According to the Office of Cannabis Management’s (OCM) new report on 2024, the number of stores that are legal in New York nearly tripled, resulting in $869,000,000 worth of sales.
According to the OCM 2024 Market Report, by the end of this year, there will be 260 retail outlets operating in the state, with more than 500 different brands. Since the beginning of the legal retail market, more than one billion dollars worth of marijuana has been sold.
New York’s cannabis legal market will soon reach $1.5 Billion in sales, if you include the purchases made so far.
New York experienced significant growth in sales and tax revenues from cannabis licensed sales last year, according to a new report. This “reinforces the positive impacts of a well regulated cannabis market”.
“This market report reflects the dynamism of New York’s cannabis industry—an industry that is shifting rapidly as the market matures and encounters both opportunities and challenges,” Felicia A.B. Reid, who is the acting executive Director of this office, released a press release on Tuesday. OCM, however, remains deeply committed to making sure that New Yorkers are represented in the cannabis industry and providing meaningful opportunities for those communities who have been historically affected by prohibition.
According to the report, 55 percent licenses are held by applicants who have applied for social and financial equity. This includes 81 percent retail dispensary licences and 58 cents microbusinesses.
NY Office of Cannabis Management 2024 Market report
OCM stated that 70% of retail outlets would be open by 2024 if operators were granted licenses under the Conditional Adult Use Retail Dispensary Program (CAURD), designed to address the disproportionate enforcement against certain communities of cannabis laws.
Unsurprisingly, the sales in Manhattan, Queens, and Long Island were highest.
A press release by OCM stated that the purpose of this report is to provide the Cannabis Control Board with the necessary information to monitor and adapt the state’s marijuana system and support the “goals of fairness, inclusion and sustainability” set out in Marihuana Regulation and Taxation Act.
John Kagia said that the comprehensive data provided by this report will help us understand and advance the regulatory and policies decisions to enhance New York’s cannabis industry’s viability in the future. With insights into sales trends, consumer behavior and product diversification we are equipping the CCB with the tools to help businesses navigate the competitive market pressures.
OCM’s release on the new report states that the market continues to expand. It says that as of April this year, there were 368 licensed retailers in the state, and total sales of “approaching $1.5 billion”.
NY Office of Cannabis Management 2024 Market report
This report provides updates regarding operational retailers and licenses, but also highlights market trends like consumer behavior, and their increased consumption of other products such as edibles, vape products, and non-flower products.
According to the report, flower products (including prerolls) accounted less than half of total sales. This is due to “the high demand for products with added value, such as edibles and concentrates.” [which] “The number of people who have grown”
This finding is in accordance with a Centers for Disease Control and Prevention report, which found that in some U.S. states, consumers are using less flower, concentrates and oils. Topicals, tinctures and tinctures have also been reduced. This report also showed an increase in edibles and beverages, as well as vape cartridges.
Nearly two thirds of those in New York who buy flowers do so in packages of 3.5 grams, which is an eighth ounce.
NY Office of Cannabis Management 2024 Market report
About 23 per cent of all flower sales in New York were made by brands belonging to state-licensed medical cannabis operators. These are known as registered organizations, or ROs, in New York. Flowers from registered organizations (ROs) are usually more expensive than adult-use products, particularly for large packages.
Prerolled joints were mainly one-gram (80%) with the rest being half-grams (15%). Most of the sales were made by packages with 5 prerolls or more. Prerolls were sold in 33 percent single joints.
NY Office of Cannabis Management 2024 Market report
The flavors most commonly used in edibles are raspberry (7%) watermelon (5%) lemonade (5%) blueberry (5%) peach (4%), and watermelon (4%). The most common form of beverage was in a can (78%) with concentrated drops (9%), powder (6%) tea bags (5%) and shots (2%) following.
The new OCM Report includes recommendations to continue educating consumers on the legal market.
The report states that the majority of New York’s cannabis legal demand is coming from customers who have moved from the illegal market to the legal market. This will not be new cannabis users, but consumers who switched from using illicit cannabis. The legal cannabis market has only just begun to grow, with less than one fifth of estimated demand for the state.
It continues, “Many customers are unaware of the brands and products they encounter on the regulated market. They rely upon their experience in the illegal market to guide their purchases.” The report states that consumer education plays a crucial role in helping consumers make informed decisions about their purchases. It also helps them better understand and experience the products they purchase.
Before the 4/20 celebration earlier in this month, regulatory agencies launched a campaign aimed at providing adults with “informed, responsible decision-making about cannabis” including where to find state-licensed retail stores.
This office advises “continued enforcement is crucial to build a healthy regulated market”, pointing out what they describe as successful enforcement in 2024. Operation Padlock is an enforcement program that was implemented by New York City officials last spring to close illegal shopfronts. According to an OCM study, within months of the start of Operation Padlock, sales at licensed stores that had been open prior to its launch grew by 105 percent.
