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Julia Evans is a cannabis and litigation associate at The Long Law Firm, PLLC. She answered seven simple questions for NY Cannabis Insider’s ‘People to know’ series.
I am the cannabis and litigation associate at The Long Law Firm, PLLC. My team and I advise clients on cannabis-related contracts, licensing, regulations, and compliance matters. We also help guide individuals and businesses through the maze of federal, state, and local laws that direct the use, manufacture, and sale of cannabis products.
Five years.
I was a student studying to receive my bachelor’s degree in psychology and planning to attend law school after graduation.
My long-time passion for aiding the cannabis industry began when I was young, after seeing how life changing cannabis was for my grandmother who battled terminal cancer. In an effort to help my grandmother, I began independently researching the industry and the legal landscape surrounding cannabis.
I continued my research after her passing, in her honor, and as a result I have 12 years of accumulated knowledge pertaining to cannabis. I entered the industry professionally right before I began law school in 2018, starting as a student editor for the Cannabis Law Digest, where I diligently tracked and analyzed cannabis-related laws and court decisions from around the country.
I now continue my work as a cannabis attorney, helping individuals and businesses navigate the complicated rules and regulations in the industry. It is my hope that through community outreach, education, and positive representation, that the barriers to businesses and individuals in the industry can begin to be broken down.
Although the current cannabis industry in New York is complicated and ever-changing, do not let that intimidate you if your dream is to enter the legal cannabis industry.
When you have the support of your community and knowledgeable professionals, building yourself a successful business becomes a much less daunting task. Even though the adult-use cannabis licenses are not yet available for application, there are several things you can do now to prepare yourself for the application process, such as:
(1) forming your cannabis business;
(2) finding a compliant and cannabis-tolerable location;
(3) acquiring general liability, Workers’ Compensation, Disability and Paid Family Leave insurance for your business;
(4) checking the local laws of the municipality you plan to operate in (town/village AND county); or,
(5) checking to see if your business qualifies for N.Y.S. certified Minority-Owned, Woman-Owned, Minority Women-Owned, or Service Disabled Veteran-Owned Business status, just to name a few things. Remember, you do not have to do this alone! Reach out to your local cannabis knowledgeable professionals for help!
In five years, I believe New York will have a healthy ecosystem of small, family-owned businesses servicing their local communities. The industry is heavily regulated, and in some communities still heavily stigmatized. The regulations currently prevent vertical integration of cannabis businesses and restrict the number of cannabis businesses that license holders can have an interest in.
Despite the heavy regulation, New York has shown a willingness to revise its rules when faced with industry-wide challenges. For example, the state chose to allow delivery operations for licensed retail dispensaries in response to the delay in obtaining built-out, compliant store fronts.
Large-scale changes will take time, but New York has placed emphasis on promoting justice-involved individuals and building back the communities affected by the War on Drugs, showing that the state is well-intentioned. If the state continues to promote social justice and equity in its future endeavors, the future of New York’s cannabis industry should be bright.
What I would like to see change in the next five years is New York’s treatment of businesses currently operating in the grey market. Lately, New York has emphasized enforcement of its rules regarding “illicit cannabis,” which seeks to punish people by precluding them from operating in the legal market for a prescribed period of time.
I believe that instead of punishment, the state should create an onboarding process for grey market operators to enter the legal industry. Because the grant of conditional adult-use licenses was staggered by license type, cultivators first licensed have retained massive amounts of legal cannabis over the past two years with nowhere for it to go, a shocking consequence of being first to an industry that, until recently, had an incomplete sales chain.
Additionally, many grey market operations are already successfully selling cannabis products to consumers, with the main issue being that the product sold is not being taxed. If grey market operators were onboarded into the legal market, not only would cultivators have more places to unload their stockpiled cannabis product, but the state would gain the benefits of adopting already established and operating businesses into the legal cannabis industry.
Instituting such a program would be no small feat, but if the state can find a way to successfully integrate grey market operators into the legal market, it would be making positive steps towards eliminating New York’s black market, a problem some other states have yet to solve.
If you are looking to start or further a cannabis related business, The Long Law Firm has you covered! Please call my office at (315) 991-8000 or email me at jevans@long.law!
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