NY Cannabis Retail Association Lobbies For All-Inclusive Industry

“To come from the streets to getting recognized by the Governor, it’s pretty great to see,” says Jayson Tantalo, co-founder of the New York Cannabis Retail Association (NYCRA).

*NYCRA founders Britni Tantalo, Coss Marte, and Jayson Tantalo (C) NYCRA*

What Is The New York Cannabis Retail Association (NYCRA)?

Formerly known as the New York CAURD Coalition, NYCRA unites and advocates for stakeholders in every sector of the state’s legal cannabis marketplace. The organization’s motto is “Collaboration over competition,” represented in its membership of over 300 cultivators, processors, and retailers from all regions. They are committed to steering New York to an equitable future piloted by those who know the culture. Created in late 2022 by Jayson and his wife Britni, who own the soon-to-be-opened Flower City Dispensary in Rochester, and Coss Marte of Manhattan’s CONBUD, the coalition has been a transformative force for progress.

This February, several NYCRA members joined a pivotal session with Governor Kathy Hochul to discuss protecting licensed retailers, in a market currently oversaturated by unlicensed businesses. In a press conference, the Governor addressed the need to strengthen the legal market by shuttering illicit shops, and called on tech platforms like Google and Yelp to stop promoting illegal stores.

“We have to change consumer behavior and incentivize them to shop legal,” Britni declares. “We’re trying to work with the Governor and legislators… to loosen the chains from legal dispensaries that are hindering them from just competing on the street.”

“Within [the cannabis community], we bring every invested stakeholder to communicate with each other,” Jayson shares. “But we also bring the [public] the information they need to become invested stakeholders and enter our community.”

What Are NYCRA's 2024 Legislative Agenda Items For New York's Cannabis Space?

To further its goals, NYCRA has a deep legislative agenda ahead for the rest of 2024 (available on its website), which the co-founders explain includes:

Codifying New York's Conditional Adult Use Retail Dispensary Program

Codifying the Conditional Adult Use Retail Dispensary (CAURD) program, which grants licenses to people negatively impacted by cannabis criminalization. “If you’re a licensed operator and you’re not asking questions about codifying CAURD, you’re in jeopardy of losing everything,” Jayson warns.

“We have to get CAURD into statute, where it’s protected,” Britni adds. “[With that], we won’t have potential risk of injunction that slows down the process of legal dispensaries coming out and therefore allows more illicit shops to come up. That in itself will effectively stop these markets.”

Reforming New York's Cannabis Potency Tax And Marketing Regulations

Reforming New York’s potency tax, which makes regulated THC products extremely expensive. “When we increase tax in a high inflationary period, everything is a fortune for every middle-class to lower-income family,” states Britni. State Senator Jeremy Cooney has proposed a bill to replace the potency tax - determined by milligram of THC per product, in addition to sales and excise taxes - with a flat wholesale excise tax, which NYCRA supports.
Reforming marketing regulations. Licensed cannabis businesses are stringently restricted in how they can market and package their products, signage they can use on their stores, and even have to keep their goods from being seen through their windows. Unlicensed businesses can flout these rules.

“The public has not been educated enough to identify a legal dispensary,” Coss notes. “Right now you can tell your friends about [retailers like] CONBUD, post about [them] on social media. But that’s why we’re also pushing to change the marketing regulations.”

Jayson, who has over 20 years’ experience in SEO and website development, observes how platforms like Google will shut down licensed businesses’ listings but promote those of illicit shops. “That’s why we have to give cultivators and processors more access to consumers. Currently they can only educate the budtenders, who have a high rate of turnover. So they need to have the ability to educate the customer in-store.”

Place a retailer on the Cannabis Advisory Board, so stakeholders from that side of the supply chain can have a say in crafting the state’s policies.
Establish a publicly-funded State Social Equity Fund, which would convert the existing private one run by New York’s Dormitory Authority (DASNY) to a revolving fund that provides low-interest loans to social equity licensees throughout the supply chain.
Work to shut down the illicit market. “The illicit shops have made it cheaper to buy the weed than to grow it,” Jayson asserts. “We’re in a collapsed market that affects cultivators, processors, and ancillary as well as retailers. It’s a problem across the state.”

To advance social equity, NYCRA is participating in the state’s Cannabis Hub and Incubator Program (CHIP), which includes helping license applicants with deficiencies in their filings, an initiative that NYCRA’s Social Equity Chair Roger Thomas is overseeing for the organization’s members. The coalition also partners with ancillary business partners to provide its membership with other operational resources they may need, from accounting to buildout to graphic design.

NYCRA's Events

Throughout the year, people will be able to find NYCRA at numerous events. The group attended SOMOS in March, only the second cannabis event ever formally scheduled at the State Capitol, where they brought community members to network with legislators. In April they were represented at MJ Unpacked in Atlantic City, New Jersey, and in June at the Cannabis World Congress and Business Expo (CWCBE) at New York City’s Javits Center. More opportunities for connection will follow.

“What we’ve put together with NYCRA is what we dream about,” Coss describes. “A whole network of people who want this plant to be free. NYCRA brings that to the table in New York.”

To join NYCRA or get more information, visit newyorkcannabisretailassociation.org or follow @nycannabisretailassociation on Instagram.

*A version of this article originally appeared in Honeysuckle's 18th print edition. Click here to order and choose your element - Fire with Bun B or Ice with Queen P!