The Minority Cannabis Business Association (MCBA) announced on Monday that it will hold a tri-state conference in December to highlight the importance of promoting social equity as the governors of Connecticut, New Jersey and New York set out to coordinate regional marijuana legalization plans.
The organization also unveiled four new board members: National Cannabis Industry Association (NCIA) Head of Growth Kaliko Castille, who will serve as MCBA’s vice president; Cresco Labs Senior Vice President of Community Integration Barrington Rutherford; Working Group President Jazmin Aguiar and Arcview Group Vice President of Data and Government Affairs David Abernathy.
MCBA said it decided to hold the regional conference after New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo (D) and Connecticut Gov. Ned Lamont (D) announced last week that they will host a meeting of state officials from throughout the Northeast on October 17 to determine how best to implement legal cannabis markets that are consistent with one another.
The governors stressed that they don’t want variation between marijuana programs to encourage consumers to cross state lines for products.