Cannabis farmers will get skunked if they can’t move their crop to market. With only 23 dispensaries open statewide there are over 200 farmers with weed they can’t sell, according to a letter that bipartisan Senate and Assembly members wrote to Governor Kathy Hochul last week.
“This has resulted in more than 250,000 pounds of unsold cannabis,” the letter read. “Farmers who took out loans and leveraged all their assets to cultivate these crops are demoralized and facing financial disaster unless we act quickly to provide them with an alternate market.”
Lawmakers are looking for the governor to sign the Cannabis Crop Rescue Act, which will allow those farmers to sell their cannabis to tribal nations. The act was passed in June and is sitting on the governor’s desk.
The bill is called a “lifeline” for these farmers by the legislators who penned the letter.
“Very simply, the extended timeline of New York State’s troubled rollout of the licensing and regulations establishing a safe, legal market for adult-use cannabis has had a significant negative impact on New York’s licensed cannabis farmers who invested in crops they now have limited places to sell,” the letter says.
The crop is also losing value by the day, according to the lawmakers. While the red tape is unraveled it is the cultivators who are paying the steepest price.
The letter was signed by a number of representatives from Long Island including Assemblyman Fred Thiele, Assemblywoman Jodi Giglio and Senator Kevin Thomas.
“We are urging the Governor to quickly sign this short-term solution, one that will help provide some measure of relief to what is quickly becoming an agricultural emergency,” the lawmakers say.