Although the demand is not very high, New York continues to grow its number of suppliers for medical marijuana. The famous American state will double the number of companies it works with in an attempt of making medical marijuana available to all New Yorkers.
The Health Department:
Five more companies have been registered by the state Health Department to manufacture and distribute medical marijuana. The number of companies in New York so far is summing up to ten.
Howard Zucker, state Health Commissioner has declared that the addition of these new suppliers will help patients in need to obtain the medical marijuana and to also make it more affordable. The introduction of new competition plans to help more and more New Yorkers afford medical marijuana.
The five old companies vs. the five new ones:
In 2016 a lawsuit was filed by the first five companies which were already collaborating with the state. The lawsuit was a measure of preventing new companies from registering. The lawsuit is still in progress.
The first five companies have started an alliance called the Medical Cannabis Industry Alliance and its spokesman Patrick McCarthy has declared that the issue is never with the supply, but rather with the demand. According to him the demand has not been enough on behalf o patients and medical workers since the beginning of the program. The numbers show that 1,139 practitioners and 25,736 patients were registered as of Tuesday.
These numbers show that the numbers of users has grown to 72% more since March (10,744 more patients).
Who are the five “founding” companies?
The five first companies to register and to form the Medical Cannabis Industry Alliance are New York Canna, Valley Agriceuticals, Citify Medical and Ferrell Pharmaceuticals. These five companies have already been relicensed by the state for two additional years.
