This is connections filling in for Evan Dawson I'm Gina Fanelli.

Today's connection was made on March 31st, 2021.

On that day, then Governor Andrew Cuomo signed the Marijuana Regulation and Taxation Act into law, legalizing recreational cannabis in New York.

But the rollout was anything but smooth.

Lawsuits stalled the granting of retail licenses for farmers, who were granted a first crack at the marketplace for labs sitting on literal tons of weed.

And the state was left scrambling to crack down on a flourishing black market.

But now, many of those growing pains have finally somewhat been quelled, and industry passed the $1 billion mark in sales for the first time in 2024.

So, to discuss where legal pot has been and where it's headed.

We are joined by Felicia Reed, acting acting executive director of the Office of Cannabis Management.

Felicia, thanks for being here.

Oh, she's not on yet.

Okay.

Zach is founder of Flower City Collective.

Zach, thanks for being here.

Thank you.

Gina and Jason and Brittany Cantor, co-founders of the new York Cannabis Retailers Association and owners of Flower City Dispensary and Victor.

Thank you both for being here.

Thank you for having us.

It's always ladies first.

Thank you.

Definitely.

so while we're waiting for, Felicia, I'm.

I wrote a story back over the summer on Brittney and Jason's story and trying to enter the retail cannabis marketplace, and it's, It was a struggle.

It sounded like, for you guys.

And you finally open your doors last month.

And I want to give you a chance to talk about what it took to get there.

The years long struggle to finally be able to open a retail dispensary and become operational.

So I want to give you a chance to tell your story.

Oh, you want me to go first?

I thought it's ladies first.

I don't know, man.

So, I mean, you know, Brittney and I, you know, we're not shy to, you know, kind of, show or tell our story.

You know, we've been in the industry for quite some years on the legal side and the ancillary side.

You know, since 2014, you know, this industry is not for the weak.

So, like, if you're not prepared to fight in scratch and, and, you know, some cases choke out, you know, things to get, you know, to get in the front, you know, like, you probably won't sustain, you know, any type of operations.

being in the industry, cannabis is cutthroat.

you know, what we found was through collective kind of like, collective mindsets, you know, collaboration, was kind of the key to success.

So, you know, through our networking opportunities, Brittney and I decided to connect with farmers.

That was right from the beginning.

you know, we'll drive through the entire state, to, go see these farms firsthand.

you know, what we do in our in our previous, you know, experience in cannabis industry.

You know, marketing is everything.

So when we seen that New York State was going legal and they were, you know, giving these licenses to the farmers, the first thing that we thought was, let's elevate this industry, let's show what cannabis is all about, because we've been in the shade and in the dark for so long.

And now you see the state regulators promoting what they're doing, but they didn't see, you know, what was really in the fields.

So we went to farms.

And then we shared our experience through clips, short minute clips and reels.

and, you know, we kind of did that along the way with retailers and processors and cultivators, kind of just networked.

you know, I mean, that's just a sliver.

This is, of just, I know, do with favor much the language a little bit.

That's okay.

That's okay.

you know, this journey has taken us over two years, to come to fruition.

certainly was, a struggle.

You know, like you had mentioned, it put extreme, you know, financial harm, emotional, mental harm.

none of us initially who signed up for the card or conditional adult use, recreational dispensary license, anticipated we wouldn't get turnkey dispensaries or any type of, aid or assistance in, you know, really being the first to market.

So that in itself was, a battle to overcome.

but then personally, the upstate region in particular from that first lawsuit really hurt us.

I think we're still trying to recover from that.

Even our farmers.

who couldn't, you know, Zach couldn't sell the Flower City dispensary if you wanted to because we couldn't open.

So put everybody in the supply chain under major constraints.

you know, and then a lot of us were advised to go get leases, and that if we got those leases, we would have, priority.

Jason and I were one of those families that went and got a lease and held it for a year, a year and paying rent, trying to find ways to pay it, just just to be able to keep it.

Because so many municipalities have opted out, where are we to go?

And not just our family, but many others throughout the state of New York.

So, to be open and have cut that ribbon is every thing for our family and not just for us, but people in these communities who have waited for a very long time to know that things are changing and our community will have the economic benefits that maybe other areas throughout the state have got, got to experience.

Because Rochester is in need and the greater Rochester area of the, tax dollars to help go back into the Disenfranchized communities.

And Jason and I, we just wanted to be a part of that being justice involved ourselves coming from this culture that he spoke of.

So the word to describe it is, is grateful and just happy.

So I believe we have, Felicia on the line now, is that correct?

hi.

Yes.

Hi, Felicia.

How are you doing?

Good.

How are you?

Good.

so, what Brittany was just describing was, I think, a situation a lot of people entering the cannabis industry, particularly in the Finger Lakes, had experience that we were one of the last to get the green light to open retail dispensaries due to some of the legal challenges.

And now we're kind of sorta entering a period of normalcy, it sounds like.

And, there's some specific things I want to get into, but I want to start from the kind of an overhead view with you of, you know, it's been a long road and a sluggish rollout, to get cannabis where it could be in New York.

And I think we're still on that path.

