A group representing the legal marijuana industry is warning Gov. Hochul’s cannabis regulators that a dramaticincrease in the number of pot stores could have “disastrous consequences” for current licensed operators.
Cannabis Association of New York president Damien Cornwell noted that state regulators have yet to weed out the hordes of illegal pot operators.
“We are writing to express our deep concern regarding the Cannabis Control Board’s (CCB) recent discussions about dramatically increasing the number of cannabis licenses in the state,” Cornwell, founder of the “Just Breathe” cannabis shop in Binghamton, said in an April 12 letter sent to state Cannabis Control Board Chairwoman Tremaine Wright and members of Cannabis Advisory Board.
Cannabis Association of New York is warning Gov. Hochul’s cannabis regulators that increasing the amount of legal marijuana dispensaries could have “disastrous consequences” for current operators.Lev Radin/Pacific Press/Shutterstock
“We believe that this approach, if implemented without proper analysis and stakeholder input, will have disastrous consequences for the fledgling industry and public health.”
Hochul and state regulators have been criticized for a slow and rocky rollout since the first licensed pot store opened in December of 2022.
Lawsuits contributed to delays in licensing and store openings last year, leaving farmers in the lurch with mounds of spoiled marijuana crops.
But state officials have ramped up the issuance of licenses and approved openings of dispensaries since ligation was settled last fall.
Marijuana products for sale in Elevate Cannabis, a licensed dispensary in Mount Vernon, New York on March 5, 2024.Mark Vergari/The Journal News / USA TODAY NETWORK
There are now 103 legal cannabis stores opened throughout the Empire State, up from 26 last November.
More than 400 cannabis licenses ranging from growers to retail stores have been issued by state regulators this year, including 101 at the April 11 Cannabis Control Board meeting.
But Cornwell advised prudent deliberation instead of recklessly overwhelming the budding market.
“We strongly believe that handing out licenses without a thorough understanding of the market’s capacity will lead to oversaturation, business failures, and unintended public health risks,” he said.
“As the cannabis industry in New York is still in its early stages, many licensed retailers are already facing challenges competing with the illegal market. Flooding the market with additional licenses exacerbates this problem and potentially leads to a wave of closures, undermining the state’s social equity goals and leaving vulnerable entrepreneurs in an unsustainable market.”
To emphasize his point, Cornwell put a paragraph of his letter in bold calling on the Cannabis Advisory Board to conduct a sweeping market analysis and a review with stakeholders prior to making any major policy decisions impacting the industry.
In a subsequent interview with The Post, Cornwell said the legal cannabis industry cannot be compared to other retail markets.
Members of Support Legal Cannabis rallying outside of Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie’s office in the Bronx on April 13, 2024.J.C. Rice
Unlike other industries, licensed pot stores are barred from deducting ordinary business expenses for income tax purposes because it is still considered an illicit drug under federal law.
“Without the ability to deduct expenses like rent, employee wages and marketing costs and other operating expenses, cannabis retail stores face a higher tax burden compared to other retail businesses. This can significantly impact their profitability and financial viability,” he said.
The Biden administration is being blasted for allowing billions of dollars to allegedly flow into Iran under a controversial sanctions waiver — even after Iranian-backed rebels launched deadly air strikes against American forces and the Muslim country just directly attacked staunch US ally Israel.
Last month, the White House extended the waiver, a move that unlocked up to $10 billion more in frozen funds by enabling Iraq to pay the Iranian government for electricity services, according to critics and the Washington Free Beacon.
The Biden administration had already renewed the waiver program, which was established in 2018, in November.
The extended waiver was then set to expire again in March, but the administration reapproved it once more — just six weeks after three US service members were killed and dozens more injured in a drone attack by Iran-backed militants in Jordan in late January.
The State Department has long insisted such waivers are “necessary” while Iraq “weans itself off Iranian energy imports” and develops its domestic oil and gas production. The White House claims the unfrozen funds can only be used for humanitarian purposes.
“None of Iran’s money held in restricted accounts overseas has gone to Iran, and we have not freed up any cash to Iran. Any notion to the contrary is false and misleading.” the State Department told The Post in a statement Sunday.
“That money is held in restricted accounts overseas with strict oversight and in close coordination between the Departments of Treasury and State.”
