BY ROBBIE SEQUEIRA
This is the fi nal part of a
three-part series by the Bronx
Times looking at the potential
benefi ts New York state’s legalization
of cannabis, known as
the Marijuana Regulation and
Taxation Act, could have on
the Bronx.
De’Shawn Avery, a Claremont
resident, has made a lucrative
side hustle out of selling
cannabis to a spectrum of
interested customers in the
Bronx. From the suburbanite
New Yorkers attending borough
universities, a mother
of two looking to relax after
work, or just anyone interested
in cannabis who knew
of Avery through word-ofmouth
— Avery said there’s a
lot of trust that goes into each
sale.
While the recreational
cannabis market in New York
won’t get off the ground for at
least another 18 months, Avery
wonders what will happen
to him and a generation
of legacy dealers — who were
instrumental in providing
New Yorkers access to a variety
of marijuana strains and
products before the passing of
MRTA last March.
“People can look at me and
call me a drug dealer or a vagrant,
but I’m an entrepreneur
who provides a very indemand
product when there
was no product to be ‘found’
in NYC,” Avery told the Bronx
Times. “I’m worried that I
don’t fi t the prototype of who
(New York cannabis leaders)
want selling legal weed to
people. It’s usually not Black
people or people with records
who are favored when
it comes to moneymaking opportunities.”
The main goal of the Marijuana
Regulation and Taxation
Act (MRTA) — which
forms the regulatory ecosystem
for the production and
sale of cannabis, creates a
new adult-use cannabis program
and could provide
30,000-60,000 jobs citywide —
is that it can systematically
benefi t the Black and brown
communities most affected by
its criminalization.
But for cannabis advocates
and activists, New York state
and the leaders of the newlyestablished
Cannabis Control
Board following through
on the promise of MRTA, depends
on how it treats NYC’s
underground of legacy cannabis
operators.
According to New York
Cannabis Control Board
Chair Tremaine Wright, she
doesn’t expect the agency to
fi nish crafting regulations
or begin issuing business licenses
for an additional year
and a half, but ensured that
large corporations will not
be allowed to dominate the
state’s legal cannabis market.
“We’ll level the playing
fi eld,” she said at the main
lecture stage of last month’s
Cannabis World Congress &
Business Exposition at the Jacob
Javits Center. “If we were
to allow huge corporations to
dominate, it would be just another
way to undermine and
repress communities that
have been unduly burdened.
We’re ready to make cannabis
inclusive.”
For cannabis activists, the
time is now for New York state
to provide a pathway for legacy
operators to emerge from
the weeds of the legacy market
and transition into the legal
one without leaving them
behind.
Steve DeAngelo, a national
cannabis activist, witness the
fi rsthand effects of Proposition
64 — California’s legal
cannabis measure that passed
in 2016 — and hopes that New
York state doesn’t make the
same mistake with MRTA in
excluding a generation of legacy
BRONX TIMES REPORTER, D 14 EC. 10-16, 2021 BTR
dealers from an estimated
$4.6 billion in annual cannabis
sales that is expected to
happen in the state in 2022.
DeAngelo identifi ed two
urgent policy matters — the
Dec. 30 deadline for local
jurisdictions to opt-out of
adult-use marijuana dispensaries
and the entry of New
York’s 10 existing medicaluse
registered organizations
(ROs) receiving priority into
the adult-use market — that
threaten to recreate the same
“harmful dynamic” that unfolded
in California.
DeAngelo added that one
of the fundamental fl aws of
Prop 64 were regulatory measures
that prioritized the entry
of corporate cannabis
companies over legacy licensees,
thus encouraging legacy
operators to continue operating
illegally.
“This has been the case
in California, where, unburdened
with the costs of regulation
or taxation, legacy operators
are not incentivized
to join the legal market,” he
said.
“I think that legacy operators
should be entering the
market fi rst,” said DeAngelo,
who suggests background
screenings to ensure that operators
don’t have criminal,
violent hard drug histories
and laboratory testing of cannabis
products to prevent contaminated
strains on the market.
DeAngelo’s fi ght for cannabis
justice comes from his
own experience working in
the black market. DeAngelo
operated a cannabis business
out of Mexico that served
the New York and Washington,
D.C., markets. In 2001,
he was convicted of possession
with intent to distribute
marijuana, and given a fi veyear
suspended sentence and
three years of probation. That
conviction later prevented his
brother and business partner
from acquiring a medical
marijuana license in Massachusetts.
When California passed
Prop 64, it allowed for jurisdictions
to choose whether
to opt in. In California, when
faced with an imminent deadline
to accept cannabis commerce,
most jurisdictions
chose to opt out. The result
has been a ban on legal cannabis
business in 50% of California’s
local jurisdictions,
and DeAngelo anticipates
the same ratio will be seen in
New York if the deadline is
not extended past Dec. 30.
The default of MRTA is
that municipalities are automatically
opted-in to the retail
marijuana market; municipalities
only have to take
action if they plan to opt out.
Those municipalities that
do decide to opt out will not
be eligible to receive any of
the revenue generated from
adult-use marijuana sales.
Equity, and opening a
pathway for legacy dealers to
sell cannabis legally is paramount
to the success of cannabis
legislation, DeAngelo
says.
But getting legacy cannabis
operators into the state’s
burgeoning cannabis trade
isn’t purely for fi nancial reason,
it’s also a safety issue for
consumers.
On Nov. 15, authorities in
Connecticut reported what
they believe could be the fi rst
documented case of cannabis
contaminated by fentanyl,
and there are growing fears
that surrounding states, New
York included, could start
seeing cases of contaminated
cannabis products.
“Rather than waiting until
every regulation is ready to
be implemented, we must let
delivery surface now — with
background checks, lab testing,
tax payments — despite
not yet having a licensed supply
chain,” DeAngelo said.
“We must learn from their
successes and shortfalls, absorb
the knowledge and expertise
of longtime operators,
and offer them a space in the
industry, rather than criminalization
and exclusion.”
New York State Assembly
Majority Leader Crystal
Peoples-Stokes, a Democrat,
played a pivotal role in forming
recently legalized cannabis
legislation within New
York and advocated for social
equity measures to be contained
within the law as well
as preserving legacy operators
in the industry, by providing
them the tools to succeed
in the legal market.
“I’m proud to support the
Legacy to Legal education series
because it brings Black
and brown entrepreneurs
who’ve been working in the
shadows to the table so that
they can be part of New York’s
adult-use market. In order for
legal cannabis to be equitable,
we must integrate them into
our framework,” she said.
Where do NYC
legacy cannabis
operators factor
in the state’s
legal market