New York's Office of Cannabis Management (OCM) entered 2026 without a permanent leader, after a failed enforcement case cost its previous chief her job. By June, the state Senate had confirmed John Kagia as executive director. This article looks at how that leadership change happened, what Kagia said he would prioritize, and how the agency's record looks four months into his confirmed tenure.
For the monthly licensing numbers, see our piece on the 32-license batch and what followed. For sales, see our 2026 sales reality check.
How OCM lost its last leader
In October 2025, OCM brought a compliance action against licensed processor Omnium Health, accusing it of "inversion," meaning moving illicit cannabis into the licensed supply chain, and seeking a $1 million fine and license revocation. In December the state withdrew the case. Governor Kathy Hochul then asked interim Executive Director Felicia A.B. Reid and deputy counsel James Rogers, who ran the agency's investigative unit, to step down, Spectrum News reported. Reid had led OCM since mid-2024, after the departure of its first executive director, Chris Alexander. Chief Administrative Officer Susan Filburn ran the office in the interim.
The episode came on top of years of criticism: lawsuits that froze licensing for months, a slow first wave of storefronts and a surge of unlicensed shops that far outnumbered legal ones in the early years.
Who John Kagia is
Hochul named Kagia acting executive director on February 26, 2026. He had been OCM's director of policy, overseeing rules for the medical, adult-use and hemp programs, and before that spent years as a cannabis industry analyst. Hochul said he "will be able to lead the OCM efficiently, while delivering for New Yorkers across the state."
In a March interview with City & State, Kagia described an agency of about 270 employees spread across licensing, enforcement and market oversight. The challenges he and the reporter laid out included inversion, the roughly half of the state that has opted out of retail sales, licensees' limited access to capital, avoiding the price crashes and consolidation seen in other states, and writing rules for on-site consumption.
The Senate confirmed him on June 4, 2026. OCM's confirmation release listed 2,270 adult-use licenses, 667 operating dispensaries, more than $3.2 billion in cumulative legal sales, 627 illicit shop closures with local police, and a 56 percent share of licenses held by Social and Economic Equity (SEE) applicants, above the 50 percent statutory goal.
What the agency has done since June
Several themes run through OCM's board meetings this summer and fall:
- Using Metrc data. OCM has moved licensees onto the Metrc seed-to-sale tracking system and in September launched a public market dashboard. Its second cultivation review found 313 cultivators actually operating as of August, compared with 449 estimated from earlier self-reported surveys, and licensed canopy up 32 percent since March to about 12 million square feet (September 3 release).
- Equity ownership rules. In August the board issued a declaratory ruling that the operating agreement of CAURD licensee Gotham Buds violated sole-control requirements meant to keep justice-involved owners in charge. On October 1 it affirmed the ruling, imposed a $35,000 civil penalty and gave the company 90 days to file a compliant agreement (October 2 release).
- Enforcement. OCM reported the largest seizure in its history in August, more than $17 million in illicit product in Greece, Monroe County, and said it had padlocked 674 illicit shops statewide (August 3 release).
- Medical program. The board cut the registration fee for medical Registered Organizations from $200,000 to $20,000 in May, citing strain on the program, and in July adopted updated medical regulations extending patient certifications to up to two years and allowing qualifying out-of-state patients to buy from New York medical dispensaries. Our coverage of medical operators' finances explains the fee pressure.
Update: October 2026
The October 1 board meeting in Rochester showed the current mix of growth and policing. The board extended deadlines for provisional licensees to finish final licensing requirements (to December 31, 2028), set a November 5 opening for a new nursery license application window, considered New York's first cannabis research license for a clinical trial, and received reports on four open investigations, including a possible transfer of cannabis to an unlicensed entity. OCM said the allegations are not final findings.
A major new enforcement tool is still pending: the anti-inversion bill that passed the Legislature in June has not been signed, as we explain in our updated anti-inversion story.
Open questions for the next six months
- Will the anti-inversion bill be signed before the legislative session ends in December, and how will OCM use it?
- Can more licensees open? OCM counts 327 licensed retailers that have not opened, and 55 percent of not-yet-operating cultivators are SEE licensees.
- What happens with the four investigations the board asked OCM to report on at its next meeting?
- Consumption rules: Kagia named on-site consumption regulations as a priority in March; none of OCM's board releases since then has announced final rules.
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