BUFFALO, N.Y. — With it being a year since the first marijuana stores started opening in Western New York, 2 On Your Side checked in with an attorney who specializes in the cannabis industry.
Last July, Western New York saw its first marijuana stores open after years of planning.
"We've got new brands, we've got new budtenders, we've got new faces, there are people who bought their first adult-use cannabis," attorney Joe Schafer said. "There was a serious level of excitement about being able to make these first sales and frankly sustain them over the course of the year."
Schafer is the co-leader of the Cannabis Practice Team at Lippes Mathias. He says the biggest challenge for store owners by far is combating the grey market sticker shops.
"Those stores were so prevalent for so long and enforcement finally kicked up, frankly once we started to open our dispensaries, and then even after those dispensaries were open, a few months after the fact, so I think, you know, those business owners when you have to compete against someone who doesn't have to go through the rigorous third-party testing protocol, who doesn't have to remit the tax to the state at a 13 percent level, right? Nine percent to the state, 3 percent to the municipality, and 1 percent to the county, you're playing a completely different game and the odds are stacked against you as the legal operator," Schafer said.
He says enforcement of the gray market is getting better, and anticipates a significant number of legal stores opening in the next year.
"While that means greater competition for those folks who are already open, it also means easier access in different communities as opposed to having to drive twenty minutes out of the way, in all likelihood, you know, this should be relatively ubiquitous in Western New York and especially in Buffalo in both the city and the surrounding areas," Schafer said.
"Whether it's a retail space or a micro-business space, but also cultivation, processing, distribution. There are so many licenses that we're only starting to scratch the surface of, and once again, business owners' patience has certainly been tested."
Since May of last year, the state says it's seized more than 17,000 pounds of unlicensed marijuana products.