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After celebrating the milestone of $1 billion in legal recreational marijuana sales, New York cannabis regulators released a pair of annual reports this week, detailing both progress made and more developments to come.

While much of the material is not new to anyone who’s been paying attention to the state’s market development, some extra nuggets of information were also included.

The Office of Cannabis Management’s 2024 annual report, for instance, noted that of the 17 licensed “registered organizations,” or ROs – the title for vertically integrated medical marijuana companies such as Curaleaf Holdings (CURA:CA) (OTCQX: CURLF) – only three have launched recreational cannabis sales. While seven of the ROs are brand-new and have no operations yet, the remaining seven have either chosen not to invest in opening adult-use retail shops or haven’t even bothered asking the state for permission to do so.

The report also noted that the agency has been undergoing a significant ramp-up, with 97 new staffers hired last year, bringing the OCM’s total headcount to 211. On top of that, the report noted, the OCM has “contracted with several temp agencies to quickly recruit additional support for its Licensing team,” and it’s still on a hiring spree to fill jobs related to “compliance, enforcement and licensing.”

The reformation of the OCM was, in point of fact, the number one accomplishment listed by Acting Executive Director Felicia Reid in the report. Reid took over management of the OCM in June, after former director Chris Alexander was ousted.

“After years of losses and stagnation, (OCM) restructured its internal operations and structure and added almost 50 staff across the agency, while simultaneously seeing the agency’s turnover rate plummet between July 2024 and December 2024,” Reid wrote in the report.

The OCM also had several specific policy recommendations for state lawmakers, including:

• Increasing OCM staffing levels and budget further to properly oversee the growing market.
• Stepping up oversight of cannabis testing labs “to uphold the integrity of cannabis testing.”
• Adopting a “reciprocity” policy for the medical marijuana side of the industry to permit patients from other states to make purchases in New York’s 32 medical dispensaries.
• Pushing insurance companies to cover medical marijuana product costs for patients.
• Ongoing attempts to persuade “legacy operators to seek licensure” in the regulated market.
• Changing child-resistant packaging requirements in favor of more sustainable and environmentally friendly packaging, including financial incentives such as tax credits to “stimulate investment” in such a pivot.
• Launching a cannabis recycling program “to reduce the volume of packaging waste generated by the cannabis industry.”
• Allowing nurseries and microbusinesses to sell cannabis seedlings and clones directly to consumers for home cultivation.

The OCM’s second report, from Acting Chief Equity Officer Tabatha Robinson, also had some interesting tidbits for stakeholders.

To begin with, Robinson noted that her team is assembling a “Cannabis Banking Directory” that will be released sometime in the first half of 2025, with listings of marijuana-friendly financial institutions that licensed businesses will be able to rely on for services.

The step may be a first in any state-level marijuana market, given how shy many financial institutions have been about working at all with cannabis companies, given the ongoing federal illegality of marijuana and the potential for blowback from federal regulators.

Robinson noted that her team has spent months developing relationships with banking sector contacts, including the New York State Banking Association and the Independent Banking Association. Members of her staff even gave a presentation in October at the New York State Credit Union Association’s Cannabis Banking Conference.

The equity report also noted that there’s more grant funding on the way for Conditional Adult Use Retail Dispensary licensees who may be struggling to find capital. A pool of $5 million will be split among eligible recipients in coming months, with each getting up to $30,000 sometime in the first quarter. There’s also going to be a second round of grant funding dispersal beginning in May.

Not only that, but CAURDs will also be able to apply to the OCM for expense reimbursement this year to help cover costs of “inventory, point-of-sale systems, renovations of licensed retail space, inventory tracking systems, security, product storage and transportation, and rent for licensed retail space” for the businesses, according to the report.