BUFFALO (WBEN) - Back in March, Governor Andrew Cuomo and the New York State Legislature finally legalized recreational marijuana in a process that seemed to lag for years.
According to the New York Post, some are now concerned at what appears to be a stall in the process to now move forward in implementing the program, as Cuomo has not yet nominated an executive director for the Office of Cannabis Management, nor has he named appointees to the Cannabis Control Board.
"We are pissed an frustrated," Long Island Democratic State Senator Diane Savino told the New York Post, as there is now disagreement as to how leadership duties should be distributed.
Aleece Burgio serves as special counsel and cannabis service team leader at Barclay-Damon, and she explained that Cuomo had an executive director picked, Norm Birenbaum, but he wasn't going to be the pick that was confirmed by the State Senate.
"Now, they're back on for the search," said Burgio.
It was already anticipated that a program would take well over a year to develop and legislate, but there is now concern that months of searching for the right leadership could push that timeline back even further.
"I think the big point of this is when do we see the rules and regulations? That's kind of what everybody is putting their hat on," Burgio continued. "In our opinion, you don't see the rules and regulations until you have that Office of Cannabis Management elected, appointed and confirmed...I do think rules and regulations are being considered even without the OCM in play yet, but we can't really go anywhere until it's fulfilled."
However, Burgio doesn't believe there will be an "extreme deviation from the timeline."
"I don't necessarily know if investors will be turned off, but I do think operators might be turned off, especially given the fact that (New) Jersey is a lot further ahead of us, Connecticut is obviously now in play, so we're seeing surrounding states up and running before we are that might be alluring to operators before we are," she said. "In the same breath, New York is going to be the second largest market, so not everybody is going to be that turned off because supply and demand is going to be so much different than in other states."