Good morning.
There’s so much to talk about from The Highrise last week. Today, what Senator Gillibrand said about her Republican colleagues.
Also, in case you missed it, yesterday we launched our first ever New York Brand Power Rankings with our partners at Lit Alerts. Who’s up? Who’s down? Check it out.
Let’s get to it.
-JB, JR, ZH
Today’s newsletter is 811 words or about a 6.5-minute read.
💡 What’s the big deal?
THE HIGHRISE
Sen. Gillibrand: Republican leaders need to step up on cannabis 🐘
Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand said there’s widespread support for legalization from the electorate but legislative reform will require a bipartisan effort.
Cultivated hosted Sen. Gillibrand for a discussion on New York and broader federal cannabis policy during last week’s inaugural The Highrise event.
"I need a Republican leader to help me do the deregulation legislation,” Gillibrand told Cultivated editor-in-chief Jeremy Berke last week.
“My staff has been reaching out to many of the senators who are from states that already have either recreational or medical use, and we're just not getting the leadership that we need.”
New York’s junior senator said that she was willing to work with Republicans on federal decriminalization, but she is also willing to work on narrower reform, like the SAFER Banking Act, which would provide financial relief for legal cannabis.
In recent months there has been a drop in support for legal cannabis among Republican voters, but support still sits at about 40%.
There are currently nine Republican senators that serve states with legal cannabis, meaning that there should be at least some support from the GOP for bolstering local business. Despite this, few lawmakers have been willing to step up, Gillibrand said.
Gillibrand argued that bipartisanship was necessary for cannabis reform, given that there’s been a stark lack in presidential ambition toward decriminalization since Jimmy Carter’s agenda was derailed by conservatives in the late 1970s.
“I think the biggest impediment is that we've not had presidential leadership in 20 years on this. It's been very frustrating that even under Democrat and Republican administrations, nobody wants to see descheduled cannabis,” Gillibrand said.
“If any president decides to deschedule cannabis, it would get done.”
📣 Quotable
“This business did not fail because of demand, performance, or management. It failed because Jersey City created a regulatory environment where doing everything right still isn’t enough to survive,” said The Other Side Dispensary Founder Dr. Alyza Brevard-Rodriguez in a statement.
It took about two and a half years for The Other Side Dispensary, a minority and veteran-owned dispensary in New Jersey, to open. The business recently announced its closure due to burdensome municipal red tape and other regulatory costs.
⏩ Quick hits
An attorney from Harris Sliwoski warned that hemp businesses may need to start planning possible bankruptcies before the hemp ban goes into effect Nov. 12. After that point, these businesses may no longer have federal bankruptcy protection.
The fight over hemp in South Carolina may be coming to a head this week in the state legislature as it debates two regulatory approaches: One would outright ban hemp products while the other would create a regulatory framework for a hemp market.
Bipartisan lawmakers in Texas called for hemp regulation in their state over an outright ban, referring to the hemp market as "too big to ignore."
Oklahoma Gov. Kevin Stitt (R) called for a rollback of his state's medical cannabis law during his state of state address on Feb. 2. Oklahoma has spent the last few years cracking down on illicit operators and shell license holders who took advantage low fees and light scrutiny of residency requirements.
Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro once again called on lawmakers to legalize cannabis in the coming year during his annual budget address. Pennsylvania perpetually remains a state where the question about legalization is not about "if?" but "when and how?"
Two weeks ago, we announced that Cultivated and Grown In are hosting the first-ever Midwest Cannabis Forum on March 12 in Chicago.
We opened applications to attend and the response has been overwhelming. And we’re about to open up the first round of tickets.
We’re asking our readers to get their applications in by close of business on Thursday as the first tranche of tickets will be released an early-bird, limited time price on Friday morning.
The Midwest Cannabis Forum is a curated, application-only gathering designed to bring together the people actually doing the work in the cannabis industry day in and day out — operators, investors, regulators, lenders, and service providers who are shaping the Midwest market in real time.
Event details: Salvage One, Chicago Wednesday, March 12.
👉 Apply here: Midwest Cannabis Forum
We hope to see you in Chicago.
🤝 Deals, launches, partnerships
Towards FnB estimates that the beverage emulsion market in the United States will reach $2.29 billion in 2026, and hit $3.32 billion by 2035.
📰 What we’re reading
Why Hawai'i's Cannabis Industry Can No Longer Remain in the Gray | Hawaii Business