Cannabis farmers continue to push through, after a lack of help from the state

MADISON COUNTY, N.Y. (WSYR-TV) — Cannabis farmers in New York State say that they are still trying to recover from a unsuccessful season. They are now trying to overcome a lack of help from the state, that they had been hoping for.

“The fact that the relief fund wasn’t passed it is heartbreaking because there are a lot of farmers that needed that,” said Stephen Halton, owner of Real Life Botanicals in Madison County.

Halton is one of those farmers, who was keeping a close eye on the state budget with a proposal that stood out to many growers who are losing thousands of dollars because of New York’s slow and botched rollout of legal dispensaries.

In an effort to help offset those losses, the proposal would have delivered New York farmers millions in aid through a cannabis relief fund.

The fund would have included, $60 million in loans, $40 million in grants through the cannabis farmer relief fund and $28 million in tax refunds.

But unfortunately, the cannabis relief fund wasn’t included in the recently passed state budget.

The relief fund was something Halton had been hoping for. Since earning his license two years ago, the Central New York native said that he has lost over half a million dollars.

“Some of them aren’t as fortunate as we are, to be able to keep pushing forward to get more sales. But I mean we are farmers,” said Halton.

But luckily for him, some of the green he lost, is slowly returning.

“We’re not losing any money right now. We’re getting caught up on some of the past due amounts at least, again with the sales that we’ve been able to get,” said Halton.

A big change compared to just a month ago, that’s when we first met Halton who’d been struggling to sell his product.

“Things have gotten a lot better. I mean we’ve actually gotten into a few more dispensaries and we do have a lot more product selling. Its been really nice to see things turnaround,” said Halton.

But the grass isn’t always greener.

“Unfortunately my business partner did pass away in a tragic accident. We’re still kind of healing from that,” said Halton.

But he’s determined to push forward.

“I’m happy that he was able to see us starting to pay some of those passed due amounts before he had passed away and its an honor to keep this dream alive,” said Halton.

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