In all the debates over the legalization of adult use (ie recreational marijuana) in New York, the expansion of New York’s medical marijuana program has not spilled much ink. As a brief review, New York first legalized medical marijuana in 2016. Since then, only 10 organizations (RO) have been registered. We are proud to say that some of them are clients of our law firm.

New York State has stricter certification requirements for patients nationwide, which has led to a decrease in RO income. It is generally believed that once the MRTA is finalized and passed, the medical cannabis industry in New York, especially the existing RO, will help recreational applicants. As described below, it turns out that the advantages may not be as many as expected by the recognized organization.

Let’s explore some of the most common issues related to the MRTA’s changes to the New York medical cannabis program.

Who is eligible to be a qualified patient?

Anyone, “in [patient’s physician’s] Judging from professional opinions and reviews of past treatment methods, the patient is likely to receive therapeutic or palliative benefits from cannabis used in primary or auxiliary treatment and medical use for the disease. “This is a fairly broad regulation, apparently designed to give doctors the discretion to prescribe marijuana where they deem appropriate.

Is there a limit on how much medical marijuana a patient can buy?

Yes, sixty (60) day supply. However, the patient can “supplement” another sixty (60) days of prescription medication in the last 7 days of the first 60 days.

Are there any regulations regarding the form of cannabis?

Just like any other prescription, MRTA also requires a prescription to identify the prescribed form of cannabis and the appropriate dosage. The patient’s registration identification card is required to include any recommendations or restrictions from the patient’s physician regarding the form of medical marijuana and/or patient dosage.

How do I apply to become an RO?

This application is usually similar to the application process for an entertainment license. Some major differences in application and registration standards:

• The application for registration must contain information about more than 10% of the management or ownership interest in any other cannabis business outside of New York.
• Applicants will be assessed based in part on their medical marijuana affordability.
• As an alternative method of proving that the applicant has sufficient real estate and equipment to operate, the applicant may issue a security deposit of at least US$2 million.

As with entertainment licenses, the Cannabis Control Board (CCB) will issue rules and regulations detailing the exact application process, including all application fees.

Can I apply for registration and entertainment license at the same time?

Maybe. CCB has the right to grant some or all RO capabilities to obtain recreational cannabis licenses, subject to any fees, rules or conditions specified by CCB. We will have to look at CCB’s rules and regulations.

Do existing accredited organizations have an advantage over leisure and entertainment licensees?

There are several obvious advantages. RO can be vertically integrated, which means control from seed to sales. The right to vertical integration allows cost control throughout the production process.

RO is also allowed to distribute medical marijuana from 4 wholly-owned pharmacies, and has obvious rights to own rights in the other 4 pharmacies (probably because RO is not the sole owner). Of the other 4 pharmacies, 2 must be located in underserved or unserved geographic locations as determined by CCB.

Another big advantage will be the initial supply of recreational cannabis. Unless the CCB staggers the issuance of its recreational licenses by allowing growers and processors to grow and produce hemp products before recreational sales, there may be a huge supply deficit, and only existing accredited organizations can step into the gap.

The right of existing recognized organizations to operate recreational pharmacies may not be so advantageous. According to MRTA’s entertainment license terms, RO can sell recreational marijuana in its 3 medical pharmacies. However, the sale of recreational marijuana is limited to RO’s own products. We have noticed that there is some controversy as to whether MRTA explicitly restricts RO to selling its own products for leisure, rather than distributing its own products (that is, at the upper level of the production chain). On the Canna Law Blog, we believe that the spirit of the MRTA indicates that the restriction applies to the sale of recreational marijuana.

Is there anything else I need to know?

RO’s renewal terms are very interesting. If CCB determines and finds the following, you can choose not to renew your registration:

• There are too many ROs in an area to provide services in that area reasonably; and
• The RO seriously violated the laws of another jurisdiction in which they operated a cannabis license or registration related to the operation of a cannabis business.

These two non-renewal bases seem to target existing ROs and multi-state operators, indicating that CCB will indeed promote geographic diversity when issuing registrations.

Overall, the main thing we want to point out is that entertainment licenses are not the only option for prospective participants to enter the New York cannabis industry. In terms of capital requirements (perhaps with a $2,000,000 bond option) there may be more barriers to entry, but as patient availability expands significantly, it may make sense to explore medical marijuana registrations for certain potential applicants .