New York Farmers Can Switch From Hemp to Cannabis This Season
New York’s governor Kathy Hochul signed a bill that will help stock the future recreational shops with cannabis grown within the state. The current holders of licenses to grow hemp can now apply for permission to cultivate the psychoactive cannabis as well as process and cell it.
It’s been almost a year since New York state legalized recreational cannabis. However, the first adult-use shops are yet to open as officials still hammer out the details of the future legal market. The sales are expected to begin next year.
Local Farmers Prioritized
Thanks to the new legislation, the first cannabis seeds can be put in the ground this spring. Although the details of the licensing process are not yet finalized, the bill allows applying for provisional, two-year licenses. The aim is not to start the coming season of legal sales with shortages in the supply.
According to the law, a temporary license can only be given to those businesses that are registered as hemp growers by the Department of Agriculture and have in fact grown hemp for at least two seasons. Another demand is that a farmer uses sustainable and environmentally friendly practices.
Equitable and Inclusive
There have been several similar initiatives to resolve the issue of cannabis cultivation for the future adult-use cannabis market, but New York’s lawmakers adopted this particular proposal because of its strong social equity content.
The bill aims to help communities that have been hit especially hard by the war on drugs. This mostly means Blacks and other ethnic minorities who were suffering higher arrest, conviction, and incarceration rates despite the same rates in the use of marijuana as Whites.
Under the new bill, farmers who will be given licenses will be obligated to mentor would-be cannabis entrepreneurs and employees from underprivileged groups.
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