State cannabis regulators in New York issued a statement saying that over 2.7 million New Yorkers consume cannabis at least once a month. Their research only backs their pleas to introduce a more robust legal marketplace for cannabis.
John Kagia, director of the state Office of Cannabis Management said that “There is a large established market,” in hopes of convincing regulators and law makers to improve, increase, and expand the legal side of cannabis in the empire state.
According to the New York Post nearly 1/5 of New York’s adult population smokes cannabis once a year. The Department of Health and Human Services says that a large majority of these consumers are still purchasing from illegal distributors. The push to transfer from illegal sources to more government sanctioned sources would increase the quality of the cannabis as well as the tax income from said sources. Increase in tax revenue from cannabis business has historically shown significant increases in public resources around the state.
“The hard work is just beginning as New York makes this transition from an unlicensed, unregulated market to a legal, regulated cannabis market,” Kagia said during his report to the Empire State’s cannabis control board. Legal sales of cannabis are still relatively low compared to the black market. People like Kagia are working to move the public to a more legal set of retailers.
One of the reasons that legal sales are still slow is the lack of licensed dispensaries within the state. As of the current date, only 20 licensed dispensaries and delivery methods are open. Obviously, more are on the way, but there is a certain speed at which these things happen. Until more cannabis shops open around the state, most cannabis enjoyers will continue to rely on their usual black-market purchases.
Read the whole article from the NYPost Here.