Asked if plans are in the works to increase pressure on Iran through additional sanctions after Saturday’s missile strike, the State Department said, “We are in ongoing engagement with allies and partners, including at the G7, on ways to increase pressure on Iran, but we cannot preview or detail measures under consideration.”
In a statement to The Post, the White House stood by President Biden’s record on Iran, citing the US military’s efforts in thwarting last night’s attack, as well as imposing “more than 500 sanctions on Iran” since taking office.
“The waiver…which allows for Iraq to import Iranian energy as it works to become energy independent, continues a practice that was started by the Trump administration and has been renewed 21 times since 2018,” the White House said.
“Precisely zero money from this electricity waiver is going to Iran. U.S. sanctions remain in place and are continuing to prevent Iran’s money—whether from its oil sales under previous administrations or its electricity sales to Iraq that occurred—from flowing to Iran.”
“Under these waivers, no money has been permitted to enter Iran,” a State Department official insisted to the Beacon. “These funds, which are held abroad in third countries, can only be used for transactions for the purchase of food, agricultural commodities, medicine, medical devices, and other non-sanctionable transactions.
“The money goes straight to the trusted vendor or financial institution in another country. The money never touches Iran.”
But some Republican lawmakers say a lack of transparency and accountability has resulted in the funds being used to pay for state-sanctioned terrorist operations in the rogue nation.
Iran launched a massive aerial assault against Israel on Saturday.ATEF SAFADI/EPA-EFE/Shutterstock
Earlier this month, a group of 13 Republican senators led by Senate Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs Committee Ranking Member Tim Scott (R-S.C.) wrote a pointed letter to Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen and Secretary of State Antony Blinken calling for an end to such sanction waivers.
The senators called it “unfathomable” that the Biden administration believes that making the funds potentially available to Iran serves US national security interests.
“If we want to actually restore deterrence in the region, those funds should be placed further out of Iran’s reach, not closer,” the blistering letter said.
On April 9, the committee grilled Deputy Treasury Secretary Adewale Adeyemo about the “fungible nature” of the funds, which ostensibly are earmarked exclusively for humanitarian purposes.
Even Adeyemo said it is likely the funds have been used to finance “violent activity” before a cent of them reaches Iranians in need.
“What we’ve seen time and time again from the Iranian regime, is they [Iran] fail to feed their people, and they’ve put the IRGC [Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps] first. Any dollar they have will go towards their violent activity before they deal with their people,” Adeyemo testified.
“That’s partially why almost none of the humanitarian money has been used for humanitarian purposes, because they don’t care about getting drugs and food for their people.”
Biden (far right), aided by Secretary of State Antony Blinken (center), convened an emergency meeting of the G7 nations on Sunday to discuss international efforts to prevent the Iran-Israel conflict from escalating.via REUTERS
In the wake of the Islamic republic’s missile and drone strike against Israel on Saturday, several of the letter’s signatories Sunday accused the Biden administration of emboldening the regime through its sanctions policies.
“President Biden’s hollow, dithering doctrine of appeasement has not only emboldened Iran, it’s enriched the world’s largest state sponsor of terrorism,” Sen. Katie Britt (R-Ala.) told The Post in a statement.
” ‘Don’t’ is not a foreign policy; and it’s certainly not a deterrent,” the senator said, referencing the one-word warning Biden issued ahead of Iran launching its attack.
Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi warned Sunday against any “reckless behavior” in response to his rogue country’s Saturday attack on Israel.Iranian Presidency/AFP via Getty Images
Sen. Tom Cotton (R-Ark.) told The Post that the Biden administration has overseen a flood of cash landing in Iran’s coffers.
“Four years ago, Iran was weak and the ayatollahs were nearly broke. Now thanks to Joe Biden’s sanctions relief and weak policies on Iran, they have enough cash to shoot 300 drones and missiles at Israel, an unprecedented attack on our ally,” Cotton claimed.
Speaking on “Fox News Sunday,” National Security Council spokesman John Kirby fended off questions about whether the administration has been tough enough on Iran.
“Look at the sanctions we’ve put in place against Iran, look at the resources we put into the region. It’s hard to take a look at what President Biden has done and say that we’ve somehow go soft on Iran,” Kirby said.
He pointed the finger at former President Trump’s administration for Iran now being “dramatically closer to a potential nuclear weapon capability than they were before Mr. Trump was elected.”
On Saturday night, Iran launched 170 drones, 120 ballistic missiles, and 30 cruise missiles in a mass-scale aerial assault on the Jewish state.
