CASTETTER
CANNABIS GROUP
Cannabis Policy Expertise and Thoughtful Advocacy
Good cannabis policy is rarely the fastest response to a problem. It is the one that still works for the whole market a decade later. That belief shapes how Castetter Cannabis Group operates: we are a boutique firm, selective about the clients we represent, and we ensure any engagement we take on receives the depth of research and consideration needed to build advocacy platforms. We bring to every engagement a working knowledge of the MRTA, the regulations built on it, and the realities facing each license type and each stakeholder in the supply chain. When we craft policy solutions and advocate for them, we are not asking government to solve one client’s problem at everyone else’s expense. That is why our clients choose us, and why our partnership with policymakers continues to strengthen.
Featured In:
How We Can Help
Educating Government
Officials & Staff
New York’s cannabis industry moves fast and touches an unusually wide range of subject areas at once — agriculture, manufacturing, retail, public health, taxation, labor, land use, and criminal justice, among others. For a lawmaker, legislative staffer, regulator, or local official, understanding how a single policy choice will play out across all of those areas is extremely difficult, and the consequences of getting it wrong are real.
We are here to make that easier. We educate officials at every level of government on how the industry actually operates, and we provide the resources and context to answer their questions — before a vote, during rulemaking, or when a local board is deciding whether to opt in. The goal is simply that the people shaping the industry understand it.
Crafting Policy
Good policy is not written in a single draft. Our process starts with understanding the issue in full, then testing that understanding against a wide range of stakeholders — cultivators, processors, retailers, ancillary businesses, and the agencies that regulate them. We research how other markets have handled the same problem, including industries outside cannabis that solved it years ago.
​
What comes out of that process is policy that furthers the intent of the statute while recognizing a basic truth: the law has to keep pace with an industry that changes faster than the legislative calendar. We develop position papers, draft language, and regulatory comments that reflect the whole market, not one corner of it.
Policy Development
Hundreds of bills touching cannabis are introduced in the New York State Legislature each session. The Office of Cannabis Management publishes new regulations and guidance on a regular basis, and federal reform remains a live question with direct consequences for New York operators. Tracking all of it is a full-time job; understanding what it means is a different skill entirely.
​
That is where Kaelan Castetter’s background matters. He has been an operator, an advocate, and a policy expert in this industry, which gives him an uncommon ability to see how a proposed change will land in practice — including the consequences nobody intended. We monitor the legislative, regulatory, and federal landscape continuously and translate it into analysis our clients and partners can act on.