Exclusive | NY legal weed wage board would cause sky-high pot prices, force closures, insiders say
It’s a bad trip!Licensed marijuana merchants are urging Gov.Kathy Hochul to slap down legislation that would create a state cannabis industry wage board, calling it a Big Labor power play that would send weed prices sky high.Advocates of New York’s already-pricey legal weed industry said a wage board would harm licensed pot growers and shutter retail shops run by minorities, individuals convicted of weed offenses during prohibition, women and disabled vets — the groups the 2021 law, which legalized recreational cannabis, intended to help.The Safe Affordable Cannabis New York coalition plans to start handing out stickers Wednesday at the New York State Fair in Syracuse that read: “Tell Gov.
Hochul to STOP the Weed Price Hike.”Each sticker features a QR code directing consumers to a website — KeepNYCannabisAffordable.com — where they can send a message demanding the governor veto the legislation.Licensed cannabis businesses are required to have “labor peace agreements” giving employees the right to organize under the current law.But recent court rulings indicated those mandates conflict with federal law, and creating a wage board is another way for unions to influence salaries for legal pot workers.Cannabis industry officials also warned the legislation is a move by Big Labor to try to grab a chokehold of the legal weed market.A rep from the AFL-CIO would have a seat on the 3-member wage board, along with a rep from the cannabis industry and an appointee of the state Labor Department commissioner.
The panel would recommend wages for all aspects of the industry.“When Albany passes laws that raise prices, our communities lose and the illicit market wins,”said Osbert Orduña, founder of The Cannabis Place in Queens and chairman of the Safe Affordable Cannabis New York coalition.“If Gov.Hochul signs this bill into law, businesses will close and hardworking New Yorkers in the cannabis industry will lose their jobs.
… All this does is drive cust...