With the help of Israel’s allies, and its advanced “David’s Sling” missile defense system, approximately 99% of the ordinance was intercepted and never hit the ground in Israel.
Israeli airlines said operations were returning to normal on Sunday after an overnight attack by Iranian missiles and drones closed the airspace and led to flight cancellations.
Israel reopened its airspace as of 7:30 a.m. (0430 GMT) on Sunday, though flight schedules from Tel Aviv were expected to be affected and travellers were advised to check flight times before going to Ben Gurion International Airport.
Flag carrier El Al said it had resumed operations and was "working to stabilise the flight schedule as soon as possible".
"El Al will continue to operate as much as possible to preserve the air bridge to and from Israel," it said.
The airline had cancelled 15 flights to Europe, Dubai and Moscow scheduled for Sunday while flights that had taken off from Bangkok and Phuket were forced to return.
Smaller Israeli carrier Arkia said it was making adjustments to its flight schedule after initially postponing flights to Athens, Milan and Geneva.
According to the airports authority, most flights of foreign carriers have been delayed, including Sunday flights to London by Wizz Air, to New Delhi by Air India, to Madrid by Iberia and to Marseille by Air France.
El Al's flights to London, Frankfurt, Berlin, Bucharest, Athens, Paris and Rome, and Ethiopian Airline's flight to Addis Ababa were able to take off.
Flights into Israel were also disrupted.
Abu Dhabi-based Etihad Airways cancelled flights to Jordan and Israel on Sunday, the airline said in a statement.
DELAYS TO FLIGHTS
Swiss International Air Lines has suspended flights to and from Tel Aviv until further notice, the airline said in a post on X on Sunday.
Swiss, owned by German carrier Lufthansa, said all of its planes were avoiding the airspaces of Iran, Iraq and Israel, causing delays to flights from India and Singapore.
In addition to Swiss, Lufthansa said its flights and those of Austrian were also suspended to Tel Aviv, Amman and Erbil until Tuesday. Air India also reportedly has temporarily halted flights to Israel.
With the Jewish festival of Passover next week, El Al said it was offering rescue flights from Athens, Paris, London, Amsterdam, Madrid, New York and Miami for Israelis stranded abroad by other carriers.
Its Sun Dor subsidiary is offering flights back to Israel from Larnaca, Rhodes, Warsaw and Krakow.
Jordan, Iraq and Lebanon reopened their airspaces on Sunday after closing them late on Saturday.
United Airlines cancelled Saturday's planned flight from Newark to Tel Aviv, the airline said in a statement.
United is the only major U.S. airline to have resumed flights to Israel since the attacks by Hamas on Israel in October last year.
Palestinian Americans and aid groups in the United States are raising funds for Gaza, which faces a deepening humanitarian crisis as the Israel-Hamas war enters its fourth week - but they have as yet limited ability to get supplies into the besieged enclave.
Aid organizations that serve civilians in Gaza say they are receiving record amounts of donations in a sign of public support for relief efforts even as a growing stock of supplies remain stalled at Egypt's Rafah border crossing.
In the Gaza Strip, where 2.3 million people live, civilians are in dire need of clean water, food and medicine, emergency medics say. Half of Gaza's population was already living in poverty before the crisis.
"We've seen a significant increase in donations, unlike we've ever seen before," said Steve Sosebee, president of the U.S.-based Palestine Children's Relief Fund, which has a staff of 40 in Gaza that provide medical support. He said the fund, which usually has an annual budget of around $12 million, had raised $15 million in just 10 days.
However, with a web of political and logistical obstacles on getting aid in, much of the money and supplies intended for Gaza is in limbo, forcing aid groups to wait as they amass truckloads of goods.
Hamas militants burst over the Gaza border and rampaged through Israeli towns on Oct. 7, killing 1,400 people and taking 229 hostages, according to Israeli authorities. In response, Israel launched its most intense air bombardment campaign on the tiny enclave, along with a "total siege," banning food, water and fuel imports.
Aid groups say they are building up supplies in hopes of eventually getting them through to civilians in Gaza, nearly half of whom are children.
There has been "a five-fold increase in the total number of donors versus typical past emergencies," said Derek Madsen, chief development officer of Anera, a nonpartisan emergency relief group for refugees throughout the Middle East. The organization, which maintains the privacy of individual donors, said it had recently received the largest single donation from an individual in its 55-year-old history.
