Why Networking is Crucial for New York’s Cannabis Industry

This guest column was written by Annette Fernandez, a community activist who founded The Audubon Haze Society, an organization built to empower the Black and brown NY cannabis community through nonprofit initiatives.

As the state continues to make progress towards launching adult-use cannabis sales, New Yorkers have taken the reins in their own market, leading the charge on advocacy, relationship building and supply chain establishment through networking, community gatherings and educational events.

To advance the timeline presented by the Office of Cannabis Management (OCM), legacy operators, along with conditional licensed cultivators and processors, and some current medical cannabis operators, have opened discussions on how they can make connections and combine forces to ensure the New York market is an equitable one and plant the seeds for a close-knit local community.

These initiatives are and will continue to be crucial to achieving our vision for the industry. Here’s why regular community networking is vital in creating an equitable, opportunistic, and New York-led cannabis market:

It connects operators along the supply chain

Networking events have been a key facilitator for connecting local operators all along the supply chain, an important factor as the state aims to open dispensaries before the end of the year and into early 2023.

For example, Etain, a vertically integrated medical cannabis brand in New York, sponsored and hosted a retail networking event at its Manhattan dispensary that hosted over 100 New York legacy entrepreneurs, CAURD applicants and conditional cultivators and processors to come together to make connections and discuss preparations for entering the legal market.

These gatherings have become especially important for CAURD applicants, who could potentially be opening dispensaries over the coming months and will need to identify where they’ll be getting their product from.

Moreover, conditional cultivators and processors have harvested their crops and now are in limbo, not knowing where this finished product will be going. Many New York cannabis entrepreneurs want to source product or crop from other locally owned operations and these networking events are where those connections are being made.

It helps the legacy to legal transition

With the hope of integrating these operators into the legal market, New York has positioned legacy operators as critical cannabis industry partners. After prohibition and The War on Drugs, there is a lot of healing that needs to happen, and the establishment of an equitable legal cannabis industry is a way to begin to right those wrongs.

However, as a legacy operator it can be hard to visualize the pathway to joining a legal, regulated market. Some legacy and CAURD applicants fear the unknown and are not used to the spotlight or being so explicit with their business. The backgrounds and experiences of these up-and-coming cannabis leaders will be significant for shaping the new legal industry because they will inspire other legacy members to lead by example.

Nevertheless, we must make the pathway for these legacy operators an attainable one. These accessible and intimate community networking events are essential for connecting them with other pre existing operators, especially members of the Black and brown community, and allowing them to conceptualize their place in the legal industry.

It de-stigmatizes the cannabis community

There is vulnerability within the legacy community and stigmas still exist among industry players and outsiders alike. As a community, New York needs to honor legacy stories. This exposes the traumatic effects of the War on Drugs, but also makes the legal industry one that is accepting, accessible and collaborative.

The continuous networking events that bring industry members from all backgrounds together provide those who are hesitant reassurance in sharing their stories and details about their roots, which effectively helps to destigmatize the legacy community.

Additionally, there is empowerment in hosting and promoting these events out in the open, and even inviting the public to them – something that seemed unimaginable just a few years ago. The presence of regular and organized cannabis events conveys legitimacy to the industry and offers those unsure or curious an opportunity to learn about cannabis and put faces to the operators and business owners that make up the community. This could also play a vital role in getting some New York communities who originally opted out of retail sales to opt back in down the road.

Outside spectators are eyeing their opportunity to jump in on New York’s highly anticipated legal cannabis market. For this reason, it is imperative that industry members all along the supply chain create the necessary connections to keep New York’s industry locally led and pave the path for legacy operators to make the transition to the regulated market.

It’s clear that networking and community building has been at the core of these efforts and that must continue to be the case if the state is to accomplish the ambitious goals set for the state’s cannabis sector and have retail rooted in New York.

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