While the medical marijuana corporations would like home cultivation outlawed altogether (they argue it’s too dangerous) they want city oversight over the matter. | Getty Images De Blasio's marijuana dreams already facing headwinds in Albany

Mayor Bill de Blasio's hopes for local control of the burgeoning cannabis industry are already facing opposition from Gov. Andrew Cuomo and New York State’s medical marijuana industry.

De Blasio’s overarching goal is local control of marijuana. He wants to designate revenue for “righting historic wrongs” tied to marijuana enforcement and set up a fund to divert money into the communities of color that have disproportionately been targeted for marijuana-related offenses. Cuomo seems determined to maintain Albany's control of the new funding stream.


And the mayor's anti "Big Pot" stance runs directly counter to the goals the well-financed industry stated in a confidential memo to the governor’s office acquired by POLITICO.

“If they pass a law that does not allow for enough local discretion, it’s a self-defeating proposition,” said de Blasio during his cannabis-themed press conference Thursday.

Cuomo, speaking at roughly the same time on the radio, seemed eager to quash that notion in its infancy.

“New York City can't legalize marijuana, Buffalo can't legalize marijuana, Albany can't legalize marijuana,” said the governor. “You need a state law. You need a state framework.”

That jibes with the stance of New York’s 10 medical marijuana purveyors who, on Nov. 28 sent a memo to the governor’s office with some recommendations of its own. Those recommendations did not include local control. The day after sending the memo, the govenor’s de-facto marijuana czar, Axel Bernabe, participated in a conference call with the medical marijuana purveyors, including companies like Vireo Health and MedMen, said a knowledgeable source.

In the memo, the companies put forth proposals that bear little resemblance to those advanced by the mayor, whose anti- corporate stance comes at the same time he’s suffering withering criticism from the left for his embrace of the Amazon deal.

In its 77-page report, De Blasio’s panel called for a “measured” approach to recreational marijuana, “allowing time for consultation and coordination between the State and localities.”

The industry — and apparently, the governor — don’t seem so inclined.

The state’s medical marijuana purveyors suggest that speed is necessary for the satiation of New York’s latent legal weed demand — and that’s why (the argument goes) the state should increase the number of dispensaries each purveyor can open, and allow recreational dispensaries to co-locate with medical marijuana facilities.

“By expanding the number of medical marijuana dispensaries awarded to each [operator] from four to thirty, the state would rapidly create 300 dispensaries which will begin to create the retail infrastructure needed to serve an adult-use market,” the memo reads.

To support their argument, the purveyors argue that there will be “1.29 million to 1.5 million consumers of adult-use cannabis in New York,” and they will consume ”between 406,000 and 638,000 lbs. of cannabis each year.”

The commercial marijuana market is expected to exceed $1.1 billion, according to a report from City Comptroller Scott Stringer.

De Blasio would rather corporate marijuana be kept out of the equation entirely.

“Legalization can follow two routes,” wrote de Blasio in his panel’s report. “In one, corporate cannabis rushes in and seizes a big, new market, driven by a single motive: greed. In another, New Yorkers build their own local cannabis industry, led by small businesses and organized to benefit our whole diverse community.”

While the medical marijuana corporations would like home cultivation outlawed altogether (they argue it’s too dangerous) de Blasio wants city oversight over the matter. De Blasio is also calling for the creation of a city licensing regime, and city oversight of pot stores and home delivery. Any state legislation should protect small businesses from million dollar licensing requirements, the mayor said.

On that front, the mayor may also run into resistance from Democrats in the state Legislature.

“Generally speaking, I would not welcome New York or any other community being more restrictive than what the state may allow,” said Assemblyman Richard Gottfried (D-Manhattan), who chairs the Assembly’s health committee and is carrying a bill that would legalize recreational marijuana statewide.

De Blasio’s track record in Albany has been less than stellar since he took office, but he hopes to use his influence with a new Democratic Legislature in Albany to incorporate social justice elements into marijuana regulation, also elucidated in an existing proposal from Assemblywoman Crystal Peoples-Stokes (D-Buffalo) and state Sen. Liz Krueger (D-Manhattan).

“I tend to resist this notion that we are big corporate raiders looking to only suck the blood out of New Yorkers who are looking to use cannabis,” said Jeremy Unruh, director of regulatory affairs at PharmaCann, one of the signatories to the memo, on Thursday. “We’re all start up companies, and when you stack us up against a grocery store or whatever, we’re really not a big business.”