ALBANY, N.Y.–Credit unions in New York will be the next to be challenged by weighing the opportunity to serve a huge new cannabis market against the federal law that continues to make cannabis illegal.
Officials in New York have finalized a deal to legalize recreational marijuana in the state, paving the way for a potential $4.2-billion industry that could create tens of thousands of jobs and become one of the largest markets in the country, according to numbers cited by the New York Times.
The development comes as one credit union was just issued a cease-and-desist order by NCUA related to its service to cannabis businesses in its market
New York’s lawmakers have reached an agreement with Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo to legalize cannabis for adults 21 and older, a move that officials hope will help end years of racially disproportionate policing that saw Black and Hispanic people arrested on low-level marijuana charges far more frequently than white people, the Times reported.
According to details obtained by the Times, the deal would allow delivery of the drug and permit club-like lounges or “consumption sites” where marijuana, but not alcohol, could be consumed. It would also allow a person to cultivate up to six marijuana plants at home, indoors or outdoors, for personal use.
‘More Than a Year Away’
If approved, the first sales of legal marijuana are likely more than a year away, the Times noted, as officials must first face the daunting task of writing the complex rules that will control a highly regulated market, from the regulation of wholesalers and dispensaries, to the allocation of cultivating and retail licenses, to the creation of new taxes and a five-member control board that would oversee the industry.
The cannabis market in New York is currently estimated to be $4.6 billion and is expected to grow to $5.8 billion by 2027, according to a recent study commissioned by the New York Medical Cannabis Industry Association. The state could capture and tax $1.2 billion of that market by 2023 and $4.2 billion by 2027, depending on the rules and regulations, the study said, according to the Times.