On Wednesday, June 1st, the New York State Cannabis Control Board approved draft regulations regarding the packaging, marketing and laboratory testing of adult-use cannabis products. The main purpose of the regulations is to ensure that recreational sales of cannabis are safe, do not promote overconsumption, and do not target young people. Some of the regulations included in the draft include:
- Requiring that the packages for recreational cannabis products be fully enclosed, child-resistant, tamper-evident, and include a universal symbol for licensees;
- Prohibiting packaging from including pictures and symbols that would be attractive to people under the age of 21 (cartoons, bubble-type or cartoon-like fonts, bright colors that are “neon” in appearance. The rules also ban the use of terms like “candy,” “candies,” “kandy,” or “kandeez.” Also off limits are symbols, images, characters, public figures, phrases, toys, or games that are commonly used to market products to individuals under the age of 21, and images of individuals who could reasonably appear to be under the age of 21);
- Requiring labels to include warnings, potency, serving sizes, ingredients, and instructions for usage and storage;
- Banning advertisements and marketing campaigns from appealing to youth or promoting misuse of cannabis products;
- Establishing an application process for independent cannabis testing laboratories;
- Authorizing existing independent laboratories that are currently certified to test medical cannabis to also test adult-use recreational cannabis products; and
- Barring lab owners from having a direct or indirect interest in any other registration of license type.
The draft regulations, which can be found in full here: https://cannabis.ny.gov/system/files/documents/2022/06/part-128-and-129-plma-regs-final-draft-6-1-2022-v2.pdf, will be published in the New York State Register on June 15th. That kicks off a 60-day public comment period before they head back to the board for any changes.