Showcase Events, in plain English

Only a licensed adult-use cannabis retailer — an adult-use retail dispensary, or a registered organization with dispensing (ROD). Cultivators, processors and microbusinesses cannot hold the permit themselves; they take part as "authorized licensees."

You need partners. To be eligible you must enter a partnership with at least one licensed cultivator and at least one licensed processor, both participating as authorized licensees. You can list more than one processor, but every processor on the application needs at least one cultivator alongside it.

A licensed microbusiness counts as a cultivator — or as a processor instead, if OCM has granted it processing authority under § 123.11. It cannot count as both at the same event, so a microbusiness alone does not satisfy the cultivator-plus-processor requirement.

No. A ROD can apply for a permit and sell its own products plus products from other adult-use licensees, and it can separately participate in someone else's event as an authorized licensee showcasing as a cultivator or processor. But never both roles at the same event.

A pop-up location, a farmers' market, or a public market. A pop-up can be:

• An open-air location — park, beach, square, parking lot, farm or field
• A brick-and-mortar location
• Outside or immediately adjacent to a licensed dispensary, if that licensee is the permittee
• A licensed cultivator's or processor's premises, if that licensee is an authorized licensee at the event
• A licensed microbusiness's cultivation and/or processing premises, same condition

It cannot be at your own licensed dispensary premises in the ordinary sense — the whole point is that it is away from them.

No event may be located:

• Within a 200-foot radius of a licensed dispensary's premises, unless those premises belong to the permittee
• On the same street and within 200 feet of a house of worship entrance
• On the same street and within 500 feet of a school entrance
• On the same road and within 500 feet of a public youth facility, where the municipality has enacted a local law under § 119.2

Measurements run in straight lines from the closest boundary of the sales area to the centre of the nearest entrance.

A permit is effective for no more than 14 consecutive calendar days. Separately, no single location may be used for more than 14 consecutive days, or more than 45 days in a calendar year, for any showcase event — that cap follows the location, not just your permit.

A single permit covers one event at a time, and a permittee may conduct no more than two showcase events simultaneously. Cultivators, processors, microbusinesses, RODs and RONDs may appear at multiple events at once as authorized licensees, provided each event has its own permit and each is listed on that permittee's application.

At least 45 calendar days before the event, except where good cause is shown. This is the deadline that catches people out — the municipal approval has to be in hand before that clock even starts.

A non-refundable application fee based on length:

• Up to 3 days — $300
• 4 to 7 days — $550
• 8 to 14 days — $800

Applicants qualifying as social and economic equity licensees pay a 50% reduced fee.

Yes, and this is the gate. You must submit an authorization signed by an official of the municipality, stating the location, days and times cannabis will be sold, and that the municipality approves the event. Without that signature OCM cannot even consider the application. A municipality may approve an event regardless of whether it opted out of retail dispensaries.

In New York City, the channel is Cannabis NYC at SBS — cannabis@sbs.nyc.gov — not the community boards directly.

You need a second written authorization, signed by the market's manager or official representative, noting any fee the market charges and whether it has been paid, plus the location, days and times of sale. That is on top of the municipal approval.

Among other things: applicant details and licence number, event name and description, address, dates and hours of actual sale and showcasing, your lead contact and employee in charge of sales, every authorized licensee with licence numbers, a site plan with measurements and a drawing or photographs, a map of the location, vendor details, a security and storage plan, your advertising, and an attestation that you have or will obtain every other required permit.

OCM issues a deficiency notice and you get 15 calendar days to cure. Miss that and the application is denied. Review also weighs completeness, compliance with other rules, health and safety, risk of attracting or exposing children to cannabis, whether your staffing and security plans are actually feasible, and your compliance history.

Only the permittee sells, through its own authorized employees who must be 21 or older, inside the designated sales area. Cultivators, processors, RONDs and microbusinesses showcase only — no direct or indirect sales to anyone, and they cannot sell their showcased product to the retailer at the event either. Product for sale must come from the permittee's own inventory through licensed distribution.

A ROD permittee must keep at least 40% of shelf space for product cultivated and processed by non-ROD licensees.

No on both counts. Nothing may be given away to any person or entity, and no product samples may be offered for sale or remuneration. Samples may be displayed in secure locked cases and handed to a consumer for inspection only — they cannot consume it or remove it from the event area. Consumption within the event area is prohibited outright and you must post conspicuous signage saying so.

No tobacco or nicotine products. No alcohol — that applies to vendors at the event too. Nothing commonly associated with or marketed to under-21s, including candy, toys and games. No apparel or merchandise referencing brands other than the licensees named on the permit. You also cannot accept SNAP EBT or WIC EBT as payment.

You can sell branded merchandise and paraphernalia, and cannabinoid hemp products if you hold the right hemp licence.