New York To Add 212 Retail Cannabis Licenses, Industry Insider's Stinging Response 'Slow Rollout Wasted Millions'

The New York State Cannabis Control Board (NYCCB) met Wednesday and decided, among other issues, to add 212 additional retail dispensary licenses as part of its much-delayed rollout of legal cannabis. This brings the number of licenses to 463.

"The decision to further expand the CAURD program will help ensure the retail market is robust enough to sell the cannabis grown by New York farmers and accelerate the transition of New York consumers from the illicit to the legal market," said an official. CAURD is New York’s Conditional Adult-Use Retail Dispensary program.

“An additional 212 provisional licensees have been approved by the NYCCB, making this the biggest cohort to date. The program now expands to 463 licenses as the State continues to work to build an equitable framework for NY cannabis, the agency said on Twitter.

'"The decision to further expand the CAURD program will help ensure the retail market is robust enough to sell the cannabis grown by New York farmers and accelerate the transition of New York consumers from the illicit to the legal market," the official said.

Too Little, Too Late?

Jason Wild, executive chairman of Terrascend Corp TSNDF had some stinging comments on NY’s beleaguered cannabis roll-out.

“Could the $100s of millions of dollars that NY lost out on in taxes bc of their ‘choice’ to slow roll the program, have been used more effectively to help the communities hurt by the war on drugs? Or was it more satisfying to inflict pain on every stakeholder so they could run twitter ads demonstrating their virtue.”

Wild, who is a regular guest at the Benzinga Cannabis Capital Conference, was letting NY’s cannabis officials have it.

“Lol, another 212 groups that will be hurt by your incompetence as they wait to be able to open a store. Take a look at the scoreboard. You’ve opened up 20 stores in 2.5 yrs and crushed practically everyone else by selling them on the generational wealth opportunity and purposely leaving the void to be filled by the illicit mkt. You should be ashamed, but instead you keep lying about how it’s going.”

Want to hear more about the travails of NY's pokey rollout of what was meant to be a promising legal weed market? It is sure to come up at the Benzinga Cannabis Capital Conference in Chicago this Sept 27-28. Get your tickets today before prices increase and secure a spot at the epicenter of cannabis investment and branding.