New York approved adult use marijuana in March 2021. Since then, the state has been actively working to implement regulations for business owners in the industry to follow. The New York Office Of Cannabis Management recently released the regulations for adult use establishments. The regulations define license types, purchase limits, age restrictions, consumer taxes, and additional information relevant to cannabis distributors.
New York License Types
New York has established 12 different license types related to the adult use marijuana industry. Such licenses include: cultivator and conditional use cultivators allowing this license type to grow recreational marijuana, nursery which produces clones and seeds, processor which allows the licensee to create extract products, distributor which sells cannabis wholesale, retail dispensary which sells to cannabis consumers, and a cooperative license type for vertically integrated companies. In addition to these primary license types, the state will approve ancillary business licenses. Such license types include specifically; onsite consumption, delivery, and microbusinesses.
Every business needs standard operating procedures to succeed and operate in a compliant manner.
We have the following New York specific marijuana SOPs:
Adult Use Sale Restrictions
The regulation of marijuana sales has defined purchase limitations for consumers. Consumers 21 and over may possess up to 3 ounces of cannabis flower, or 24 grams of concentrated cannabis. The sale of recreational cannabis to consumers younger than 21 years of age remains illegal.
New York Marijuana Tax
New York has 3 different tax types for the sale of recreational cannabis. There is currently a 4% local tax, a 9% state tax, as well as a tax that is calculated based on the milligrams of THC the consumer purchases. for example, edibles are taxed at $0.03 per milligram of THC in the product, concentrates are taxed at $0.008 per milligram of THC, and flower is taxed at $0.005 per milligram of THC.
To shed light on the amount of taxes consumers will pay, let’s look at a few examples. If a consumer purchases an edible product with 100mg THC, they will pay a $3.00 THC tax. Similarly, if a consumer purchases 1 gram of concentrate product testing at 70%, they will be subject to a $5.60 THC tax. Lastly, when a consumer purchases 1 gram of cannabis flower which tests at 20%, they will be subject to a $1.00 THC tax. The THC tax described above is in addition to the local and state taxes a consumer is subject to pay.
