Cannabis companies look toward 2022 with plans to expand their businesses to legal markets in more states despite an expected lack of movement on the federal level to end cannabis prohibition.
Overall, the lack of major movement in Washington dampened prospects in the sector for both U.S. cannabis companies and Canadian companies seeking to expand south of the border. The heavily populated Northeast as well as the Midwestern states of Michigan and Illinois scaled up in 2021, with nascent businesses in each state expected to grow in 2022.
A key factor will be the timing of New Jersey’s commencement of legal adult-use sales, as well as moves by New York to start its process to issue cannabis business licenses with an eye on social equity. Kim Stuck, founder and CEO of Allay Consulting, which advises cannabis companies on regulatory matters, said she’s not optimistic about federal legalization of cannabis in 2022. But the business is expanding in New Jersey and New York, while states such as Michigan continue their ramp-ups.
On this front, an industry group called the Council for Federal Cannabis Regulation, or CFCR, on Dec. 12 sent a letter to Secretary of Health and Human Services Xavier Becerra, requested a meeting “to address an escalating public health and safety crisis in the U.S. affecting children, vulnerable populations, and the general population” resulting from the presence of unregulated CBD products on the market.
And it won’t until it is federally legal