High stakes for weed growers amid slow NY legalisation rollout

NEW YORK - When New York authorities gave him a license to cultivate cannabis in the spring of 2022, Marcos Ribeiro thought he'd hit the big time. 

Since then his plants have flowered, but like other producers he has amassed a stockpile which still he hopes to sell.

But for now, business has been less fruitful than Ribeiro had hoped.

Ribeiro, who grew up in the area, has sunk hundreds of thousands of dollars into his enterprise in the two years since recreational cannabis consumption was legalized in New York -- but the official market which appeared set to boom has been beset by problems.

"It's been a lot of money, it's been a lot of time. And then we said we're gonna go all in, like playing poker and then grew all this cannabis -- and with no stores to sell it to," he said. "Kind of heartbreaking."

He is not alone, with more than 200 other growing sites listed in the state -- but only 23 stores licensed to sell marijuana in the sprawling region of 20 million people. 

"They're potentially sitting on a lot of product that they grow, that they will not be able to move into the market," said Andrew Rosner, a cofounder of the Cannabis Association of New York.

"(This) could end up placing enormous fiscal strain on their businesses."

According to another industry body, The Cannabis Farmers Alliance, losses could amount to several million dollars in the worst cases.

More than half of all US states have legalized recreational and medicinal cannabis use, including New York, which adopted an ambitious plan to ensure that users, over 21, would be able to smoke quality controlled and traceable pot. 

The plan was for retail licenses to be earmarked for those who had prior convictions for cannabis offenses, in an effort to redress historic judicial burdens that often fell disproportionately on African-American and Hispanic communities.

Among other bureaucratic delays, a court in August halted the opening of any new cannabis stores, following a complaint by US military veterans who alleged discrimination because they weren't given the same opportunity as the ex-convicts.