{"id":55124,"date":"2022-06-08T08:43:37","date_gmt":"2022-06-08T16:43:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/2022\/06\/08\/nycs-mayor-tells-people-to-light-up-at-the-cannabis-world-congress-business-expo\/"},"modified":"2022-06-08T17:45:25","modified_gmt":"2022-06-09T01:45:25","slug":"nycs-mayor-tells-people-to-light-up-at-the-cannabis-world-congress-business-expo","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/2022\/06\/08\/nycs-mayor-tells-people-to-light-up-at-the-cannabis-world-congress-business-expo\/","title":{"rendered":"NYC\u2019s Mayor Tells People to \u201cLight Up\u201d at the Cannabis World Congress & Business Expo"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Cannabis World Congress & Business Expo (CWCBE) took place over three days at The Jacob K. Javitz Convention Center on New York City\u2019s West Side and while the event\u2019s expo portion wasn\u2019t surprising in its typical presentation or lack of actual cannabis, the standouts of the event were surprising, candidly forward comments about legal cannabis by the featured speakers. The talks were the focal point of the event.\u00a0<\/p>\n

New York City Mayor Eric Adams seems to agree. The veteran NYPD officer opened his brief remarks to the audience with a joke. <\/p>\n

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\u201cI\u2019m a bit disappointed,\u201d Mayor Adams said. \u201cI thought I\u2019d walk in the room and have a nice scent of weed goin\u2019 on in here.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

He went on to discuss his intentions for New York City\u2019s legal cannabis industry at the well-attended speech at CWCBE<\/a>.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cThere are great opportunities, and as I talk with mayors across the country, no one has seemed to have gotten it [cannabis legalization] right,\u201d Adams said. \u201cThis is our opportunity to get it right; and the way you do that is with the power of information. We allocated, in our executive budget, close to $5 million just about assisting in openings of facilities, all the info you need. How do you navigate this complex new way of using cannabis for so many different reasons and so many different products? We want to hear your feedback. Reach out to us and my small business service commissioner. If there\u2019s something you believe we can do better to make it happen, we want you to be a part of it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Legal marijuana will undoubtedly be big business for New York, \u201cThe numbers speak for themselves,\u201d the mayor said. \u201cThe potential of raising almost $1.3 billion in this industry, 19,000 to 24,000 jobs. We\u2019re going to be giving out 200 licenses in the area of cultivation and 200 licenses in the area of retail and 162 have already been issued. This is an opportunity for those who were left behind to really participate in this industry. We want to be clear that the magic term is equity.\u201d<\/p>\n

The mayor continued. \u201cThose who were impacted by heavy-handed policing and had their lives destroyed, we need to make them whole. That means job training and improving credit reports of those who\u2019ve been unemployed because of marijuana arrests. How do we make them whole? The money that\u2019s set aside is about really looking back with understanding and acknowledging that we can\u2019t just say, \u2018let\u2019s start from where we are.\u2019 We have to make people whole who\u2019ve gone through some very difficult periods of over-policing in the area of cannabis throughout this entire city, throughout this entire state.\u201d<\/p>\n

The newly elected mayor ended his less than three-minute speech in this rather remarkable fashion: <\/p>\n

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\u201cSo, welcome here,\u201d Mayor Eric Adams said. \u201cEnjoy yourself; light up, and, most importantly, spend some money. We want your money. Thank you.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

While the mayor encouraged the CWCBE<\/a> attendees to smoke cannabis, smoking anything indoors is prohibited at the Javitz Center and throughout the Empire State.\u00a0<\/p>\n

In contrast to the mayor\u2019s pithy and succinct remarks, rapper, author, actor, record producer and Co-Founder of the National Cannabis Party<\/a> (NCP), Redman went several minutes over his allotted keynote speaker slot. Plugging the NCP, an official Presidential Electoral Party registered with the Federal Elections Commission representing the cannabis industry; the rapper explained that he isn\u2019t representing a specific brand.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Additionally, while repeatedly calling for unity in the industry, Redman contrarily discussed the Schadenfreude of Jay-Z\u2019s cannabis brand Monogram, which is notoriously unpopular among cannabis aficionados. The rapper remarked that while some celebrities who are true proponents of the plant, such as Wiz Khalifa, deserve to have a cannabis brand<\/a>, arrivalists, and opportunists, including Jay Z apparently, shouldn\u2019t be white labeling a cannabis<\/a> brand when he has \u201cnever done shit for the industry.\u201d<\/p>\n

When discussing the regulated legal cannabis industry in New Jersey, Redman said that \u201cWhat we should be doing is learning off the mistakes of the West Coast.\u201d <\/p>\n

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\u201cIt\u2019s not about social equity; it\u2019s about equity empowerment,\u201d Redman insisted.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

For the record, Redman admits that he has never been to a New Jersey cannabis dispensary or bought cannabis from a Multi-State Operator (MSO). He still consumes legacy cannabis.\u00a0<\/p>\n

When Redman was done speaking and came off the Cannabis World Congress & Business Expo stage, he ran into fellow rapper and cannabis brand entrepreneur Spliff Star. The two shared their enthusiasm for how far they\u2019ve come from the rap game to the legal marijuana game and teased one another about the names on their expo badges.\u00a0<\/p>\n

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Redman greets Spliff Star after speaking at CWCBE in NYC. PHOTO Sara Brittany Somerset<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Redman\u2019s badge said Sooperman Luver<\/a>, while Spliff Star\u2019s had his official government name rather than his moniker.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cThis weed game is serious. I\u2019m Mr. Lewis now,\u201d joked Spliff Star.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cYou can\u2019t even say \u2018marijuana\u2019 anymore,\u201d Redman lamented. \u201cYou have to say, \u2018cannabis,\u2019 now.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

The post NYC\u2019s Mayor Tells People to \u201cLight Up\u201d at the Cannabis World Congress & Business Expo<\/a> appeared first on Cannabis Now<\/a>.<\/p>\n


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\nRead More: NYC\u2019s Mayor Tells People to \u201cLight Up\u201d at the Cannabis World Congress & Business Expo<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Cannabis World Congress & Business Expo (CWCBE) took place over three days at The Jacob K. Javitz Convention Center on New York City\u2019s West Side and while the event\u2019s expo portion wasn\u2019t surprising in its typical presentation or lack of actual cannabis, the standouts of the event were surprising, candidlyContinue Reading<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":183,"featured_media":55125,"comment_status":"false","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[16225,50,16226,16227,69,16228,593,9669,15999,4166],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/55124"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/183"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=55124"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/55124\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":55126,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/55124\/revisions\/55126"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/55125"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=55124"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=55124"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=55124"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}