It appears that Gov. Hochul will be attending. If she does, it is yet another sign that the Governor is actually prioritizing the establishment of a functioning cannabis industry in New York.

In yet another positive development since Governor Kathy Hochul took the reins and started pushing the roll out of New York’s cannabis industry, on Wednesday the Office of Cannabis Management (OCM) announced the first meeting of the Cannabis Control Board (CCB). The meeting will take place on Tuesday, October 5, 2021, at 1:30 pm and will be publicly available via the link embedded in this press release.

We will provide a summary of the meeting, along with our thoughts on any public comments and anything else we can glean in terms of the timeline for the CCB’s rules and regulations.

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A few things that are notable from the press release itself:

• It appears that Governor Hochul will be attending. If she does, it is yet another sign that the Governor is actually prioritizing the establishment of a functioning cannabis industry in New York. Obviously, public appearances don’t mean much without rules, regulations, applications received, and licenses issued, but it certainly looks good.
• The CCB’s meeting will be the first substantial public appearances made by CCB Chairwoman Tremaine Wright and OCM Executive Director Chris Alexander since their respective appointments (we covered that here). We are excited to hear where they stand on the critical issues for the CCB’s rules and regulations, social equity, and the timeline for the OCM’s issuance of licenses.
• To that end, notably absent from the meeting agenda is anything related to a timeline for the issuance of the rules and regulations. We hope that the timing will be discussed as part of the “Executive Director Report.” With everyone clamoring for a timeline for the rules and regulations to be released (it’s really all anyone in New York’s cannabis industry talks about), it would be frustrating (to say the least) if the CCB and OCM do not provide any details.

Stay tuned for our summary of the CCB’s first official meeting and all updates on developments in New York’s cannabis industry!

Simon Malinowski is an attorney at Harris Bricken. This story was originally published on the Canna Law Blog and reposted with permission.