New York gov signs recreational marijuana into law; $2.5 billion market expected
After three years of fits and starts, New York lawmakers on Tuesday legalized a recreational marijuana market that is expected to become one of the largest in the country with projected revenues of nearly $2.5 billion by the program’s fourth year.
The Assembly passed the bill Tuesday night by a vote of 100 to 49, while the state Senate earlier approved the bill by a margin of 40 to 23.
Democratic Gov. Andrew Cuomo signed the measure into law Wednesday, and sales could start as soon as a year after enactment.
Legislative leaders and Cuomo paved the way for passage when they agreed a few days ago on the details of the bill.
“Legalization in New York is incredibly significant in terms of its potential to reduce disparate racial arrest for cannabis consumption, but also in its ability to move the needle on the federal level,” marijuana lobbyist David Mangone wrote in an email to Marijuana Business Daily.
Mangone is director of policy for The Liaison Group, a Washington DC firm that lobbies for the National Cannabis Roundtable.
“As the biggest cannabis market on the East Coast, New York’s success will help propel (Senate) Majority Leader Schumer’s planned legislation on comprehensive cannabis reform,” Mangone wrote.
Legalization will generate an enormous economic impact in New York, which is struggling with a multibillion-dollar budget deficit.
A legal marijuana market will create tens of thousands of jobs and provide huge opportunities for companies that provide equipment and services to the industry.
Marijuana Business Daily projects that an adult-use market in New York would generate $2.3 billion in annual sales by its fourth full year.
The bill approved Tuesday, the Marijuana Regulation and Taxation Act, provides huge licensing opportunities and support to social equity applicants and microbusinesses.
The number of licenses would be determined by regulators and an advisory board “to ensure a competitive market where no licensee is dominant in the statewide marketplace or in any individual category of licensing.”
The measure also offers an adult-use path for the state’s 10 existing medical cannabis operators, nine of which are multistate operators.
They would pay large licensing fees to enter the market, and the fees would help fund the social equity programs.
Existing medical marijuana companies would be permitted to operate three adult-use stores apiece, co-locating them with three of their MMJ dispensaries.
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