The majority of support comes from donors based in the United States, he added, with individual donations averaging around $138. The efforts mirror those of Jewish groups in the U.S. and Canada who also fundraised millions for Israel.
Anera was using the last of its stocks this week to distribute meals and vegetable parcels in Gaza. Its staff of 12, like everyone in Gaza, were facing "unbelievable, unimaginable trauma," he said.
GLUED TO THE TELEVISION
In Ann Arbor, Michigan, Rabia Shafie, national director of the Palestine Aid Society, said her group was speaking to student and Muslim groups on local university campuses and community centers to spread awareness and raise donations for the Red Crescent and UNRWA, the UN aid agency that serves Palestinian refugees.
"The money is needed to help people survive at this point of time. Medical support is so essential," she said.
"People are glued to the television ... watching the news moment to moment and very stressed out over the situation," said Shafie, adding that it was difficult as a Palestinian American to watch "the massacre and injustice done to our people back home."
Hamas-governed Gaza is one of the most densely packed places on earth and its medical authorities say over 8,000 Palestinians have been killed since airstrikes began, including more than 3,000 children.
Anera's Madsen called for a ceasefire and establishment of a humanitarian corridor "so that people literally do not starve to death, literally do not die of dehydration."
Last week, in Bay Ridge, Brooklyn, home to one of New York's largest Muslim and Arab communities, hundreds of protesters called for a ceasefire with signs written in Arabic, Spanish, Hebrew and Korean.
In Clifton, New Jersey, the Palestinian American Community Center's priority is advocating for U.S. officials to support a ceasefire and for the hundreds of Americans trapped in Gaza, said Basma Bsharat, the education director of the center.
The center has also been collecting cash donations to send on to UNRWA. It has asked people not to donate supplies, which it has no easy way of sending to those in need in Gaza.
Last week, a woman came to the center anyway, hauling bags filled with goods.
"We didn't know how to say no," said Bsharat. "She was like, I just want to do something. I just want to help somehow."
"It's a very difficult time, and the fact that we do see the support coming in it, it gives some relief," she said. "It gives some kind of solace."
Apple's smartphone shipments dropped about 10% in the first quarter of 2024, hurt by intensifying competition by Android smartphone makers aiming for the top spot, data from research firm IDC showed on Sunday.
Global smartphone shipments increased 7.8% to 289.4 million units during January-March, with Samsung, at 20.8% market share, clinching the top phonemaker spot from Apple.
The iPhone-maker's steep sales decline comes after its strong performance in the December quarter when it overtook Samsung as the world's No.1 phone maker. It's back to the second spot, with 17.3% market share, as Chinese brands such as Huawei gain market share.
Xiaomi, one of China's top smartphone makers, occupied the third position with a market share of 14.1% during the first quarter.
South Korea's Samsung, which launched its latest flagship smartphone lineup - Galaxy S24 series - in the beginning of the year, shipped more than 60 million phones during the period.
Global sales of Galaxy S24 smartphones jumped 8%, compared to last year's Galaxy S23 series during their first three weeks of availability, data provider Counterpoint previously said.
In the first quarter, Apple shipped 50.1 million iPhones, down from 55.4 million units it shipped same period last year, according to IDC.
Apple's smartphone shipments in China shrank 2.1% in the final quarter of 2023 from a year earlier.
The drop underscores the challenges facing the U.S. firm in its third biggest market, as some Chinese companies and government agencies limit employees' use of Apple devices, a measure that mirrors U.S. government restrictions on Chinese apps on security grounds.
The Cupertino, California-based company in June will hold its Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC), where it will highlight updates to the software powering iPhones, iPads, and other Apple devices.
Investors are closely watching for updates on artificial intelligence development at Apple, which has so far spoken little about incorporating the AI technology into its devices. The company earlier this year lost the crown as the world's most valuable company to Microsoft.
As diligent taxpayers breathe a sigh of relief that the hassle of filing their tax forms is over for another year, the Internal Revenue Service continues to let most U.S. hospitalspay nothingin federal taxes. It’s time for Congress to take a hard look at the IRS’s hand in health care.
The agency uses a vague “community benefit” standard to liberally grant tax-exempt status to so-called nonprofit hospitals even as many of them are financially taking advantage of sick Americans with inflated medical bills. Several of my Johns Hopkins colleagues and I published a study in the Journal of the American Medical Association showing that some nonprofit hospitals sue and garnish the wages of low-income patients who can’t afford to pay their medical bills. Where’s the community benefit in that? Nonprofit hospitals are supposed to be compassionate and merciful, not predatory and ruthless.
