claimed that in order to grant licenses to operators with marijuana convictions and other “social equity” applicants, Albany had turned on law-abiding cannabis pioneers.
“I’m not against competition. I’m against discriminatory competition,” Jordan stated.
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He stated of state officials, “They did everything to shut us out of the industry.”
However, if permitted to significantly expand into the adult use market, the social-equity pot licensees fear that big, well-funded multi-state companies like Curaleaf, which is present in over 12 other states and even some other countries, will eat up market share and force them out of business.
In 2016, New York began selling cannabis for medical use, including for individuals suffering from rheumatoid arthritis, Parkinson’s illness, multiple sclerosis, autism, cancer, and chronic pain.
Approved in 2021, New York’s law legalising the sale of marijuana for adult or recreational use went into effect in late 2022.
As the number of regular adult-use cannabis shops expanded, the number of patients prescribed cannabis for therapeutic purposes fell from 150,000 in 2021 to 95,000, causing the market to collapse.
From a peak of 38 medical cannabis dispensaries, there are currently only 32.
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In contrast, there are 380 authorised regular adult-use marijuana stores.
The companies that were first granted licenses under the medicinal cannabis program, known as the pioneers, have filed a lawsuit against the state for forcing them to pay millions of dollars to gain access to the adult market.
The Office of Cannabis Management, the state’s regulatory body, has stated that it is looking into licensed cannabis operators who may be using marijuana from outside the state, including marijuana that is used in vape pens.
Since last year, OCM’s 15-member trade practices bureau has issued almost 120 product quarantines for licensees, with around 10% of those quarantines leading to product destruction, according to a representative.
Store products are removed from the shelf while the probes’ findings are being obtained.
Of the quarantines, 40% are still in place.
“OCM has received allegations that both finished products and product inputs are being inverted into the legal market from unlicensed out-of-state sources,” the OCM stated. “OCM takes inversion seriously as the practice undermines the integrity of the New York market and consumer confidence and subverts the social and economic equity goals of legalization.
“To enhance oversight and market integrity, OCM will phase-in its launch of a seed-to-sale tracking and accountability system in the second half of 2025, in addition to continuing to do on-site compliance inspections.”
Because they grow, cultivate, and sell their own cannabis from their businesses, medical marijuana operators have a competitive advantage, thus Hochul’s administration advocated asking them to purchase their way into the mainstream adult market.
“The State values our medical operators who are vital partners in ensuring patients across New York have access to quality, tested products to meet their medical needs,” Hochul representative Kassie White stated. “[Registered organizations for medical cannabis]] have brought good union jobs, sound market infrastructure and expertise that have laid the foundation for New York’s cannabis economy.”
