Creating a brand-new industry from the ground up is no small task. Yet that is what New York State is doing with the cannabis industry.
It hasn’t always been a smooth ride. Late last year, litigation temporarily derailed Conditional Adult-Use Retail Dispensary licenses in Western New York and four other counties, preventing the first legal cannabis stores from opening there.
That means local cannabis growers’ excitement about harvesting their first legal crops was tempered by their inability to sell their product to anyone in Western New York. It sent them scrambling for ways to preserve and process their plants, and looking to make new relationships with potential customers elsewhere in the state.