Many hospitals force people who are suffering and seeking care in earnest to sign their financial life away as a condition of treatment. Some make contesting a bill difficult and others do not comply with the federal hospital transparency rule which requires hospitals to post prices for common shoppable services. The most recent money game that nonprofit hospitals are dialing up is adding billions of dollars in “facility fees” for routine care. These billing tricks are fleecing everyday Americans. Congress could make them disappear overnight if it passed a law disqualifying hospitals that use them from getting the coveted tax-exempt benefit.
Many tax-exempt hospitals argue that they provide millions of dollars in free care. But here’s what’s really going on: Much of what they call free care is emergency care that hospitals are required to provide by law (the 1986 Emergency Medical Treatment and Labor Act requires hospitals to care for anyone who walks in with an emergent condition). But after the care has been provided, patients are often hounded for payment, often at an artificially inflated price. Hospitals then report the difference between their high sticker price and what they actually collect after shaking down a patient as charity care.
But that’s not charity. In a twist of irony, a 2021 study published in Health Affairs found that for-profit hospitals provided 65% more charity care than nonprofit ones.
The bar for receiving tax-exempt status should not be simply abiding by the law.
Hospitals leaders across the nation have told me that they need to avoid federal taxes in order to survive. But the way taxes work, businesses are taxed only on their profits. Some hospitals hide their profits in cost-shift accounting and loan refinancing, even engaging in aggressive real estate and venture capital investing. According to public tax records, Cedars Sinai in Beverly Hills had an income surplus of $750 million in 2022 and paid no federal taxes. Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in New York had $400 million and also paid no federal taxes. The top three hospital administrators there made nearly $20 million in salaries.
Try booking an appointment at these or any nonprofit hospital and see if you can do it without insurance or cash up front. It’s nearly impossible. Most nonprofit hospitals will refuse to schedule appointments, even cancer care, unless you financially qualify by showing your ability to pay.
If hospitals schedule appointments and operations only for people who financially qualify, arguing that they are a business, they should pay their fair share of taxes like every other American business. A Kaiser Family Foundation study estimated the total value of tax exemptions for nonprofit hospitals was $28 billion in 2020 alone. By my calculation, that’s equivalent to a $107 tax credit for every American who filed a return that year.
Momentum to stop this gaming of the system is growing. In August, a bipartisan group of U.S. senators including Bill Cassidy and Elizabeth Warren demanded more transparency from the IRS on the issue after a General Accountability Office report found that the agency “did not have a well-documented process” to ensure that hospitals met tax-exempt criteria.
In October, Bernie Sanders, the chair of the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions committee stressed the need to address the problem. “Many nonprofit hospital systems across the country are failing to provide low-income Americans with the affordable medical care required by their nonprofit status — despite receiving billions in tax benefits and providing exorbitant compensation packages to their senior executives,” he said in a statement.
In another sign that government officials are getting fed up with hospitals paying no taxes, in 2023 a Pennsylvania judge revoked a hospital’s property tax exemption. This action came after the Pottstown school district sued the hospital, arguing that its special tax treatment resulted in $900,000 less revenue for the school each year.
It’s not just the IRS’s lackadaisical approach to hospitals that’s mind-boggling. It’s also the agency’s hostility to direct primary care and other creative strategies developed by doctors to address chronic diseases. The IRS does not allow individuals or families who subscribe to direct primary care — a type of intensive primary care that takes extra time to focus on prevention — to include that cost as a tax-deductible health savings account expense. A 2019 White House executive order challenged this position to no avail. Last month, the IRS sternly warned Americans that they cannot use their own health savings account to buy healthy foods as directed by their doctors.
The IRS continues to propagate a reactionary approach to sickness rather than a proactive approach to health. Chronic diseases are the leading cause of death in the U.S. and consume a majority of the $4.5 trillion Americans spend on health care. The current Whac-a-Mole system isn’t working. Most American adults take 4 or more prescription medications regularly, making the U.S. the most medicated population in the world. The country needs to try new approaches to health.
Instead of scolding Americans who sign up for direct primary care or want to eat healthier foods, the IRS should hold hospitals accountable for the taxes they should be paying.
