Who Can Sell Seeds and Clones In NY?

I’m asking the wrong question, really - Seeds and clones are of course available online and from a variety of sources in person. People are selling them without any license at all! Plus the DEA issued a letter that says seeds and clones are hemp. (Note this doesn’t override state rules - can you sell pot plants in Nebraska?) What I’m really asking is who can sell seeds and clones and be in compliance with the licensing authority in New York. In my view, you can’t have long term growth without compliance. So…who can sell seeds and clones as a sustainable business?

The answer is pretty straightforward at this moment - the OCM published an Assessment of Public Comment (as the name suggests, they publish an assessment of the public comments submitted in response to the proposed homegrow rules) which indicates that only article 3 (the ROs aka* MSOs) and Article 4 (CAURD, etc.) can sell seeds and clones directly to the public. Note the article 4 companies need “authorization” of some sort from the OCM, so if you are applying for CAURD and want to sell plants, include that in your application. Article 5 companies - i.e. CBD retail license holders - are out of luck. So - you need a license to sell THC flower if you want to sell seeds and clones that will eventually turn into flowering THC plants.

I am not sure this is the best path. Clones are of course plants, and setting up a retail operation to sell plants is a little different from setting up an operation that sells dried flower and gummies. You’d need lights and water and a person to tend to them, and some sort of pest management plan (spraying of pesticides inside a retail location is prohibited in the regs). The only stores that are set up to sell plants are the same places that sell plants right now - garden centers, home depot etc. I don’t think too many Article 3 or Article 4 companies view live plant sales as worth the investment. They should, because as we all know, homegrow will be huge. But for now, it’s at most an afterthought. So the regs, as they stand, mean that the only people who can sell seeds and clones won’t want to invest the money. Which means less availablility of seeds and clones.

All is not lost! John Kagia is the new director of policy at the Office of Cannabis Management. He came over from New Frontier Data, a strong proponent of homegrow. His old role was filled by Amanda Reiman, one of the foremost homegrow advocates in the US. Not long before he left New Frontier, John was the editor of a report called the “US Cannabis Homegrow Market.” In that report, they noted that the DEA’s announcement that it wood stop treating marijuana seeds as a controlled substance is a significant policy shift and “potentially opens up the market for national seed distribution…”

That sounds to me like a guy who might agree that Article 5 retailers (which any garden shop can get for $300) ought to be able to sell seeds and clones.

How great would that be?

*OK the ROs and the MSOs are not the same but close enough. Article 3 is the medical cannabis companies, which are pretty much, for now “Big Cannabis” in NY.