ALBANY – Chris Alexander, who was nominated by Gov.
He then worked as counsel for multiple Senate committees, and worked on government relations for multi-state cannabis business Vill, LLC before being tapped to lead New York’s OCM.
For many years, we were one of those places that experienced the top counts for summonses for unlawful possession, particularly public view possession where there was an interaction with law enforcement and somebody was asked to empty their pockets.
And then it was all learning about how we take a significant step to undo what’s been done.
So the fact that across the country we have been able to make people wanting to make money understand that they have to talk about doing good — even if it’s lip service, it is incredible.
What we’re doing, and what we set out to do all those years ago – to remove the stigma associated with cannabis — started with the realization that we had to put into folks’ minds that cannabis is medicine.
One of the main parts of the legislation, what sets it apart from other states, is the fact that we prohibited vertical integration for adult-use cannabis businesses and we’re trying to create access points for new entrepreneurs.
A: They’re just one part of the industry, so there’s space for them to operate.
A: The Cannabis Control Board chair, Tremaine Wright, has been public in saying that we’re hopeful to see some regulations for the adult-use program this winter, early spring.
We’ve got to get the regs out … then we have to assess the public comments, then put them back out.
People may look at what we’ve done so far; if it isn’t clear, what I was trying to do was knock out low-hanging fruit so we can focus our attention on building out the adult-use program.
A: At the same time as we’re trying to build this industry, we’re building a state agency from nothing.
And my team is filled with a lot of brilliant people who are working to close gaps that exist due to not being fully staffed up yet.
Her previous coverage spanned New York, but she also reported from Colombia, Mexico and Canada for outlets including Reuters, France 24 and the OCCRP.