In New York, cannabis growers trapped by legalization failures

When, in 2022, he obtained the green light from the authorities to legally grow cannabis near New York, Marcos Ribeiro thought he had “hit the jackpot”. Since then, the plants have flowered but like many growers, he fears keeping his production on hand.

In a greenhouse, a two-hour drive from the megacity on Long Island, the farmer is working on the last phase of his “blue dream” harvest, among hundreds of leafy and fragrant plants that can produce one kilo of flowers each.

“It’s a very popular West Coast strain that’s a daytime smoke. A lot of people prefer it because they don’t want to get knocked out,” he smiles amid his lush decor.

But for the moment, the business is less flourishing than expected for this son of Portuguese immigrants who grew up on Long Island and, after studying architecture, set up a masonry company, before launching into the hemp then cannabis.

– Clogged market –

More than two years after the legalization of cannabis consumption in New York State, Marcos Ribeiro, 40, has invested “hundreds of thousands of dollars”, but the legal sector, which promises to generate billions, is experiencing major setbacks at start-up, and the black market continues to thrive.

“All this cannabis has grown, and there is no store to sell it,” he sighs. “It’s very stressful.”

In his struggle, he is not alone. More than 200 operations are recorded throughout the state — for only 23 legal cannabis stores, in a region of 20 million inhabitants that extends into Canada.

“Growers are sitting on a large amount of production that they may potentially not be able to bring to market. This risks putting them under enormous financial pressure,” warns Andrew Rosner, vice president of the Cannabis Association at New York.

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According to another organization, the Alliance of Cannabis Growers, losses could amount to several million dollars in the worst cases.

– Priority –

Among half of the American states which have legalized recreational cannabis in addition to its medical use, that of New York prides itself on having designed an ambitious plan: the consumer (over 21 years old) must be able to smoke quality weed controlled and traced, which grew locally.

As for the labeled stores, they were given priority to merchants convicted in the past for an offense related to marijuana, in order to repair the impact of the repression which first affected African-Americans and Hispanics.

But last August, the courts stopped the opening of any new businesses, after a complaint from army veterans who felt wronged because they did not benefit from this priority. Last week, the Democratic-held state finally reached a settlement with the plaintiffs.

“We plan to grant licenses to at least a thousand businesses in the coming weeks and months”, in particular to “relieve our growers”, assures the director of policies at the Office of Cannabis Management, John Kagia.

– Black market –

The air of New York is already invaded by the smell of “weed”, sold more or less clandestinely in unlicensed shops which abound.

To sell his first productions, Marcos Ribeiro adapted: rather than selling it in the form of flowers to smoke, he entrusted it to a certified processor who extracted the THC oil, the psychoactive substance of the plant. , to manufacture edible cannabis gummies, the use of which is very widespread in the United States.

THC oil, dense, copper or brown in color and with a powerful odor, can also be used to make lotions, creams, e-liquids or cannabis drinks. David Falkowski, another Long Island grower, keeps it carefully in large jars, lined up in a closed wire cabinet, inside a prefab on his farm.

Coming from a family of farmers, this sturdy 46-year-old man, with dreadlocks tied in a bun, has always grown vegetables and mushrooms. But diversifying into hemp and then cannabis, which he firmly believes has soothing properties, was a question of “survival”.

“A large part of our harvest is waiting in these jars,” he summarizes. “Everyone can produce 10,000 packs of gum or more (…) But to cover the costs of compliance, extraction, employees, insurance, taxes, we need to be in large volumes,” continues- he.

“The path is really difficult,” he sums up, worried. “All our other income” was invested in cannabis, in particular to finance the machines for extracting THC.

“The idea was to add a rope to have new money coming in. For the moment, we are only seeing money going out,” adds David Falkowski.

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