An alarming new investigation released by members of the New York Medical Cannabis Industry Association has uncovered that illegal cannabis flower – smuggled in from the West Coast – is being sold in licensed dispensaries across New York State.
Lab-verified findings confirm that at least two widely available brands, Heady Tree and Runtz, were not grown in New York and entered the state illegally, according to the organization. Bulk quantities of out-of-state products easily made their way into New York and on to the shelves of legal stores due to state regulators not implementing a track-and-trace system.
Illegal Cannabis Products Investigation Continues
Advanced testing from a fully accredited Office of Cannabis Management lab in conjunction with academic partners analyzed the cannabis flower to identify pesticides, soil type and metals and determined with high probability that the cannabis from these brands was grown on the West Coast. Findings can be found here. Additional testing is ongoing to verify other brands suspected of nefarious activities, according to the organization.
While cannabis is legal in a growing number of states, it is still illegal federally, meaning that cannabis cannot be distributed across state lines. All cannabis sold in New York must be grown and processed within the state’s borders, according to the organization. This is a regulation designed to support local farmers, protect public health and ensure legal tested, products generate tax revenue that benefits all New Yorkers.
“Even one product from out of state ending up on a licensed dispensary shelf is unacceptable,” said Ngiste Abebe, spokesperson for the New York Medical Cannabis Industry Association, in a news release. “The fact that multiple brands were found at multiple stores shows we have a systemic failure. The lack of a standardized track-and-trace system is directly enabling this problem. The Office of Cannabis Management has had over two years since adult-use sales began, but we still don’t have BioTrack fully implemented. That’s inexcusable, and its hurting compliant businesses most of all.”
This growing problem – known as “inversion” – occurs when cannabis grown in oversaturated markets like California, Oregon and Washington is illegally diverted into newer markets like New York where cannabis processors and distributors purchase it for heavily discounted prices, according to the organizaton. It undermines the integrity of New York’s regulated cannabis system, robs compliant businesses of shelf space and sales, and cheats the state out of vital tax dollars.
Putting an End to Illegal Sales
To stop inversion, the OCM must immediately implement and enforce the BioTrack seed-to-sale tracking system, a system selected by NY State, to safeguard the legal market, protect consumers and support licensed New York operators. Transcripts from a February 2023 OCM Control Board Meeting discuss the anticipated availability of BioTrack in March 2023 with a 60-day implementation period, according to the organization.
Nearly two years later, BioTrack is still not in place. Without the urgent implementation of BioTrack, the illicit market will continue to grow inside the very system designed to replace it.
Every day that the illicit market is allowed to grow has devastating consequences for the whole cannabis industry. The illicit market is actively harming cannabis sales which slows down the opening of new dispensaries and the diversification of legal products, stalls job growth and harms patients in New York by curbing growth of the medical market, according to the organization. The chief priority of the OCM should be implementing BioTrack to stop illegal cannabis from making its way into New York.