But I want to give you a chance to tell us where you think we are now as far as developing the marketplace across the state.

Yeah.

So one, I want to say hi to Brittany and Jason.

It's good to be with you guys here again.

And I'm so glad that you guys are open.

I know you fought for this for your you and your family, and I'm thrilled.

in terms of OCM, you know, we just passed, of course, in 2024 and this is not, you know, our work.

This is the work of folks like Brittany and Jason and dispensaries and communities and families who are doing this work in cannabis and making this industry what it is.

And so, of course, in the last, you know, year we passed that billion dollar mark in terms of adult use, failed $1,000,005,000 to be exact, at the end of 2024.

And so I think with that, what that kind of growth, with that kind of presence, I think that the market is on its way to seeing, you know, more expansion, more growth, more folks entering in terms of being part of this marketplace that I know so many folks who want to be a part of.

And so, from the agency's perspective, it's always a matter of, are we setting up support and structures to support that?

Are we listening to the community?

Are we really deeply locked in and engaged, hearing back from communities and stakeholders about what's working and what's not, and that would also cause us to sort of rethink how we're proceeding in the future.

You know, I am not the kind of person who likes to do without information, and that's always going to come from the cannabis community.

So I'm excited to keep doing that work in 2025, in the years to come.

So I want to turn to Zach here.

you're more on the grower and production side of things.

Have you been around cannabis for a very long time?

and, again last year, I well, two stories that really exploring some of the challenges that dispensaries had and some of the challenges that growers were having in this marketplace.

So for the same for you, I want to give you a chance to tell, like your story of, you know, where you were coming from, the challenges and getting into the legal marketplace and where you're at now.

Yeah, great.

Thank you.

Gino, thanks for letting us be here.

It's really wild to think about the early days of these first dispensaries.

Like, I don't care if I'm on their shelf or not.

Like anyone.

Opening is like a win, and it keeps feeling like that where it's, you know, coming from a place where, like, if you had a relationship to the cannabis plant, you are, you were a criminal.

Still, in the federal government's eyes, we are criminals for what we're doing.

So just seeing any movement has been really just, like a dream come true from someone who's been consuming for, you know, since my childhood.

And it's, that's pretty cool.

so in the beginning days as a producer that was manufacturing, you know, joints, for example, and trying to get to market, I spent a lot of time on the road and going to see these different shops are opening, seeing the different struggles, the pressure points, the over competition or oversaturation, on shelf space, because there's only so many stores open, they can only carry so many brands.

so a lot of those kind of like early stage ripples were really challenging to deal with.

And I you know, I got denied on so many different shops, but luckily found some really good partners that did bring us on.

Our price was right, our quality was right, our service was right.

All of those things have kept us on the shelf over years.

and for us, our biggest edge, you know, we were just talking about this earlier.

It's like there really isn't actually enough weed being grown in New York, right now.

So as a brand or a small farm, how do you maintain stable shelf life?

Like how do I get on create a relationship with the dispensary, be a good client to keep my products quality at the right price and over time.

So they're not having like riche reset their shelves.

and essentially like not to run out, because the true cost of getting on to a dispensary is one thing.

But then to get, you know, let's say I run out of product and I have to get back on to that, it can be much harder.

so there's been a lot of little struggles in that department.

from a production standpoint, like, you know, we're we're been growing on a small certified organic vegetable farm where, like, luckily, a small group of four guys who all have their own relationship to cultivation over a long period of time could come together, bootstrap and turn a vegetable farm, raised bed no till living soil like awesome veggie food into something where cannabis can can grow and show what it can do.

In New York state, we've seen a lot of highs, a lot of lows on the low side, the disease stuff that we're seeing in, in cannabis, like, you know, all all agriculture is exposed to different blights for example.

and so trying to begin building a brand, building a production platform that like, actually pays wages, you know, like, how many years are we in this not paying ourselves anything, let alone then building out a team to then, like, sustain livelihoods.

It's like we're feeding we're feeding babies through this work.

We're doing.

But it could, you know, one bad disease could wipe out our crop and maybe make this all go away or what have you.

So there's been a lot of different growth points, pain points.

And then also yeah, joys of like it's still I don't actually register that I'm growing legal cannabis and it's being sold.

It's kind of just like I'm doing what I've been doing for a long time, working really hard.

And every so often someone's like, how does it feel like I have no, I don't, I'm, I'm stressed out, but but it's good.

So I definitely have seen with the more shops opening like this vacuum in this demand and like, you know really the players who want to support small businesses are really coming to the forefront, more community building and just going from fighter flight into some form of sustenance, whether it be dispensaries or small farms.

has been a huge transition.

but also in that window, we've seen a lot of people drop out.

Like how many farms, like, got completely screwed over because there weren't any of these promised dispensaries open.

How many dispensaries couldn't open the door without either massive debt or, like, what have you because of the time it took to open, and there's a plethora more issues we could be critical of, probably more throughout this program.

But just like high level, that's a lot of what I've been seeing.

and at the same time, like, we got shops like MJ, Good Life, Flower City Dispensary here in this region that have been just like kicking butt and like being an inspiration for the community.

And we're definitely we're here to support them and are the team that's helping, like drive, our brand, our farm to market.

