By Blake Jackson
Tessa Williams, a cannabis farmer in New York, is pleading with Gov. Hochul to open dispensaries so that she can sell her product. Williams is one of roughly 300 farmers across New York who took a chance on the state’s new cannabis industry. In 2022, she got a cultivator’s license and dedicated a small plot of her 220-acre farm in Columbia County to a crop that until recently had been illegal in New York state and is still illegal under federal laws.
Williams has invested $3 million into retrofitting her property and greenhouses to accommodate the new venture, but there are so few retail dispensaries that she and others like her are left with an in-demand product and few places to sell it.
The state recently opened up the application process for retail licenses to anyone who wants one. Previously, it had been open only for “justice-involved” individuals who had been convicted or had a family member convicted of a marijuana-related offense prior to 2019. The Cannabis Control Board could begin issuing additional licenses at its November board meeting.
With an aging harvest and lack of retail opportunities, Williams said she was again forced to rethink her strategy and begin looking at other opportunities.
She found one in the cannabis showcases, an initiative launched by the state to help fill the void created by the dearth of dispensaries. Williams is one of three cultivators to participate in the first-in-the-state growers showcase in New Paltz. Her Empire Farm 1830 cannabis is now also available at grower’s showcases in Beacon and New Paltz as well as at her Copake Farm.
She is also working with the schools in the SUNY system that offer cannabis programs to help raise up and train the next generation of cannabis cultivators using her FarmOn! program as a model.
“The grower’s showcase is the answer, the retailer is the hope,” said Williams.
Photo Credit: gettyimages-larisa-shpineva
Categories: New York, Crops, Government & Policy