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One of New York’s top social equity champions in the marijuana trade, Office of Cannabis Management Executive Director Chris Alexander, resigned from his post on Friday after weeks of speculation about how he would continue after the governor announced publicly that she wanted him gone.

Gov. Kathy Hochul called for Alexander’s resignation earlier this month following the issuance of a scathing state audit of the OCM and the recreational marijuana market rollout the agency has overseen, but originally the plan was for Alexander to remain on the job until September.

That’s not feasible, Alexander wrote in his resignation letter, which was widely shared on social media Friday.

“I have been reluctant to write this email due to the deep connection and commitment I have to this work and to this Team,” Alexander wrote. “And while I planned to serve out the remainder of my term, I no longer have confidence in my ability to do my job and lead this team effectively under current circumstances.”

Hochul’s demand for Alexander to step down came after the Office of Government Services found a severely flawed approach to the state’s adult-use cannabis market rollout, but there’s been industry pushback to some of the findings in the report, including that the OGS allegedly used flawed metrics to judge the OCM’s performance, according to several media reports.

That led at least one state lawmaker, Brooklyn Democratic state Sen. Jabari Brisport, to assert that Alexander was a “scapegoat” for the Hochul administration, Spectrum News reported.

The OCM did not immediately respond to a request for comment or clarification from Green Market Report. Alexander could not be reached immediately for comment Tuesday, and Hochul’s press office also did not immediately respond to inquiries.

But in a statement Friday to THE CITY, Hochul said, “I am grateful for Chris Alexander’s work, first in developing and securing the passage of the Marihuana Regulation and Taxation Act and then in launching the Office of Cannabis Management.”

It’s not clear if Alexander’s resignation was effective immediately on Friday or who will lead the agency in his absence.

Alexander was appointed to lead the OCM in 2021 by Hochul in the run-up to the New York cannabis market launch, which formally started sales in December 2022.

But in January, cracks emerged when the governor went public with her frustration over what she called a “disaster” of a market rollout. When the OGS report was issued in early May with findings that the OCM underspent its own budget and had an enormous backlog of license applications, that appeared to be the final straw for Alexander.

“We’re taking much needed steps, long overdue, to make the cannabis program in New York successful and work as promised,” Hochul said in a press conference in which she announced Alexander’s departure.

The press conference was held at the same time as a Cannabis Control Board meeting that Alexander was attending on Friday, May 10.

Alexander has become something of a flashpoint among many in the New York marijuana community, with some backing his staunch support of a social equity focus to the market structure, while others have blamed him for the snail’s pace of the rollout and much of the frustration borne by cannabis business license applicants.

Thus far, the OCM has overseen the opening of just 130 legal marijuana shops in New York, compared to estimates of between 1,500 and several thousand illegal cannabis stores doing business in the state. The OCM still has several thousand more retail permits yet to evaluate, along with more license application windows to open in the future.

The post Top New York cannabis regulator resigns following rift with governor appeared first on Green Market Report.

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John Schroyer, KahliBuds, 420GrowLife