State lawmakers in Albany on Wednesday, May 31, passed a bill to extend cannabis cultivator licenses for one year, avoiding a potential disruption of the state’s fledgling cannabis industry.
When the cannabis industry first started, the state issued one-year conditional licenses to cannabis cultivators, which were set to expire Thursday. Because the state’s cannabis industry has developed slower than expected, state lawmakers have now extended those licenses before the end of the legislative session on June 8.
Currently, cultivators — the people who grew the state’s first legal cannabis plants — are allowed to sell their product to processors and cannabis store owners. If their conditional licenses were allowed to expire, they would’ve no longer been allowed to sell, and the industry’s supply chain would be completely disrupted.
The bill for a one-year extension passed both the Assembly and state Senate Wednesday. It now awaits a signature from Gov. Kathy Hochul. Her office did not immediately respond to requests about whether she plans to sign the bill into law.
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