Name it a transfer from the Redwood Empire to the Empire State.
The Law Offices of Omar Figueroa, which focuses on hashish authorized companies, plans to hold a shingle in New York, thought-about an rising market since voters accredited grownup leisure use final 12 months. Medicinal marijuana turned authorized there in 2014.
The state is now engaged on establishing the framework of its licensing and taxation techniques with guidelines for gross sales in place by the tip of 12 months, opening the door to leisure gross sales.
The legislation agency that started working towards out of Sebastopol in 2010 leases a 50-square-foot workspace in Brooklyn to be staffed and managed by legal professional Andrew Kingsdale. Kingsdale, who’s additionally licensed in California and Massachusetts, has labored with the Sonoma County agency since 2018 and is licensed to apply legislation in New York for 15 years. Different staff are anticipated to come back on board later. The legislation agency started taking purchasers Feb. 2.
The agency’s founder, Omar Figueroa, additionally expressed enthusiasm in regards to the transcontinental enlargement as a way to comply with his ardour since attending Stanford Regulation Faculty.
“We have been advised to comply with our passions, so I adopted my ardour for hashish by pursuing hashish legislation, which is an thrilling space of legislation full of novel authorized points,” stated Figueroa, who additionally considers himself a “hashish connoiseur.” He has developed a curriculum to coach hashish sommeliers as a member of the Ganjier Circle, a membership of hashish lovers.
“New York goes to be good for us as a legislation agency,” Figueroa stated, referring to the Golden State’s 2016 passage of Proposition 64, approval of leisure hashish gross sales.
The legislation agency plans to compete with different New York attorneys by utilizing Figueroa’s experience and highlighting Kingsdale’s membership within the Committee on Hashish Regulation of the New York State Bar Affiliation. He’s additionally the chairman of the Hemp and CBD Committee of the New York State Bar Affiliation Hashish Regulation Part.
Figueroa, Kingsdale and fellow lawyer Lauren Mendelsohn have lively memberships in hashish golf equipment, together with Mendelsohn, who additionally serves as a director of the Worldwide Hashish Bar Affiliation out of Sacramento and on the Sonoma County Growers Alliance Board of Administrators.
On the helm of the Sonoma County legislation agency, Figueroa is a hashish advocate and is aware of the drill behind getting a hashish enterprise off the bottom to function legally. Final April, he revealed New York Hashish Legal guidelines and Laws 2021 obtainable on Amazon and in Barnes & Noble in addition to some native unbiased bookstores.
“I feel New York can have a look at the expertise from different states, so that they gained’t need to reinvent the wheel,” he stated.
Will New York study from California’s errors?
The Nationwide Hashish Trade Affiliation estimates the scale of the New York market is about 5.2 million shoppers, about half the scale of California. The affiliation analysts imagine the Empire State stands poised to emerge as a pressure to be reckoned with, if it learns from the errors California has dedicated.
Affiliation Economist Beau Whitney criticized how California turned short-sighted in taxing the hashish operators excessively as a result of they thought they’d “a money cow, and so they didn’t.
“Relatively, they need to have lowered the taxes to get extra participation, and so they’d make up for the income,” Whitney stated, referencing the business’s present turmoil during which operators are threatening tax revolt due to over taxation. Hashish companies have taken their pleas for an excise tax vacation and a whole dumping of the cultivation tax to the state’s government and legislative branches of presidency.
Though California differentiates itself from New York as a result of it’s thought-about a “progress” state during which it’s a mass producer of the crop, the state is knee deep in a possible market collapse. An excessive amount of product with not sufficient locations to promote it in has culminated in a plummeting wholesale worth, Whitney stated.
New York’s medicinal market is “not doing so nice” however larger goals lie forward of the grander, recreational-use marketplace for these over the age of 18.
Its guidelines are anticipated to be in play by the tip of 2022, with income anticipated to move within the following 12 months, Whitney added.
“What New York ought to study from California’s challenges is they can’t tax considerably,” he stated.
Whitney cited a newly-released survey commissioned by his agency during which hashish operators have been requested in the event that they have been making a revenue. Forty-two p.c surveyed on a nationwide scale stated they have been, whereas solely 26% of California’s hashish companies stated they have been.
“If (New York is) doing the alternative of what occurred in California, then they’ll achieve success,” he stated with a half-joking tone.
Morgan Fox, a coverage analyst with the Washington, D.C.-based nonprofit NORML (Nationwide Group for Reform of Marijuana) indicated New York has one other long-standing benefit.
“It’s the worldwide commerce heart of the world,” he stated.
Susan Wooden covers legislation, hashish, manufacturing, tech, vitality, transportation, agriculture in addition to banking and finance. For 27 years, Susan has labored for quite a lot of publications together with the North County Instances, Tahoe Each day Tribune and Lake Tahoe Information. Attain her at 530-545-8662 or [email protected].
