Conditional licenses to grow marijuana have been approved by both houses of the state Legislature.

But Assemblyman Andrew Goodell, R-Jamestown, says the legislation (A.9283/S8084A) won’t have much benefit for Chautauqua County farmers. According to the state Department of Agriculture and Markets, there is only one certified hemp producer in Chautauqua County. Only licensed hemp farmers can receive a conditional conditional adult-use cultivator license or a conditional adult-use processor license.

Goodell also took particular issue with a clause requiring those receiving a license to enter into a labor peace agreement with a labor organization that is either representing or attempting to represent the farm’s employees within six months of receiving the license.

“Lawyers sometimes talk about contracts of adhesion, and that’s a contract with a negotiating party that’s not on a fair and level playing field where they must sign a contract,” Goodell said. “And this creates exactly that situation. Because if you’re a private sector employer and you’re not unionized and your employees do not want to be unionized, you cannot go into this business and you cannot get a conditional license unless you negotiate an agreement with a union. Now imagine you’re a grower and I represent the union. When we sit down my first question to you is, ‘Do you want to be in business?’ And if you do, my second question is, ‘Let’s talk money. Because unless you reach an agreement with me, you’re not in business.’ It’s a monopoly. And the union under this monopoly holds every single card.”

Sen. Michelle Hinchey, D-Kingston and sponsor of the Senate legislation, has said the conditional licenses are necessary to get the adult use cannabis market up and running. In order to apply for a license, someone must have a valid industrial hemp grower authorization from the state Department of Agriculture and Markets as of the end of 2021, be in good standing, and have grown and harvested hemp for at least two of the previous four years. License holders are allowed to cultivate cannabis outdoors or in a greenhouse without artificial lighting.

The license limits the amount of cannabis that can be grown. Holders will also be able to manufacture and distribute cannabis products provided they are in the form of cannabis flower until June 1, 2023, without needing additional licenses. After June 1, 2023, actual processor and distributor licenses would be required. Any holders of the provisional licenses, if they are judged to be in good standing, will be allowed to apply for a regular adult-cannabis cultivator license.

But, for Goodell, there are serious problems with the rest of the legislation.

“This is a strange bill,” Goodell said. “And we shoud be absolutely clear it crosses a lot of lines we’ve never seen before in terms of creating a monopoly, requiring employers perhaps over the objections of their employees, that either you enter into a contract with unions. We know that virtually no farms in New York state are currently unionized. That’s only 2-3%. So we automatically, off the top, exclude anyone who is non-union unless they want to enter into a negotiation with a union. And we’re moving forward without any of the regulations in play for the rest of the process.”

Assembly Majority Leader Crystal Peoples Stokes, D-Buffalo, sponsored the legislation and was questioned on the Assembly floor by 13 Assembly members for roughly 90 minutes. She said the labor peace stipulation is meant to head off issues like the one employees of Starbucks in Buffalo faced when trying to unionize. She said Starbucks did everything it could to avoid employees unionizing, something a labor peace agreement would prevent for marijuana growers.

“I also want to speak to the whole labor peace issue,” she said. “This would not have been my preference, but again when you’re in a business where the call is for compromise, you have got to get this done. You have to move forward. A labor peace agreement does not require anybody to pay dues. These employees are not members of a union and there is nothing that forces the farms or the employees to create a union. All it says is that you can’t do things to prevent it.”