Huge resources going into building cannabis agency

Startling disparity in budgets of Office of Cannabis Management and State Liquor Authority suggests differing priorities at state level

The State Liquor Authority and the Office of Cannabis Management on the surface seem like similar agencies: They both regulate the manufacture, distribution and sale within the nation’s fourth-largest state of an intoxicant that is mostly consumed recreationally. (Yes, there are medical uses for marijuana, but less than 1 percent of New Yorkers have been prescribed it, according to the Marijuana Police Project.)

And while the SLA oversees a vast, 90-year-old, multibillion-dollar industry with 50,000 current licenses for making or selling alcohol and processed more than 80,000 license and permit transactions in 2021, OCM has been given far more resources for an industry that is 16 months old and so far has issued only 66 licenses for cannabis dispensaries.

OCM was established in March 2021 with the passage of the Marijuana Regulation and Taxation Act. Staffing began to ramp up that fall. In October of 2021 the agency had 14 employees; there were 135 by the end of 2022 and 150 as of this week, said Chris Alexander, who was appointed OCM’s executive director by Gov. Kathy Hochul in September 2021. A former executive with a multi-state cannabis company, Alexander previously was associate counsel for the state Senate and principal architect of the legalization bill.  [Read More @ Albany Times Union]