Yeah.

It's, part of the background of what Zach's talking about here.

And, February 2022, Governor Kathy Hochul, passed conditional growers licenses, which allowed, cannabis farmers to grow recreational cannabis.

And the that's that was, really exciting thing at the time.

And the problem was, once they harvested that cannabis, there was not a lot of places to sell it.

there was not enough dispensaries open.

The legal challenges had kept it stalled.

and, Felicia, I want to turn to you, and just give you a chance to tell us.

Are we past that?

Are we past that point of, the system not being able to handle the both the production and the retail side due to some of the challenges facing early on, do you think that we are heading into a place of stability?

So, you know, 2020 5th January is a very different place from 2022.

And and then when I came in, I had heard very pointedly, you know, the struggles of cultivators and getting product to market.

And so it's been very pointed for me to make sure that, you know, we have balanced across the system.

Do our cultivators, do our farmers have a place to put their product?

Ultimately.

And I think about this a lot.

You know, I have a smallholding farm in Lufkin, you know, not of cannabis but of other things.

I have grown cannabis.

And so I'm very much aware that when we're talking about a live crop, an organic crop, something that needs to find its place, we can't sort of have the types of hiccups and operational and logistical delays that we saw early on in the program.

I think now we're in a pretty different place.

you know, what we're finding, especially with this most recent Harvard Harvest year and I know was a banger of a year for many cultivators across the state, you know, good weather, opportunity to harvest without it raining and creating mold and all of these things.

And so I think, you know, folks are finding places for their product.

I, I spend a lot of time with our marketing policy analysis team looking at, how are things moving across the supply chain and where are the stress points, where are the issues?

And it's been good to see that, you know, where we are in the end of 2024 and going into 2025 is cultivators finding those places for their products?

I think we want to expand that going forward, of course.

But one thing I want to be very pointed about is the thing that we're always thinking about as an agency, which is sustainability.

You know, we live in a blessed climate with 100, about 153 growing days.

But we are also subject to environmental challenges and climate change.

And so how does that impact the cannabis industry?

How did that impact growers?

How does that impact processes?

How does that impact dispensaries?

What the and, who are downstream from the plant but have a very critical role to play in how all of this works.

And so that is something that as an agency that we're always thinking about and paying attention to, because we want to make sure that there are there is balance across all sides of the supply chain and making sure that people are able to sort of do what they love and do what they do and find a place for it in the market.

So one of the things that I think Zach just described and, and I've heard a lot, is that there were so many options and so many growers at a point in time that there really wasn't shelf space for the, dispensaries that were open, that they had to be really selective.

And, you know, for Flower City Dispensary, I mean, how are you picking and choosing now who, what, who you're partnering with?

And do you think through the enough room in the marketplace now for everyone who is earnestly trying to compete in it to survive?

yeah.

for us in particular, we really focus more on a curated menu.

I don't need to show people 100 types of flower or 100 types of vapes to really satisfy their need, whether it be for wellness, whether it be for fun, to go to bed at night, you know, Jason and I, you know, due to our experience, we've had the opportunity to meet with these cultivators and processors personally.

so we have an in-depth knowledge of, you know, where the product come from, who makes them?

Where is it?

Is it in Batavia?

Is it Zach in?

Right.

You know, Rochester area.

and with that, we're able to provide high level quality products, knowing them, not just placing random things on the shelf.

I absolutely believe there's room for more brands and more growth, where we have certain economic constraints, like we have a lot of municipalities that have opted out, so we don't even really, truly know a true cannabis market right now going into 25.

Just looking at Rochester, you guys look at Gates and Greece and they've all opted out.

Those are major markets for cannabis just here in Rochester.

So I think that it is there I think to Felicia's point, sustainability of each segment of the supply chain is so critical.

I think that due to what is occurred previously that we're, we're kind of working out, you know, we need to come together and find what is going to be the solution, right?

Not the band aid.

and our infrastructure has been very weak.

I can say from a retail standpoint, you know, the OCM has done a great job in answering people.

You can call their corresponding.

I know that we're going to have specific representatives with license holders in the future, and I think we just need to give it a little bit of time so that it's done right.

We don't want to rush and go back.

I don't think anybody could take that right now.

So I'm very optimistic.

in where OCM is going and speaking with the community, I don't think I've had and others in the upstate region have had this much correspondence with them ever.

and I'm grateful and want to acknowledge that, because we're not New York City and, we've endured a lot of, different hurdles.

So, I'm grateful to Felicia and the office and Pat and everyone there who's working hard, to try to get us up and running and on the map.

So people should be optimistic.

infrastructure is being built.

Cannabis is being considered, and the community's voices are being considered.

again, I'm grateful my doors are open.

And I see so many of my friends, who were trapped, emerging and moving forward so that Zach can go and sell his wonderful read and so many others.

so I want to touch on when we're talking about the economics of this, we mentioned earlier in the hour that we passed the 1 billion mark in sales on the past year.

I was reading before we came in here a report from Whitney Economic that's estimating within two years, the New York retail market could be about $6 billion.

the potential here is huge.

