Key Takeways:

• Timeframe: New York regulators are on track to open up general cannabis licensing following Labor Day. 
• Competitive Applications: The Revised Regulations have changed the application process from one that was “continuous and rolling” to set application windows for limited licenses based on regions. 
• Corporate Considerations:  Priority status remains highly relevant – as do the complicating and highly fact-specific true party of interest restrictions and prohibitions.  
• Registered Organizations: While these rules have certainly improved the pathway for licensure for medical operators, significant issues still remain.

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New York’s Office of Cannabis Management (“OCM”) has posted, and the Cannabis Control Board (the “CCB” or “Board”) voted to approve the filing of, certain revised adult-use regulations (the “Revised Regulations”). While these Revised Regulations merely contain amendments to the robust first set of proposed rules (“Prior Draft”), they are important given both the timing for general adult-use licensing it lays out, as well as the roadmap for what the application process and adult-use marketplace will look like in the weeks, months, and years to come.
Timeline

As it relates to timing, the million dollar question for prospective cannabis businesses in New York has been when will general licensing commence. Most are familiar that the only licenses issued in New York, to date, have been conditional licenses with extremely limiting conditions (hemp program licensure, qualifying businesses, qualifying convictions), meaning, license opportunities have not been available to any old businesses and/or individuals that wished to apply. However, the posting of the Revised Regulations today aligns with statements made by Senior Level OCM officials regarding the anticipated roll-out towards regular licensing. For instance, Axel Bernabe, Chief of Staff and Senior Policy Director of OCM, previously gave the anticipated timeline as follows: 
 

The regulations that we filed for public comment, we’re really trying to get them done by our May 11 board meeting. If we get it done by then, we should be able to file final regs by the end of August. Then we can start opening the general application period within a couple months of that. These are all tentative dates, but in the fall, after Labor Day, that’s when we can start to award more dispensaries.

(Emphasis added.) 

In short, several months after this comment was made, OCM’s predication on the time-frame for the Revised Regulations have hit the mark, with the hope that the remainder of the timeline noted above also holds true.  

From here, we wait for the formal publication of the Revised Regulations in the New York Register, and another forty-five (45) day comment period. After the publication of the Prior Draft, an initial sixty (60) day comment period commenced. Following the close of that comment period, the Board could have adopted, revised, or withdrawn the rule proposal. Given that they have revised the regulations, the Board was required to submit a Notice of Revised Rule Making, which triggered the immediate forty-five (45) day review period.

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