“Not permitting the sale of flower is an obstacle because there is a segment of the patient population for whom the flower is an appropriate treatment and smoking is a familiar delivery method that brings new patients in,” Birnbaum told Private Wealth.
New York’s Compassionate Care Act restricts legal medical marijuana sales to tinctures, capsules or oil and liquid in cartridges for vaporization.
“The New York State health department regulates the medical marijuana program and doesn’t allow smoking the flower or leaf because it doesn’t want to perpetuate that smoking is a healthy practice,” Giannotti said.
In Colorado, it’s the liquor control authority that overseas legal marijuana under the state’s Marijuana Enforcement Division (MED), while in Connecticut, the Department of Consumer Protection governs the sale of marijuana.
“In Connecticut, it’s about fair business practices,” Giannotti said. “Regulators want to ensure that marijuana dispensary owners don’t divert product and that consumers don’t get ripped off.”
Curaleaf is one of four licensed companies permitted to produce medical marijuana in the state and supplies medicinal weed to six dispensaries statewide.
“There was another competitive process announced on January 11 and there are three new dispensaries coming online,” Dumbauld told his audience. “By summer, we will have nine dispensaries in the state.”
In fact, dispensaries in Connecticut are permitted to obtain supply from all four licensed producers, whereas in New York, they can only purchase product from its affiliated producer.
“In New York, if there’s a shortage, dispensaries cannot buy from other producers,” said Birnbaum. “If there was a regulatory framework in New York, we would certainly deliver, but it’s not something that is feasible right now.”
That’s because marijuana is still illegal on a federal level and only Indian reservations located on sovereign land that are contiguous from state to state can transport cannabis product by ground, water or air transportation without breaking the law.