The departure of Chris Alexander, an architect of legalization in New York, follows a report that was critical of his leadership.
The head of New York State’s cannabis agency will step down at the end of his three-year term in September as part of an overhaul of the embattled agency, Gov. Kathy Hochul said on Friday.
The governor made the announcement at a news conference in Albany where the official, Chris Alexander, the executive director of the Office of Cannabis Management, was notably absent. It came after a task force found a startup-like culture at the agency contributed to “confusion, difficulty and delay” in the rollout of the state’s legal market, according to a report released on Friday.
The report was ordered by Gov. Hochul in March after she declared the rollout a “disaster.” It cited inexperience among the agency’s leadership as one of the critical factors undermining the agency’s ability to expand the market with more licensed retailers and deliver the promised benefits of legalization.
However, at the news conference on Friday, Gov. Hochul insisted her changes were not about assigning blame.
“It’s about pointing O.C.M. in a new direction and implementing solutions that work for everyone,” she said.
Mr. Alexander was attending a meeting of the Cannabis Control Board, which oversees his agency, and could not be reached for comment on Friday. The Office of Cannabis Management did not immediately respond to an email seeking comment. [Read More @ The NY Times]
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