It's a massive industry, that is poised to grow at a very, very fast rate over the next few years.

Felicia, if you I mean, this is the potential here is we're not even close to touching on what's being projected yet.

How do we get there?

I mean, what do you think the state has to do to be able to embolden a marketplace that is able to capture the true potential of what this industry is here?

Yeah.

So, you know, the Whitney, the Whitney report when it came out, I can't I can't tell you how many people sent it to me as if I hadn't already.

And but what I what I'm glad to say is that it actually falls quite in line with where our market team has projected, the industry at going through 2030 and so, you know, one of the things that we're considering is, you know, and I don't I don't mean to use the term seed to sell, but we have to think about supply chain and sustainability from seed all the way to sale.

And that also means not over saturating in any way, shape or form, any sort of the market.

That's it.

We tank it, right?

We have this precious thing.

We have this amazing thing that is built, that is founded on social and economic equity.

I don't take those as buzzwords.

We can't break it.

Right.

And so so what my job is and what my team's job and what this agency is to really be considerate about how we're analyzing the market and really making recommendations to the board around how we should be proceeding.

As to that Whitney report, I was I was glad to see it because it falls right in line with where our economics team had projected.

I think we projected between 6.2 and 7.5 billion, which is an insane amount, of opportunity.

and we want to make sure that's maximized.

But, you know, like I said, we can't maximize that if we are sort of laissez faire or not keeping our eye on what's happening in each sector.

See, the sale.

And so that's something that the office and I are very, very pointedly working on.

And I was glad that we put our economic outlook and recommendation in front of our cannabis advisory board, who are folks who are industry practitioners and have a particular a particular perspective.

You know, they they saw that analysis.

It was, you know, pages and pages of analysis and charts.

And they were like, you know, this makes sense for what we experience in this market, what we see in this market, but also for what we've seen happen in other jurisdictions.

And I know all the folks in this call can point to a state and see how they've oversaturated in certain areas, and now they're facing value less licensing.

That is not something we want to see our market in any way, shape or form.

Thank you.

You want to have a Bernard here?

Yeah.

I mean, I think it must be noted for the general public that New York State is the biggest consumer market for cannabis in the world.

If not, you know, like just across the board.

we we it's going to take us a long time to grow enough weed to satiate every corner of the state, which is a gift.

and as we're talking about sustainability, I think, you know, there's a few different words like how that plays in there's obviously environmental sustainability.

We hear about that.

Like, is this going to deplete nature or is this going to make it.

is it can we sustain this form of production or is it going to take away from, from, let's say our soil or add more, you know, global greenhouse emitting gases, for example?

You know, those.

That's one thing we're familiar with.

Then the next question is like economic sustainability.

and in that, you know, can we can small businesses sustain?

That's the question I'm really asking.

Like, what does a dispensary need to be able to sustain?

What does a small farm need to be to operate, to be able to sustain?

And, you know, looking at that projection of like multibillion.

Now we'll be at 6 billion, like we'll be at 10 billion soon enough.

Like it's going to be huge when there's On-Site consumption.

And like actual like moving towards the true freedom of this plant and people to be able to sell it in, in the multiplicity of ways that I think we're already doing it, but it might not be technically legal or licensed yet.

that that's really important.

But I do think from a producer standpoint and the sustainability standpoint is like we're looking at right now currently, you know, of the billion that just got sold, like how much of that was like a couple companies, how much of that was the biggest cannabis producing companies in the world that are like selling?

And I think the data is like 3,000 pounds a month is coming through dank, for example, dank by definition, which is like, cool.

I don't know them.

I know they're sourcing from some of the biggest grower like, registered organizations, cultivation facilities, which is absolutely unsustainable.

And at price points that are being sold, that are driving market price down.

So there's one thing like, what's the value of a license?

There's also what's the value of flower.

And if we look to Oregon where there was a massive overproduction based off big players, the value of cannabis became nothing.

And so many small producers were forced out of that market.

And it's a really strange place to be in where agriculture, traditionally in the United States, like on New York, has so much protection.

Small businesses have so much protection.

Tax write offs, all these things.

And cannabis continuously is this outlier that doesn't get those supports.

And, you know, again, come from this place.

Like I'd love to see a thousand small farmers growing the best weed in the world, going through small mom and pop retail locations.

But the trend towards it so easily trends towards massive production, driving down costs, forcing out small players.

So it's this whole other side of sustainability.

Like is this a sustainable business model?

Is this a sustainable industry?

It could be sustainable if the.

And what's up Felicia, how are you doing?

Thank you.

you know, Nate, you guys being on on the call?

you know, if you look at sustainability and you look at the micro license, you know, expanding their canopy, maybe allowing them to have, mixed cultivation, indoor and outdoor, you know, it would be somewhere where I would look, for, you know, sustainability, given the current cultivators, you know, an expanded, expanded reach of canopy, going from 12, 5 to 25,000 square foot, would be, you know, resourceful and, to keep the current players in the game.

Right.

And then you have to we have to worry about like, farmers.

I come from a production side as well.

I've been growing for, you know, 20 years.

Right.

