作者：宗卓 来源：原创 发布日期：08-22
A | RAVENA, N.Y. -- New York officials launched legal recreational marijuana sales by promising many of the first retail licenses to people with past drug convictions, hoping to give people harmed by the war on drugs a chance to succeed before competitors crowded in.But more than nine months after sales started, only about two dozen state-sanctioned dispensaries have opened their doors. Legal challenges over the state's permitting process have left more than 400 provisional licensees in limbo. Marijuana farmers are reeling because there are too few stores to sell their harvest.State regulators are now expanding the market amid those troubles. They recently opened up a 60-day general application window to grow, process, distribute or sell marijuana, expecting to issue more than 1,000 new licenses. New rules also will allow companies licensed to grow and sell medical marijuana in New York to get into the recreational market.The moves are expected to boost the number of legal dispensaries in a market now dominated by black-market sellers who simply opened retail stores without a license. But the prospect of competing with the medical providers worries some farmers and retailers who fear being squeezed by deeper-pocketed companies before they had a chance to establish themselves.“My concern is that they have all the money to bleed us out,” said Coss Marte, whose opening of CONBUD dispensary in Manhattan was pushed back by a lawsuit against state regulators. “They’re vertically integrated. So now what they could do is ... grow their own product at the cheapest price and basically outbid all the farmers, all our products and all our pricing.”Critics blame New York’s slow retail growth partly on bureaucratic issues, like delays in setting up a $200 million “social equity” fund to help applicants open shops. The rollout also was hobbled by lawsuits on behalf of people and businesses excluded from the first wave of retail licenses. Marte's shop was among those temporarily blocked by a judge from opening after a group sued on behalf of disabled veterans, saying they were wrongly excluded from applying for a license. Marte, who has a past drug arrest, was paying rent on a store he could not open.A judge recently ruled that Marte's store and several others could open. But the fate of many other provisional license holders, like Carson Grant of New York City, was unclear. After months of delays in opening his store in Queens, he was debating whether to reapply for a license again in this general round.“It's very difficult emotionally,” he said.Reginald Fluellen, senior consultant with the Cannabis Social Equity Coalition, blamed the state for a botched rollout.“They’ve failed miserably in providing the justice-involved individuals the kind of head start, the kind of foothold, in the market that they promised," Fluellen said.Under new regulations, medical marijuana providers could begin retail recreational sales at one of their existing dispensaries as early as Dec. 29. They could begin selling recreational pot at two more dispensaries six months after that. The entry price for those companies is steep: a $20 million licensing fee, with $5 million due upfront. But multiple companies are expected to jump in.“We expect New York to be the hub, or one of the hubs, for legal cannabis on the East Coast,” said Curaleaf CEO Matt Darin. “And so we’re very bullish and we’ve invested a lot of capital and time to be able to maximize the opportunity.”Curaleaf, which operates in multiple states, has already invested $50 million in New York, most of it on a recently expanded indoor growing facility south of Albany that now serves the medical market. Rows of plants there mature in intensely lit rooms where humidity, temperature and nutrition are tightly controlled — a scene in stark contrast to the fields and greenhouses that have defined New York’s adult-use market since growing started last year.Curaleaf will be able to double the size of the facility’s canopy to 64,000 square feet, or about 1.5 acres (0.61 hectares), if the market dictates, said Joe Holland, an executive vice president.To guard against retail monopolies, the medical providers will be limited to three retail outlets. And in a nod to farmers, their shops will initially have to devote half their shelf space to products grown and processed by independent businesses.Still, critics say the state should have allowed more time for economically and socially diverse entrepreneurs to succeed before letting in larger competitors.Joseph Calderone of Grateful Valley Farm, near the Pennsylvania border, compared it to little hardware stores competing against big box stores. Large indoor facilities, he said, can produce multiple crops a year. Meanwhile, farms having trouble selling their crops are “teetering on the edge of failure,” he said.“We were given a fair chance to grow. We were asked to do that," he said. "We kept our promise. The state did not keep their promise.” Office of Cannabis Management executive director Chris Alexander said the new regulations maintain New York’s commitment to social and economic equity, while keeping the market more competitive than in other states. That includes giving priority consideration for social and equity applicants in the current round.While acknowledging there was some “frustration” in getting retail stores open, Alexander said the state has shown a market supplied by small farmers can work. "We've got some of the top-performing dispensaries in the country right here in New York," Alexander saidAnd there’s still room to grow. Regulators have estimated New York will eventually require at least 2,000 dispensaries to meet demand. “I think there’s enough business to go around,” said Christian Chavez, CEO of Statis Cannabis Co. He said sales have been good since they opened their dispensary in the Bronx in July. “I think it’ll be quite some time until this market gets saturated in New York.”。 AI摘要 赖清德宣布明年普发现金1万元，吴子嘉痛批此举系选举买票。他指出台湾产业两极化严重，当局应解决民生困境而非撒钱讨好选民，政策本末倒置。 台湾地区领导人赖清德17日宣布，2027年度总预算将在收支平衡、实质零举债的基础上，编列2357亿元（新台币，下同）经费，于明年普发现金每人1万元，宣称落实“AI红利，民众共享”，让民众分享产业经济成果。对此，台湾“美丽岛电子报”董事长吴子嘉强力抨击，直言选举年普发现金根本是买票操作，行为低级又恶劣，民进党当局不深耕产业、纾解民生困境，反而撒钱讨好选民，完全本末倒置。 据赖清德办公室说明，本次总预算收入上调至3.9266万亿元，在纳入民众普发现金预算后，依旧维持财政收支平衡，无新增净额债务。
B | 赖清德声称，台湾依托AI、高效运算、云端产业蓬勃发展，带动半导体、资通讯产业及制造供应链出口、投资双增长，因此将经济成长红利回馈民众。 针对这项政策，吴子嘉17日公开反对，直言这一万块根本不该发。他强调，当下台湾最迫切的问题并非全体分红，而是传统产业衰退、就业失衡、民生压力沉重，民进党当局理应将财政资源投入传统产业辅导、就业救济与产业优化，而非流于短期撒钱造势。
C | 吴子嘉直接点破政策背后的选举考量，痛批民进党当局在县市选举前夕推出普发现金，本质就是公然买票，是极其低级、恶劣的政治操作。他举例，高雄螺丝等传统产业持续受冲击，中年劳工失业、再就业困境愈发严峻，台湾产业结构性失衡问题突出，呈现“高端科技产业缺工、基层劳工求职无门”的矛盾现状。
D | 他进一步痛陈底层民众的真实困境，AI红利仅集中在少数科技产业，广大受薪族群、传统产业与服务业从业者根本无法受益。以北漂青年为例，多数年轻人月薪仅3万至4万元，夫妻合计月收入6万至8万元，在台北扣除房租、日常开销后所剩无几，根本无力承担育儿成本。 更有无数基层民众身兼多职，白天在早餐店务工、晚上在商超兼职，还要负担长辈长期照护开销，家庭经济压力濒临极限。
E | 吴子嘉感慨，当下台湾产业两极化严重，科技行业红利爆棚、基层百姓度日艰难，俨然是“朱门酒肉臭，路有冻死骨”的台湾悲惨世界，民进党当局无视深层民生痛点，只求撒钱换选票，完全不负责任。
Current article:http://7hpy9b.caihezhehuagenshun.sbs/knzo/ujbxe9i.html
Published on:19:59:20