New Yorkers looking to buy recreational marijuana at one of the upcoming dispensaries will have to wait at least 18 months, if not more. This is all due to political disagreements between the governor and lawmakers. 

Gov. Andrew Cuomo and Senate leaders are at odds. Over who should lead the Office of Cannabis Management (OCM) and Cannabis Control Board (CCB). The Marijuana Regulation and Taxation Act (MRTA) created both positions to oversee the state’s recreational market. 

Key lawmakers blame the Cuomo administration. Saying they have taken little to no action to prepare for the new recreational industry. Or advance other MRTA-backed changes to the medical cannabis program. 

Industry stakeholders are still facing uncertainty over whether regulatory, licensing, and other functions can move forward. Without an executive director for the OCM or a Board chair for the Cannabis Control Board. 

Cuomo’s Motives For Marijuana Legalization

Some advocates, stakeholders, and lawmakers are beginning to question Cuomo’s motives for backing the MRTA. Due to the back-and-forth surrounding appointing a director and board chair. 

After years of being cautious about marijuana, Cuomo quickly changed his position. After facing multiple scandals over his administration’s reporting of Covid-19 nursing home deaths. In addition to allegations of sexual harassment and inappropriate behavior in the workplace. Now some are questioning the governor’s commitment to establishing an adult-use, recreational marketplace. 

“I think he’s still quite ambiguous about the state moving forward, despite the fact that he negotiated the bill and he signed the bill,” said state Sen. Liz Krueger. 

In a statement on June 4, the governor’s office said the state “is actively working to ensure the Office of Cannabis Management and the Cannabis Control Board can begin implementing a safe, equitable and transparent adult-use cannabis industry as soon as possible.”

Senator Diane Savino argued that “as of now, the Office of Cannabis Management may exist on the website, but it doesn’t exist in any other form: And that’s a problem.”

Nominations For The Positions 

Before the session ended earlier this month, many lawmakers were expecting Cuomo to issue his nominees for the OCM executive director and Cannabis Control Board chair. Talks fell apart after the Senate signaled it wouldn’t confirm Norman Birenbaum, the director of cannabis programs, due to concerns about his track record in other states. Lawmakers believed that he would not fit with New York’s commitments to social equity. 

Next, Cuomo considered nominating former Assemblymember Karim Camara, but the 2021 session ended without official cannabis nominations. 

“There was opposition from a variety of senators to Norman … It became clear that wasn’t going to happen, so the governor didn’t put anybody up,” Savino said. “Then … as late as [June 10], we were assuming he was going to send Karim Camara — that was what people were being told, and then it just never happened.”

According to Krueger, the Senate and governor both liked Axel Bernabe for the role of OCM executive director. However, Bernabe declined due to “family reasons.” 

Support for Recreational Marijuana

For many years Krueger pushed for marijuana legalization in Albany. She said she “doesn’t know that the governor has actually been born again around any of these issues” after his opposition to legalizing cannabis. She also talked about despite the governors’ advocacy for adult-use cannabis, behind the scenes, things have been different. 

“It was like Charlie Brown and the football for me to deal with them on adult recreational, where he would make grand statements in his state of state speeches that we were going to do recreational marijuana … then he would call us together for one meeting and draw lines in the sand that were going to be so impossible that we knew he wasn’t serious,” Krueger said. “And a year would go by, and another year would go by, and another year would go by — and, again: Charlie Brown and the football.” 

Suddenly in 2021, the dynamic changed in favor of legalization. Due to Cuomo dealing with calls for his resignation and an impeachment probe, among other investigations. 

“Finally and amazingly — I think because he was preoccupied with other legal problems for himself — we actually moved the bill through that we wanted,” Krueger said. 

After passing adult-use legislation, Cuomo had a political win easing the pressure he was under and shining the spotlight on New York legalizing recreational marijuana. 

Moving Forward With Legal Cannabis Industry 

Moving forward, lawmakers will have two options with the legal industry. If they do not receive a confirmable nominee for the positions. The first option is to wait it out and see if the governor will submit a nomination. The second option is to pass legislation to remove the governor from the process. 

The second option is less likely as it will require Democrats to use their supermajority power. Not to mention, there is potential for an impeachment investigation. The impeachment proceedings could call for the governor to step down temporarily while the trial runs its course. 

“There is a reasonable assumption that we will have a different governor within a matter of months,” Krueger said. “In which case, I don’t wish to delay moving forward [with] cannabis, but it may be a short delay.”

In either case, establishing New York’s legal marijuana market is impossible without the governor’s involvement. But until then, lawmakers argue that the state should at least move forward with enacting MRTA provisions. 

According to Savino, about “90 percent” of the medical cannabis-related changes could be done without establishing the OCM board or new regulations.

But Cuomo’s administration asserts that the medical program changes “require a series of regulatory and administrative changes.”

Wrapping Up 

“If we don’t do anything else, right now, in the state of New York, you can legally be in possession of three ounces of marijuana and smoke it anywhere you can legally smoke tobacco,” Krueger said. “You can’t buy it, you can’t sell it legally, which means that the illegal market is going to run the table in a state where we just recently hailed the passage of legalizing marijuana. That makes no sense.”

Lawmakers are warning that the delays could push back the state’s timeline for opening recreational cannabis dispensaries. Initially, experts expected the process to take at least 18 months, given the examples from other states with legal markets. The delays will leave New York in a delicate situation.

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