So when you look at like, supply and demand, keeping the, the big the big guys in or excuse me, the big guys out, but allowing them to come in, we need to allow these cultivators that have been promised that were suffering to at least get the opportunity to compete while the big guys are coming in.

I know you had mentioned Felicia giving, you know, and and not to not to stir the pot a little bit, but you know, because we support you, we're we're, you know, 100% on board to keep you in office.

And we always, you know, support that.

you know, but we need to really look at, you know, how we can minimize the discounts of these big box coming in, you know, suggesting, you know, reducing fees, is not, is not favorable for many, you know, so, yeah.

You want to have conversations around that.

I mean, honestly, guys, like, nothing's perfect.

I think to expect everything to be answered or corrected right now and is is is impossible.

But, you know, but you know, what of what would have been cool is to see that that billion dollars sale and what store it came from and then celebrate that.

That would have been cool.

I agree, the little things.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, I think this is like the ever present threat, that everyone was concerned about when legalization happened, that it would just be the mass market companies that have a lot of infrastructure and a lot of, capital behind them would be the ones that dominated immediately.

and even on that note, like The Mist was written, as we said, socio economic justice oriented.

And part of that was the arrows.

They have to wait their turn right.

And when they come in, they got to pay the money that's going to be reinvested in communities.

And like what we've seen, what lawsuits do we see, what lobbying does and how quickly social justice and economic justice can be eroded.

We also see the strong fight and the resilience of small players and community coming together to advocate.

And it really if we see anything, money talks and organizations and associations, the role that the community can play is much stronger than the individual.

And so, you know, small players getting together and advocating for their rights.

And what they need to small businesses is equally as important.

When we see what high finance organizations can do, in, in any industry, but specifically an emerging market like cannabis, it's wild.

Well, I've met those families.

The small farmers that you speak of that are really struggling.

you know, I mean, it's horrible.

They're children.

They've invested everything.

I completely understand.

They should have to wait their turn.

people really?

we've seen for sale signs on farms.

people never really even got off the start because of the injunctions and lawsuits that occurred prior.

So it's again, going back, having these conversations.

And I think the first time ever, you know, the GM is willing to at least listen and have these flipping great.

We've it's amazing what's been accomplished.

The GM did the unbelievable in a short amount of time.

And you know, you were saying earlier like we can't keep looking at the past but moving forward like what are we doing.

How can we.

And like that's an ongoing this is this is part of that conversation.

Yeah.

Yeah.

And the fact that Felicia is on it's also it's awesome.

Step right to show.

No seriously.

Thank you.

It's been challenging and troubling.

If you weren't, you know, a chosen child, by the previous administration, you wouldn't even get a wink.

Right?

And now you're on the phone with us, and, you know, so many others in the community that that they can attest to that.

Felicia, and I do want to kind of just build on this, every, virtually every state of legalized has had some social justice provision in their legalization, and virtually all of them have failed miserably in that effort.

Illinois was a great example that there's, a really great Chicago Tribune article that came out about a year after legalization, and the effort was that at the time that someone who is, a person of color, was supposed to be the premier person who had the first access to the industry because that community with most impacted by criminalization.

A year on, as the dispensaries opened, there was not a single person of color even serving in an ownership or partner role in any cannabis operation that opened in the city of Chicago or the state of Illinois, as far as I remember.

that's just an example of how it can fail.

but new York really put a strong effort to try to make this the core and heart of the law that we passed in 2021.

And I want to give you a chance to say, how are we meeting that goal of undoing the harms of criminalization and reinvesting into the communities that were most impacted by, decades of harsh cannabis laws?

yeah.

So thank you for that question.

gosh, I could I mean, do you want to be here for six hours that have a lot of effort?

Yeah, I don't really have much plan for the rest of the day, right?

Yeah.

We're available to she's like, I do.

I have a lot planned.

Yeah I got, I got, I got this and here we go.

So you know what I think is really interesting.

And you know I've experienced this state from the legislative perspective.

Have I worked there?

I've been a court attorney and now I'm in the executive.

So I've been in all three branches to be able to see, like it's not just drafting a law and hoping it gets implemented in the way you hope.

It's also around creating regulations and policies and standards that support the mission that you want to see.

And what's really been great about New York is I feel like I look across the country and I and I know, you know, cannabis in different jurisdictions, you know, has a different flavor or a different feel.

But what I also see is like they're trying to back into the equity mission instead of putting it at the front.

Right.

And so with New York, what has been really great is that even if you look at the statute, you look at the regs, they are specific criteria that we have to meet as a state that are intractable.

We cannot not meet those.

Otherwise we're failing ourselves and we're failing our community and we're failing our state.

You know, it's been really impactful to see, you know, month on, month on month on month.

We're hitting above that 50% of c, c, categorization in our licensure.

That's incredibly important.

But of course, to me that's like, okay, great.

That was 2024.

What's happening in 2025?

We're getting to a point where we're going to be looking at to December.

Q what I know about the December Q is there are so many cities, community disproportionately impacted applicants in that cohort.

And so we do have to reach those folks.

We do have to get those.

So we do need to be part of this market.

And so the question is how are we doing that?

How are we thinking about that?

What are we putting in place as a matter of structure, to keep that keeps allowing those folks who are most impacted by the cannabis laws to participate in this market.

