WWL's Newell Normand has talked countless times about the downside of marijuana legalization. And he has new evidence that his beliefs are correct.
A study from New York shows that while the 85 legal dispensaries were licensed, another 2,000 rogue shops selling marijuana to kids, criminals and the like popped up. "They've got the lion's share of the business," Normand said, and it's upsetting the people who went through the expensive and lengthy licensing process.
Welcome to reality, Normand said.
The culture of non-compliance will eat licensed people alive, he said, adding that the governor of New York ordered a review of the office of cannabis management and wants more punishment of unlicensed dealers.
She also wants taxes slashed on licensed dealers, and for the state to provide financing and capital to get a legal marijuana business off the ground.
"Can you believe this? This is absolutely crazy," Normand said. "Want to know why people are running from New York? For this very reason."
The first licenses in New York went to those with criminal convictions. "Go figure," Normand said.
The New York Times reported that legal shops are "struggling to break the illicit shops’ hold on consumers, who often don’t know or care which shops are licensed. Last year was the first full year of legal sales, and state-licensed dispensaries sold about $150 million. By comparison, shops in New Jersey, where recreational sales started eight months before New York, raked in $673 million last year."
“They need to get a handle on that quickly,” James Stephenson, a co-founder and chief executive of oHHo, a wellness brand that depends on dispensaries to sell its cannabis-infused chocolates, gummies and seltzers, told the New York Times. “You can’t have one set of people playing by the rules.”