OCM also recommends in the new report that all adult-use cultivators—not just ROs and certain others—be permitted to grow marijuana in indoor facilities, though it acknowledged that allowance could increase the industry’s energy footprint.
The report states that “authorizing licensees of adult-use cultivators to move to indoor cultivation will increase the supply chain’s stability and address the lack of indoor flower.” The report says that this will enable all licensed cultivators to use the best environments for their respective business models, and also address market imbalances caused by the limited number indoor-growing growers.
Officials wrote that federal policy change “will shape next chapter in legal market growth”, though those changes could still be “years away.”
According to the report, the Drug Enforcement Administration, for instance, had “indicated that it would reconsider rescheduling” in 2025. “However, the beginning of the hearings processes has been slowed by procedural difficulties.”
The organization stated that earlier this month a group supporting reform of drug policies withdrew their lawsuit filed against the DEA regarding the rescheduling. This was done in order to “avoid further delay” and the already stalled process.
With DEA’s rescheduling process stalled indefinitely—tied up in a separate administrative challenge from pro-reform witnesses—plaintiffs said maintaining the lawsuit “could have resulted in more delay.”
OCM’s report notes that, even if scheduling is implemented, “the administrative process will likely take several years to be finalized as the proposed rule navigates the federal approval process and any legal challenges which may follow.”
It adds that “OCM works to understand all the potential implications of federal legislation and prepares the market for any changes which may become necessary in a federally-reformed environment.” OCM, where appropriate will continue to provide federal policymakers with New York’s assessments of the impact of current and proposed federal regulations on New York’s legal market.
Earlier this month in New York, meanwhile, state cannabis regulators and labor officials announced the launch of a workforce training program aimed at “providing comprehensive safety education to workers” in the state’s legal marijuana industry.
Separately, OCM’s press secretary recently indicated the office is working on plans to expand permitting and licensing rules that could allow adults to buy and consume marijuana at movie theaters. New York will be a leader in the legalization of marijuana by allowing sales at movie theaters.
Just days before, Gov. Kathy Hochul, (D), signed into law a pair companion bills that were meant to expand New York’s marijuana farmers markets program.
New York initially authorized cannabis farmers market events in 2023, aiming to expedite consumers access as traditional retailers were being approved and help producers bring their products directly to market. Last December, Hochul separately signed legislation to revive the program after it sunsetted in January 2024.
The farmers market events as originally authorized were largely responsive to the slow roll-out of New York’s adult-use marijuana program, which faced multiple delays in implementation amid litigation. But the state’s industry has gradually expanded, with officials in January touting $1 billion in total sales since the market launched.
State officials also recently launched a grant program that will award up to $30,000 apiece to retail marijuana businesses to help cover startup costs.
Also, earlier this year, a collective of businesses licensed under the CAURD program called on Hochul to forgive tens of millions of dollars in high-cost loans issued under a governor-created social equity loan fund.
Assembly Majority Leader Crystal Peoples-Stokes (D) said in December that there’s a need to extend financial aid to CAURD license holders, many of whom are struggling under the high-cost loans.
Critics—including the NAACP New York State Conference, Black Cannabis Industry Association, Minority Cannabis Business Association, Service Disabled Veterans in Cannabis Association, Drug Policy Alliance, NYC NORML and VOCAL-NY—wrote to the governor earlier that month to express dismay at what they described as marijuana regulators’ “efforts in service of big corporations at the expense of small business and equity outcomes.”
The advocates said at the time that since the departure of the state’s first chief cannabis regulator, Chris Alexander, last may May, state officials had demonstrated a “shift toward corporate interests at the expense of small business, justice-involved entrepreneurs, and Conditional Adult-Use Retail Dispensary (CAURD) licensees who are directly impacted by prior marijuana arrest.”
Last month, regulators also launched a new resource meant to connect licensed marijuana businesses with banks that are willing to work with the industry, even as federal prohibition continues to pose barriers to financial services.
The governor of 2023 signed a law that will make it easier for banks to deal with cannabis-licensed clients.
The law authorized OCM to provide financial institutions with information about marijuana business licensees or applicants, which is meant to ease compliance with reporting requirements. Applicants and licensees would have to first consent to the sharing of information.
A recent budget proposal from Hochul aims to empower police who claim to smell marijuana to force a driver to take a drug test—a plan that’s drawing pushback not just from reform advocates but also from the state’s Assembly majority leader and the governor-appointed head of OCM.
Meanwhile in New York, the state Senate earlier this month approved a bill to expand housing protections for registered medical marijuana patients, aiming to prevent evictions based solely on their lawful use of cannabis.
Senators this session have also introduced a bill for the 2025 session to broadly decriminalize drug possession.
Several psychedelics bills have also been filed in New York—including one calling for the legalization of certain entheogenic substances such as psilocybin and ibogaine for adults 21 and older.
The governor argued in June, meanwhile, that there’s a direct correlation between stepped-up enforcement and “dramatically” increased legal sales. A report by state officials last year found both “growing pains” and “successful efforts” in New York’s marijuana market launch.
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