And I'll just give a little bit of like how I really think about it.

My history is in juvenile justice.

I've worked with youth and families that have been traumatized since the day they were born, and a lot of the youth and families that I work with are the legacy of the war on drugs.

And to me, I always think about what I would do when I would sit down with them and I would say, you know, what do you want to be?

And half of them had never thought about what they would want to be because they didn't expect to live that long.

Right.

But when you finally get, you know, their trust and their and their, reliance, what I would always categorically hear from them is I want to own a business, right?

I want to own a business.

And we say, well, kind of business construction rather than all these different things, what they but what does owning a business mean?

That means a degree of independent degree of agency, a degree of autonomy, you know, especially when you're talking about communities who are harmed by the war on drugs.

There are so many communities who have been told what to do, told where to be, and then incarcerated at the end of it.

Right.

I don't want that cycle to continue.

That cycle can't continue.

And I think the mBTA offers this opportunity to take the skills that people have.

You know, if you've been selling for, for, for decades, if you've been growing for decades, that's a skill we want to see in the market.

We don't want to prioritize folks who are just, you know, we can folks can be starting out and be in this in this business.

But, you know, we know that as New Yorkers, that some of the best cannabis in the world is grown here, some of the best folks who understand this plant, its history and its power are right here.

Some of the consumers, you know, we have a we're high we're high taste as an as an as a state.

And so we want to leverage the talent and the skill and the experience that's here regardless, of where it comes from.

But really appreciating those legacies.

Right?

I think of this now and I think of, of, of the youth that I served, as, you know, I want their legacy to be different.

And I think cannabis is a way and an avenue in which that legacy can be different, just offering them other opportunities based on the things they know and things they've experienced.

So we're gonna take our first break of the hour and we'll come back on a we talk about cannabis more.

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When our weakest part was.

And we're back on connections, and we are talking about the cannabis industry.

And, you know, I think I'm in the latter half of this hour, the one of the things I'd really like to talk about is everyone in the studio here.

It comes from the quote unquote legacy marketplace you were around before cannabis legalization happened, and this is a hard industry.

every person I've talked to, has it's hard work to keep it afloat and to, you know, really make your way for it's not just, you know, a golden goose that you enter it and you are able to make a massive profit.

So I want to give a chance for all of you to talk about why cannabis, why you entered this marketplace, and why you're still here.

Zach, I'll start with you on this.

Same.

Yeah.

You've been around for a while, so tell us why.

Yeah.

I mean, I don't know more than anyone.

It's like, I remember I bought weed for the first time in seventh grade, and I remember, I lost friends by eighth grade because of my consumption.

my senior year of high school, I was wearing the the iPad, the hemp iPads.

And every day, you know, it's like after school, I'd get together with my crew, and we would we would consume, kind of ritualistically and, like, beginning to create a deeper level of relationship to myself, relationship with the people around me and to this plant.

I was introduced to super high quality indoor cultivation at a pretty young age and was the point person, you know, who is able to be the distribution and the trusted kind of confidant and having access to that and seeing how that can help sustain a family who is living on the line or, you know, substantially below, let's say, the line of poverty.

And but this plant is both a medicine to them and their family as well as, a tool to be able to put food on the table or Christmas presents under the tree.

And, just knowing this innate thing where, like, in this world of, like, as we would consume cannabis, not once did it make us more violent.

Not once did it make us terrible people.

In fact, it helped relieve all of these traumas that we were dealing with as kids.

and in this in this strange American culture, we live in.

And so early on, just knowing there's this disassociation about like, how awesome of a plant this is and how we were such.

We are so bad for having a relationship to it.

So much so that that ostracization pushed so much of my friend group to, you know, consume in the darkness or like, just be like, my friend got arrested in his E.M.S.

jacket as a volunteer because he was smoking weed and like, his life was almost ruined.

Like, I'm a teenage volunteer who cared so much about the community.

But like, because of his relationship to cannabis, he was now a criminal.

And just like he could have lost everything because of that.

and so many of us who were had a relation to this plant and then kind of pushed to the sidelines of the fringe of society.

I think that fueled so many more different iterations of, drug use and abuse.

which, you know, we all know the opioid epidemic epidemic and how intimately that's harmed so many of us in this room, let alone, the community at large.

And so much of that, I believe, stems in not only to the war on drugs, but the criminalization of cannabis.

and yeah, my senior year of high school, I gave a speech on the utilitarian value of hemp.

And, like, that's the only thing I could talk about where I wouldn't stutter or be afraid to talk in front of my, like, my peers.

My senior year of university, I met one of the leading researchers, in North America on industrial hemp, who was, like, actually driving the research to select the cultivars for hempcrete or for the best grain varietal, because the seed is a superfood, 30% protein, 30% omega three six fatty acid.

Like this thing is like cannabis is incredible.

and my I studied sustainable development.

when I went to the University of Vermont, and, like, I was also blessed to, like, meet some of the best growers in the northeast, like coming out of the mountains of Vermont, like some of the herb that was being grown in 2007, eight nine was just like unbelievable.

so this utilitarian aspect, but then also like the super high quality craft thing, has kind of always been, with me.

