For the first time since the Compassionate Care Act, which legalized marijuana for some medicinal purposes in 2014, many medical cannabis pharmacies in New York began selling smokable “whole flower,” the bud of the cannabis plant, on Tuesday.
“All I want to say is that I’m glad it’s finally happening.” Ryan, a 20-year-old patient from Albany who was one of the first local buyers of entire flower at the capital’s Verilife dispensary, said, “I didn’t think I’d see the day.” He simply wanted to be known by his first name.
After the product hit the shelves about 3 p.m., Saul Stanley was likewise first in line at Verilife. He rushed in after mail order marijuana, which he’d been visiting since it first opened in 2016.
Stanley uses cannabis to control his dystonia, a disorder that causes muscle pain, weakness, and involuntary movements.
“I usually get the blossom,” Stanley explained, “but it was ground up.” “You can conserve more with a complete blossom.”
Patients will have access to all of the cannabinoids and terpenes that a single plant has to offer, according to Kevin Harbison, a doctor of pharmacy who leads clinical services for PharmaCann, the business that administers the Verilife dispensary.
“Components of the flower that do not make it into the final package are lost when it is ground down. “The flower has now been totally preserved,” Harbison remarked.
Most accredited sellers in the state carried a version of lightly-processed bud in which the dried flower was pre-ground into a fine substance, ostensibly for vaping, but no products advertised for smoking, prior to today’s string of announcements of whole flower sales from Columbia Care, PharmaCann, and Curaleaf.
For years, smoking has been prohibited in the state’s medical program: before signing the Compassionate Care Act, former Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo negotiated concessions that included the prohibition of smoking as a mode of consumption for certified patients.
Cuomo’s tough stance against smoking was “quite divisive” in 2014, according to state Sen. Diane Savino, one of the bill’s architects and Senate sponsors, and it was always a topic that she and others wanted to revisit.
“We anticipated restricting access to full flower would raise the price of the product because processing it into non-smokable forms costs more money,” Savino explained. “And for a lot of patients, smoking is the quickest way to get actual relief.”
The continued prohibition of the sale of medical-grade cannabis flower “just made no sense” in a state where you could legally possess up to three ounces of cannabis and smoke it anywhere tobacco is allowed, Savino said, when the Marijuana Regulation and Taxation Act legalized adult-use cannabis in March.
“This has been a four-year project for us.” And, to be honest, New Yorkers have been waiting far too long for this treatment,” said Adam Goers, senior vice president of Columbia Care.
By just a few hours, his medical cannabis company became the first in New York to sell full flower, which it began selling Tuesday at 10 a.m. in its Rochester facility. On Tuesday afternoon, PharmaCann began selling its new products in Albany and the Bronx, followed by Curaleaf later that day in Newburgh.
According to business spokesman Albe Zakes, Vireo Health, which also has a dispensary in Albany, would likely have whole flower cannabis available at their Albany dispensary and other sites by late next week, “pending final testing.”
“As we’ve seen in other places, making that full blossom available doubles the number of patients seeking this therapy in some circumstances.” And that’s something we should praise in the end, because it means more people are getting access to drugs,” Goers of Columbia Care said.
Industry leaders hailed Gov. Kathy Hochul for the shift, saying that after taking office in August, she quickly prioritized the state’s marijuana industry, particularly the medical program, which had stagnated during the Cuomo administration.
The Office of Cannabis Management (OCM), which was recently managed by Hochul appointment Christopher Alexander, released guidelines for medical cannabis flower. According to him, the office mandates extensive testing of flower products to guarantee that they are safe to eat.
“We’re glad to see the program continue to grow responsibly, extending access to folks who might benefit from medical cannabis,” said Freeman Klopott, an OCM spokesman.
The Cannabis Control Board is in charge of the new body, which issued a resolution earlier this month legalizing the sale of whole flower to medical patients.
Mike Malee of PharmaCann, whose sativa-strain buds hit Verilife shelves on Tuesday, said his team had spent a long time preparing for the announcement and testing procedure. He expressed surprise at how rapidly things changed after the board’s decision.
While visiting the Albany Verilife site for the launch, he noted, “It’s certainly a historic day for the state and a historic day for patients in the state.” “And we couldn’t be more pleased.”
