NYC will invest $8 million toward low-cost loans for equity licensees.
The New York City Economic Development Corporation (NYCEDC) announced that it is working with the Department of Small Business Services (SBS) to launch a loan fund to drive equity-related opportunities in the cannabis industry.
Specifically, the NYCEDC released a request for proposal seeking a fund administrator and additional lenders to launch the Cannabis NYC Loan Fund. The city is putting $8 million toward the effort, but the NYCEDC estimates a “total fund size” between $20 and $30 million to be used for “flexible capital at below-market rates to cannabis businesses owned and operated by social and economic equity applicants who have been awarded licenses to operate in New York City.”
The state’s version of a public-private equity fund, managed by the Dormitory Authority of the State of New York, has been a blemish on the state’s legal cannabis rollout. Gov. Kathy Hochul imagined a $200 million public-private fund, $50 million of which came from DASNY, to lift up equity efforts. It took more than a year for the private side of that funding to be announced.
“The Cannabis NYC Loan Fund will help cement New York City as a trailblazer in equitable cannabis industry investments. This fund is committed to boosting an emerging industry while also uplifting underrepresented New Yorkers, particularly those unfairly impacted by antiquated cannabis policy,” NYCEDC President & CEO Andrew Kimball said in a statement.
Luxembourg’s adult use law goes into effect this week.
Last month, lawmakers in Luxembourg voted to allow adults to grow four plants at home for their personal use, and to possess in public up to three grams. That bill goes into effect on Friday.
The small European country has been pushing toward reform for years. Back in 2019, Cannabis Wire spoke with an official with the country’s health ministry to learn more about the government’s aims, and you can check out that interview here.
Gov. Wes Moore’s cannabis picks.
This week, Moore has picked Audrey L. Johnson to be the Acting Executive Director of the newly-formed Office of Social Equity (the Senate needs to confirm her in 2024) and Courtney Davis to be the Deputy Director.
Johnson most recently served as the Senior Director for Economic Innovation and Strategy at the Johns Hopkins University and Health System, and Davis most recently served as Executive Director of the D.C.-based cannabis advocacy group Marijuana Matters.
Moore also named several picks for the forthcoming Cannabis Public Health Advisory Council, which will, as Moore’s office put it, “study and identify recommendations to the Governor and the General Assembly on the public health impacts of cannabis legalization and strategies to mitigate youth access, misuse, and addiction to cannabis.”
His picks are:
• Dorothy Lennig, Incoming Director, Governor’s Office of Crime Prevention, Youth, and Victim Services
• Madhumi Mitra, Professor of Biology and Environmental Sciences, University of Maryland Eastern Shore
• Mathew Swinburne, Associate Director, The Network for Public Health Eastern Region, University of Maryland Francis Carey King School of Law
• Deondra D. Asike, Clinical Associate, Department of Anesthesiology and Critical Care Medicine, Johns Hopkins Medicine
• Leigh Vinocur, Chief Medical Officer and Founder, Ananda Medical Practice
• Leah Sera, Associate Professor, University of Maryland School of Pharmacy
• David A. Gorelick, Professor of Psychiatry, University of Maryland, Baltimore
• Jocelyn Bratton-Payne, Director of Substance Use Disorder Programs, New Hope Treatment Center
• Karrissa Miller, partner at Pinnacle CT, LLC, a testing lab, and founding partner at US Cannalytics