I got illegally wiretapped when I was 17 for my first, like, I picked up my first amount of weight and I almost went to prison for that.

And like the the the, detective at the time boldly lied to my parents saying, I'm selling heroin and LSD and all this stuff when all I was doing was like, sourcing when it was a drought, like, there wasn't herb around and like, I was able to find it.

all of those things impacted my, like, this contradictory experience of, like, how awesome of a plant this is versus how terrible one can be treated, in relationship to and of course, like, I come from so much relative privilege to and was able to glide a razor's edge through so many situations where, like so many of my friends didn't have that, and so as we're looking, again, my continued education in sustainable development, sustainable agricultural practices, these things that like, really there is no choice but creating practices that are regenerative, that rebuild soil, that rebuild community.

and seeing working on the West Coast and seeing how communities were rebuilding around this plant, like young people creating systems, having enough money to raise money for a friend's mother's cancer bill, you know, I mean, but, like, we're talking about, like, young people like me, like, oh, we got this, and we've been building this and, like, all of that, let's, you know, that's my personal kind of relationship and journey to then come back to New York where it's like 2018, like I put grain, I put grain variety in the soil, because we could grow legal cannabis.

And that was just so special to me.

and trusting that there's it's the most industrious plant on the planet, the amount of jobs it's going to create and also the benefit that people get from consuming this, like all of that checks these boxes of like, this is worthy of trying, worthy of putting up with the stress and the chaos that is owning a small business, let alone like one that's basically illegal still in the federal government's eyes.

but that's like all this why that comes back to, like, knowing this plant has been an awesome thing for so many people.

And, I've seen both economic, personal, individual spiritual relationship of this saying that like, as it's become, freed through the mBTA, fighting against the CR today because we didn't want to see that expression of legalization.

but something that gives us hope through community reinvestment, through, again, prioritization of folks who've been disproportionately impacted by the war on drugs, like all of that makes this worth it and exciting to play in.

and, you know, as we've discussed earlier, it's it's still like a gamble.

You know, we're still betting on agriculture, and that's never a safe bet.

So, you know, what's really fascinating to me is, how fast the stigmatization happened.

thanks.

Start smoking very young, too.

And I remember back then, it was sketchy a lot of the time, like, and now, I posted this on Instagram because it was so funny.

But like earlier this week with my birthday and I got a birthday.

Thank you.

Oh.

Happy birthday.

Thank you.

I bring that up because I'm a member of Planet Fitness, and they sent me a gift card for free gummies.

and I'm like, this is so weird, man.

Like ten years ago, it went of, even better thought, but, now my gym is giving me free weed.

That's bizarre.

But, So better than alcohol?

Yeah, better than alcohol.

and I want, I want to turn to, Britney and, Jason to, to talk a bit about, you know, your path of ending up, in the legal marketplace and, you know, it's a tough industry.

And you know what?

Your hope for it, as you know, you're in your second month now where you hope to end up.

It's funny because Jason and I started in different places, but ended up our journeys merged, in life, but similar to probably Zach and everybody.

I use cannabis in my youth.

as medicine, even though I didn't know it was medicine because I experienced a lot of anxiety.

I grew up in a community.

According to the Census Bureau, that is 95% white.

when I lived there as a child, I didn't go to school with kids of color.

I was the kid of color.

And so, being somebody that was attached to that plan, you know, whether using it or selling it, I was definitely targeted, racially profiled in the community.

I mean, I would be with my friends and I'd constantly be pulled over and pulled out by 2 or 3 cops because they knew I was a cannabis user.

hence, you know, I am card.

I actually had another charge, but I was very young, so it's sealed.

And then I had another one.

When I was older, I was lucky to not do prison time, but I was very close to it.

Unfortunately, my sister did.

and in lieu of that, you know, I was at risk, but, did not.

And so, you know, cannabis depending on, you know, where you are and how you grow up and the circumstance, you know, is really what has led all of us together.

For me, my circumstance was I was not in a diverse community.

I was somebody who sold cannabis, use cannabis was easily targeted.

my charge was published in the county newspaper.

There was no social media.

Everybody read that paper.

So, I couldn't get a job because everybody owned the, the grocery store, the pizza shop.

talk about the ridicule, the embarrassment to my family.

I to them, I was selling crack or I was selling heroin, but I wasn't, you know, not to mention the other children in the community or other, young adults were doing it as well.

the difference was their father was best friends with the sheriff, and their grandpa was the judge.

So they're never going to prison.

And I think when you talk about large cities, I think what people often forget about are these rural communities that are very much where people get targeted and profiled and sent to prison.

Yeah, okay.

Because those people have that power.

And, part of my story really stems from that and amplifying.

So people become aware.

I know others that come from communities such as myself.

You know what that put my mother through us, through for many, many years.

Having this dispensary is everything.

You know, I lost my mother unexpectedly three years ago, and I would have loved for her to have been there in that moment, because it is a vindication.

when you are a person of color and me being a woman minority, it is different how we walk and move through this world, and how we are perceived.

Maybe if I grew up somewhere different, it would have been a different experience.

