Lori Van Buren/Times Union
ALBANY — A pot convention is taking over downtown Albany’s ritziest convention center this weekend — but don’t show up looking for weed.
“There are tons of little quasi-festivals where it’s like, ‘Don’t ask, don’t tell,’ you know? But this is not that — this is (business to business),” said Marc Shepard, founder of the New England Cannabis Convention (NECANN), which organized the two-day event that’s expected to draw an estimated 3,000 people.
The result? An Albany Capital Center filled with some attendees in business suits and others in cannabis-leaf T-shirts.
The lack of bud didn’t deter Zack Woodhams and his father-in-law Tom Christensen, who drove from the Rochester area to learn about growing the plant as the conference kicked off. The family has “lots of dirt, lots of land” in Western New York, Christensen said, but barely any practical knowledge about how to break into the cannabis business.
The pair were lugging bags of merch after stopping by many of the more than 100 exhibitors’ stalls.
“There’s a lot more, like, investment places and accountants” than they expected, Woodhams said. But he also found what he had been looking for: Information about “the nutrients and the seeds — I basically came for that.”
While there was actual cannabis on display, including enormous buds of various varieties in jars, it was only for smelling and not for consumption.
Deepgreen Genetics exhibitor Tara Grace holds a white chocolate chip cannabis bud during the New York Cannabis Convention held at the Albany Capital Center on Friday. While the product was on display at the event, it was for smelling, not smoking.
Deepgreen Genetics exhibitor Tara Grace holds a white chocolate chip cannabis bud during the New York Cannabis Convention held at the Albany Capital Center on Friday. While the product was on display at the event, it was for smelling, not smoking.
Calia Curtis, who manned the booth for Rocket Seeds — one of multiple seed vendors showing their goods — explained that while her specific company is Los Angeles-based, they transport their wares and sell in 48 states.
“Because seeds themselves are considered hemp until cultivated, they’re legally allowed to be sold anywhere,” even where marijuana is still outlawed, Curtis said.
Hemp, defined as any cannabis plant with less than 0.3 percent of the psychoactive component THC, can be transported and sold across state lines in spite of the federal prohibition on marijuana.
Companies like Rocket Seeds have grown their business across the country as individual states gradually permit the cannabis industry. And their interstate expertise can come in handy: Companies and local growers have faced similar challenges creating self-contained production chains, since no marijuana can legally cross state borders.
Other booths offered displays on fertilizers, grow lamps, filtration systems and security solutions.
Exhibitors in several fields said the attendees who approached them Friday morning tended to be local New Yorkers hoping to learn about the ins and outs of running a legal cannabis business. Many were interested in getting their hands dirty, but didn’t have much knowledge about the state’s regulatory process.
But another type of attendee hovered on the lower level of the convention center, hoping to catch the ear of state Cannabis Control Board chair Tremaine Wright after her morning keynote address.
Wright stood for well over an hour fielding questions from people with past cannabis convictions who were seeking advice on submitting their dispensary license applications after the state’s online portal opened Thursday. She heard complaints from operatives whose designs on the New York market had been foiled by the state’s insistence on banning vertical integration in the recreational industry.
Tremaine Wright, chairwoman of the New York State Cannabis Control Board — and a former member of the state Assembly — talks to attendees during the New York Cannabis Convention held at the Albany Capital Center on Friday.
Tremaine Wright, chairwoman of the New York State Cannabis Control Board — and a former member of the state Assembly — talks to attendees during the New York Cannabis Convention held at the Albany Capital Center on Friday.
“One of the best preparations I had was, I had a coffee shop and I actually worked behind the counter sometimes,” Wright said of her current role helping establish a newborn and complex industry. “People want to be heard, and they want an answer that sounds reasonable.”
Among those sharing their reservations about the state’s model, which is designed to include many smaller entrepreneurs, were operatives saying they were concerned that a lack of vertical integration would make the cannabis sold in the recreational industry prohibitively expensive.
It remains unclear what the prices will be in the state’s first non-medical dispensaries, which are expected to open their doors later this year. But in the meantime, regulators are staying optimistic about the notion that the state’s legal cannabis will spread the wealth while developing a unique twist that will help these micro-businesses succeed even if federal legalization passes.
In her keynote, Wright compared the goal to an industry that can make the same sort of only-in-New-York claims made by Empire State bagel purveyors: “It’s the water.”
“Get that bagel weed going,” joked Beth Waterfall, who moderated the discussion for NECANN.
Wright, along with other experts and industry insiders, have been invited to speak at many events in New York City since cannabis was legalized for recreational use in the state. But NECANN is charting newer territory for the Capital Region.
“New York City is very different from New York state,” Waterfall said. “We’re excited about being outside of the city, (and) bringing in the farmers, not just retail.”
Shepard, the event’s founder, said that when he first approached the convention center to use the space, officials balked: “First thing they said was, ‘Oh, we can’t do that here.'” But after going up the ladder explaining it was not a weed-selling meet-up, he broke through; NECANN is already finding a slot for 2023.
The Capital Center program isn’t the only cannabis industry event in Albany this weekend: On Saturday, the nearby Empire State Plaza Convention Center will host a job fair.
A year and a half after legalization of recreational-use cannabis, the occasional blunts peeking out of attendees’ breast pockets — and a familiar scent on the breeze near the smoker’s stoop — were signs of things to come.
Rebekah F. Ward can be reached at rebekah.ward@timesunion.com and 315-939-0938. Habla español y elle parle français. She joined the Times Union in 2021 as an investigative reporter and is the newsroom’s first Joseph T. Lyons fellow. Her previous coverage spanned New York, but she also reported from Colombia, Mexico and Canada for outlets including Reuters, France 24 and the OCCRP. Ward has a background in Peace & Conflict Studies and Psychology (Colgate University, ’13), past work in international development media and a master’s focused on migration reporting and international/financial investigations (Columbia Journalism School, ’19).
H/T: UNION TIMES
