The new medical home-grow regulations will allow medical cannabis patients to grow up to six plants. Caregivers can grow for a maximum of four patients, or up to 12 plants. The regulations also say landlords may not refuse to lease to patients, or penalize them for legally growing weed.

The CCB also approved amendments to the state’s cannabinoid hemp program. The new rules create a new license type that allow approved hemp farmers to sell hemp flower they grow, and raise the maximum cannabinoid allowance per serving to 100 milligrams. The maximum allowance was previously 75 milligrams.

CCB members approved conditional licenses to 19 cultivators and 10 processors, bringing the number of businesses holding conditional cultivator and conditional processor licenses to 261 and 25.

In Chautauqua County, the businesses that now have conditional cultivator licenses include The ReLeaf Market LLC, Weaver Road Farms LLC, Fare Thee Well Farm, Inc., and Tadt Services LLC.

The ReLeaf Market Owner Kerry Trammel

A Kiantone business is one of 52 businesses granted a conditional license to grow cannabis in New York State.

The ReLeaf Market, located on Foote Avenue Extension, got the news Thursday, April 14 from the state. Owner Kerry Trammel said one of the qualifications required to get the license that the Releaf Market met was that they had been growing hemp for two years.

She said while Kiantone has opted out of allowing retail dispensaries and consumption lounges, the cultivation of cannabis is still legal in the town.

Trammel said that ReLeaf Market is only licensed to grow cannabis at this time, “Basically, we’re cultivating the cannabis so that when dispensary licenses are given out, they have a product that they can purchase from us and sell to the communities.”

She said that they can cultivate up to one-acre of a farm they have in Chautauqua County or grow in a greenhouse that has a maximum size of 20,000 square feet. If both are done, the grow space is limited to 30,000 square feet, “We can hold a cultivation license, the conditional cultivation license, for two years. And after that two years we can already be applied for one of the other licenses that has come out or apply for the cultivation license to continue. So we have an option. Hopefully, those licenses will be out before the two years are up.”

Trammel said the whole process of starting to grow cannabis is highly regulated, “It’s going to be modeled more like the medical side of it – lots of security, everything is tracked seed to sale, so we’ll have bar codes on everything and fences around all of the property. So, yeah, it’s a lot of work to get done in a short amount of time.”

Trammel said they hope to start planting by June 12 with the hope that some dispensaries will have received licensing so that they can sell their product by the end of the year.

The initial 52 farms issued conditional cultivator licenses by the NYS Cannabis Control Board

The State Cannabis Control Board has approved 52 conditional cultivator licenses to farms.

These are the first adult-use cannabis licenses granted in New York State and they advance the Seeding Opportunity Initiative.

Governor Kathy Hochul said the approved licenses are from a pool of more than 150 that have been submitted to the Office of Cannabis Management following the March 15 opening of the online application portal. She said the OCM is reviewing applications on a rolling basis and to get them to the Board for approval as quickly as possible.

In February, Hochul signed legislation creating the Cannabis Conditional Cultivator Licenses and then in March, she announced the Seeding Opportunity Initiative, which positions equity-entrepreneurs to be the first to make adult-use cannabis sales in New York with products grown by New York farmers.

Under the Initiative, these initial equity-entrepreneur, retail owners must meet two prongs of eligibility to qualify. First, they must have a cannabis-related conviction that occurred prior to the passage of the Marijuana Regulation and Tax Act (MRTA) on March 31, 2021, or had a parent, guardian, child, spouse, or dependent with a pre-MRTA cannabis-related conviction in the State of New York. Second, they must also have experience owning and operating a successful business in the State of New York.