But that wasn't the case for me.

So when that fight and why and why?

Because it's in me, you know, it's been a part of me.

So when I look at all these other card members and, you know, and how we've come together in collaboration, a lot of us come from that.

We come from poverty, we come from racial profiling, we come from a lot of different things.

so I'm grateful I, I'm very optimistic of the future.

Do you know, to your last question, you know, with the work that the governor has done, appointing Chelsea Davis, secretary of Cannabis, I believe she's done a wonderful job in in guiding and in her oversight, with Felicia and Patrick and everyone over there.

I've seen results from them.

I've seen some some normalization.

Believe me, we have a lot of work to do.

I know there's a lot going on in this industry, but I can be thankful that they're listening.

and we're moving forward in a collaborative effort throughout the supply chain with agency and even our legislators.

so, Brittany, you've told me your story before, and, the the thought I had at the time was, this is the exact person this law was meant to benefit.

this is the the way the law is written in the intent of it is meant to, you know, undo the harm that happened to you and give you a chance to the word youth vindicated.

I think, is, is the right term for it.

And, with just a few minutes left, Felicia, I want to give you a chance to respond to, you know, Britney just told her story and, whether you think that how the state can help enable people like Britney to, be a part of this market and lead this market.

Sure.

So, I do want to answer actually your previous question, actually, and on two fronts.

Right.

So, you know, my husband has a condition that has no cure.

And it it's painful and it's difficult.

And he's terrified of opioids.

You know, he's he's had family members who have suffered because of opioids.

And so you know, he's been he I got a medical card when he could.

But one of the things I'm a very sort of do it myself person and I'm a grower right.

I we've we feed ourselves off of our, our farms throughout the entire summer fall and winter.

And so I'm like, okay, I'm going to figure out how to grow this.

so he can have access to it.

Right.

And so I spent, you know, a lot of time taking courses and learning about, you know, neuro chemical garden, how to cannabis.

Cause I took all of that and figured out how to dial it in for my specific strain and my soil.

And, you know, you mentioned soil health and full health, and I think about, like, a living soil handbook, which is my Bible.

And I love a motel bed.

So we can talk about that a long time.

But all I can say is I grew this plant and then it was something I could give to the person I loved the most to help with their pain.

I've never had that kind of agency.

I've had a lot of agency.

I work for an agency, but like, I've never I've never been able to have such a direct connection to something like that.

And that meant the world to me.

another point.

You know, we were in a car accident two years ago, off of 87, spun out, and my side got hit by a tractor trailer.

I couldn't walk.

I was in the hospital for quite a while, and I, you know, terrified of opioids.

I did not want to be on them.

And they gave me so many.

And I was like, you know what?

I'm just going to go back to cannabis like that.

That is something I know.

That is something that I've taken from literally a seed to, you know, consumption.

And that's that is something I can navigate.

That is something I can handle.

And it's something that ultimately helped and got me through, you know, recovery.

And so my connection is very, very personal to the this plant.

At the same time, I've had the experience of seeing what this plant can do and what its power can be for communities.

And that to me is something that I very much want to keep going and putting folks of color who have been marginalized, who have been denied every opportunity and access, has been stigmatized over time.

I want them to lead this industry.

This is not my industry right?

This is an industry that I have the great privilege and honor of being a part of.

It's not mine.

And so I know it belongs to folks like Brittany and Jason.

And I know that that there are people here who they have the solutions to making cannabis be as great as it can be in New York State.

It's not the agency.

And so it's incumbent upon us to keep hearing from them for their perspective and their practice, and their experience at this plant leaves us as an agency to make the kinds of rules and regulations and common sense principles that make sense for the growth of this industry.

And so that's sort of why it's incredibly important for me to have conversations like this, but also think about, at the end of the day, who is showing up in this industry, who is in this industry and who needs, you know, support and resources.

And so I think very pointedly around, you know, the card community and our city and our community and thinking about, you know, the discrepancies in capitalization between those small businesses and larger businesses.

Eight we need to figure out how to and ensure that folks have access to capital, access to resources and and the access to community.

You know, can we leverage all of the places that we are in the state to leverage agency resources, locally resources, and bring them to the cannabis community so that they can benefit?

And if we have to do it differently, that's going to be informed by what we're hearing from them and what we're seeing from them, what they're experiencing, not what we think in our agency building.

Right.

So, you know, it's incredibly important to me to have folks who live this every day reading in same, we have about 30s left.

But, Zach, tell us, where we can find Flower City.

we can find all over New York state.

Upstate.

Downstate.

we got MJ, over in Henrietta.

We got good life over on 155 Monroe Avenue and hopefully soon to be in Flower City.

Now we got some new stuff coming on shelves, that grow some of the best weed in the area.

So thanks for being here.

and, Brittany, Jason, tell us a bit about our Flower City dispensary.

I mean, Flower City dispensary can be found at 8053 Victor.

in Victor, New York.

Pittsford.

Victor and factory.

Pittsford.

Victor row, right next to East View mall, between U-Haul and the target entrance.

And, Felicia from, the ops cannabis management.

Thank you so much for being here.

I really appreciate the time.

All right.

Thank you.

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