High hopes for weed market at Winter Cannabis Carnival – WXXI News

As state Sen.

While New York’s Department of Taxation and Finance has estimated that the state’s marijuana market could reach $3.5 billion a year, other analysts place the number as higher.

New York legalized recreational marijuana in March, but officials have just started developing the regulations that will create and govern a legal marketplace.

As the crowd churned through the carnival, stoner-classic tracks from the likes of Nas and Afroman echoed through the Armory’s interior while aerial silk artists from Aerial Acrobatics of Rochester performed high-flung feats off of a pyramid trapeze.

Vendors at the carnival hocked their wares under the guise of the so-called “gifting clause” in the state’s marijuana law.

Others see the chance to carve out standout businesses in areas of the cannabis market that will likely be highly competitive.

“What I hope we will see out of the cannabis industry is like the Kodak of years past,,” Cooney said.

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