In its inaugural year, New York’s legal cannabis market has reported over $150 million in sales, with more than 6,900 businesses applying to sell cannabis products since December 2022. However, only 40 dispensaries have been approved for adult-use product sales, resulting in 3.5 million units sold within the year. The slow rollout of legal cannabis, high taxes, and unclear regulations have posed challenges, allowing unlicensed retailers to dominate the market. Despite hurdles, analysts project the potential value of New York’s weed market to be around $7.5 billion in 2024. To address illicit operations, the state has imposed fines on landlords housing unlicensed cannabis businesses and conducted inspections, seizing $56 million worth of products. New legislation allows the closure of stores engaged in illegal cannabis sales, with the state collecting $16.3 million in tax revenue in the 2023 fiscal year and anticipating $16.6 million in the first half of 2024. The Office of Cannabis Management plans to issue “hundreds more” adult-use licenses, aiming to help the industry thrive across the state.
By FCCT Editorial Team
, an independent military force, and allied militias in Sudan raped several dozen women and girls in West Darfur’s capital, El Geneina, and those fleeing to Chad between late April and late June 2023, Human Rights Watch said today. The assailants appear to have targeted people because of their Massalit ethnicity and, in some cases, because they were known activists.){kind=link}