There is a lot of chatter these days about pot and I don’t mean the kind you keep in the kitchen. The new marijuana law, known as the Marijuana Regulation and Taxation Act, has taken effect and it will have a major impact on all New Yorkers for many years to come.
Marijuana legalization advocates have been pushing for this law for many years. Many minority communities have been devastated by addiction and questionable enforcement. With many new progressives in the legislature, it finally became law.
New York now joins 16 states that have legalized marijuana sales. In addition, 36 states are providing the public marijuana for medical or recreational uses. Almost all of the states that have made marijuana consumption legal have realized a bonanza in new funds.
Colorado has been able to repave roads and rebuild bridges, with the funds collected from marijuana sales. Others have been able to provide badly needed services to their residents, including expansion of healthcare coverage.
The MRTA as it is called wasn’t some kind of overnight wonder. Numerous bills legalizing the sale of cannabis products have been introduced over the past eight years. One of the major proponents of the bill, Sen. Liz Krueger, has been consistently trying to get some version passed and had little success up to this year.
She found a good partner in the Buffalo New York Assembly Majority Leader Crystal Peoples Stokes who worked jointly (no pun) with her to get the job done. Now that the 218-page bill is law, it will take some time to get the public comfortable with its provisions.
There will be many new business opportunities for New Yorkers thanks to the many licenses that can be given to applicants who qualify. The nine available licenses cover cultivators (growers), processors, distributors, dispensaries, on-site consumption, cooperatives, nurseries, deliveries and microbusinesses. Each one of these opportunities will have a major impact on real estate, employment law, health care, adult and senior care businesses, all of whom must be prepared for the impacts of the statute.
The MRTA is good news for a local government. The law provides help to numerous communities around the state that have been impacted by drug addiction and harsh marijuana sentences.
It relieves people with a conviction for possession of small amounts of marijuana from the stigma of a criminal record. A portion of the tax revenues from cannabis sales will be set aside for community investment grants for areas that have been impacted by over-policing.
It directs that 40 percent of the cannabis funds will go to education and 20 percent for drug treatment and public education.
There are early signs that investors are going to jump into the cannabis business. A few weeks ago, Columbia Care, a publicly-traded company, purchased a 34-acre cultivation site in Riverhead for $42.5 million.
Columbia Care has a large facility in Rochester and has provided marijuana for 120,000 patients under doctor’s care. It is the first marijuana-related purchase of a Long Island property but other mega-companies are expected to jump into the business in the next two years.
The MRTA is a challenge to local governments who will be dealing with building and zoning codes for new and existing facilities and occasional criminal issues. Some villages or towns will have to decide whether they wish to prevent retail sales by December 31, 2021.
Any local government that opts out of the law will also lose their share of cannabis revenues. In some communities, the amount of lost funds may be minor but bigger jurisdictions will lose substantial dollars.
Employers will be faced with labor law issues that have never arisen before. Individuals who have marijuana convictions have employment rights and there could be discrimination claims, discipline problems and drug testing questions.
But the bright side is that the MRTA will create 60,000 new jobs and potentially raise over $300 million in revenues for state and local governments. Time will tell whether the state is moving in the right direction but the MRTA law is here to stay.
