Take Action
URGENT — Awaiting the Governor's Signature

New Yorkers, your cannabis costs are about to GO UP.

  • Albany lawmakers have voted to hand an unelected board the power to drive up labor costs across the entire cannabis industry.
  • The people who actually run these businesses got no say. Costs like that don't just disappear.
  • Any day now, Governor Hochul can sign a bill into law that will undermine the legal cannabis industry.
Tell the Governor: Veto It See What's At Stake
Price Per Eighth
Today
$28
→
If Enacted
$40+
▲ +$12.00 · 43% HIGHER
Illustrative — see the full breakdown below
What's At Stake

If Albany gets its way, here's what changes for cannabis consumers — both adult-use and medical — and the people who work at all levels of this industry.

For Consumers

Your price goes up

Legal cannabis operators already work under a tightly regulated, highly-taxed environment other businesses don't face. Add an unfunded, mandated wage hike, and there's only one place left for the cost to go — the price you pay at the counter.

For The Industry

Legal businesses close, jobs disappear

When legal prices climb, sales don't just slow — they move. Every customer pushed toward the unregulated market is revenue a legal shop doesn't have to keep its doors open, or keep its people employed.

For Public Safety

The illegal market grows

Legal operators already struggle to compete with an illicit market that's unregulated, pays no taxes, and charges far less for a potentially unsafe product. Mandate even more cost, and the illegal market benefits.

For The State/Communities

Tax dollars vanish

Every sale that shifts underground is lost tax revenue that could otherwise fund schools, reduce property taxes, and support equity programs.

See It In Numbers

Consumer price if a wage board mandates a cannabis wage floor

Projected retail impact, based on statewide labor cost pass-through.

Today
$28.00
→
If Enacted
$40+
▲ +$12.00 · 43% higher, per eighth
Illustrative estimate based on a 3.5g eighth and a fully passed-through labor cost increase. Full methodology below.
Current wholesale price
Per eighth, cultivator to retailer$16.00
Labor share of production cost
Cultivation + trim + packaging, illustrative38%
Current blended labor cost
Per hour, statewide average$18.50
Proposed wage board floor
Per hour, including mandated benefits$26.00
Labor cost increase
Applied to labor share of wholesale cost+$3.75
New wholesale price
$16.00 + labor pass-through$19.75
Retail markup applied
Standard dispensary margin, held constant~2.0x
Projected retail price$40+
Assumptions In This Model
  • Labor cost increase is fully passed through at every stage of the supply chain, with no margin absorption.
  • Retail markup multiple is held constant at today's typical rate — it doesn't compress or expand.
  • Labor share of production cost (38%) is a blended estimate across cultivation, trim, and packaging labor.
  • Figures are illustrative, built to show mechanism and direction, not a certified fiscal impact statement.
The only guaranteed winners? The transnational trafficking organizations supplying New York's illegal market — untaxed, unregulated, and about to get a lot more customers.
Who We Are

One industry, standing together

Safe Affordable Cannabis for New York (SACNY) brings together every part of the legal supply chain that would feel this — because all of it flows through to the same price tag.

Shop Floor

Dispensaries

The people who greet customers and take the hit when prices climb.

Field

Farmers & Growers

New York growers who absorb the first cost of any new mandate.

Factory Floor

Processors

The manufacturers turning raw product into everything on the shelf.

Patient-Facing

Medical Operators

Businesses serving patients who have the least room to pay more.

Take Action

Tell Governor Hochul to veto this bill

Two minutes, two channels. Email and phone reach the Governor's office directly — do both if you can.

Action Needed AWAITING THE GOVERNOR'S SIGNATURE
Step 1

Send an email

This opens a pre-written email addressed to the Governor's office — the desk that reviews bills awaiting her signature. Add your name and city before sending.

Or Use Official Web Form
Add your name so we can personalize the letter — sending anyway.
Opens your email app with a pre-written message to legislative.secretary@exec.ny.gov, the standard address for public comment on bills pending the Governor's signature.
Step 2

Call the Governor's office

Calls are logged and counted. A 60-second call takes longer to read about than to make.

Call (518) 474-8390
Sample script: "Hi, my name is [name] and I'm a constituent from [city]. I'm calling to urge Governor Hochul to veto A11562, the cannabis wage board bill. It will raise prices and push customers toward the illegal market. Thank you."

Text your network

There's no public texting line to the Governor's office — calls and email carry the most weight. But you can text your own contacts and ask them to take action too.

Mail a letter

For a physical, on-record ask:

The Honorable Kathy Hochul
Governor of New York State
NYS Capitol Building
Albany, NY 12224

Join the coalition

Own or operate a licensed cannabis business in New York? Add your name and get advocacy updates as they're announced.

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