New NYC Leave Requirement: Expansion of the Earned Safe and Sick Time Act (ESSTA)
By Cecilia Oyediran, Esq. New York City has amended the Earned Safe and Sick Time Act (ESSTA) to expand access to protected leave. The update requires employers to provide additional unpaid sick and safe time to employees, in addition to the paid leave already required under the law. The New York City Department of Consumer […]
Learning About Cannabis Sex Traits
By Dr. Daniela Vergara Cannabis sativa is a fascinating plant for many reasons, but here we’ll continue focusing on how it reproduces. Cannabis sativa is part of a small group of flowering plants that have separate male and female individuals which are called dioecious. This allows growers to produce seedless buds in unpollinated female plants, […]
More about Sex Determination and Expression in Cannabis sativa Plants
By Dr. Daniela Vergara In this post I want to continue with the story about my recent publication on sex determination and expression Cannabis sativa (Baek and Vergara 2025). How To Spot Cannabis sativa Plant Sex Early—Genes and Markers Have you ever wished you could know if a cannabis plant was male or female before […]
The Maternally Inherited Genomes
By Dr. Daniela Vergara Mitochondria and chloroplasts are special parts of plant and animal cells. Mitochondria are like tiny power houses make energy the cell can use. Chloroplasts are found only in plants and help them make food from sunlight through a process called photosynthesis. What makes these two parts interesting is that they have […]
Restrictions on Noncitizens Working in the Cannabis Industry: Questions and Answers
Download in Spanish / Descargar en español By Cecilia Oyediran, Esq. Noncitizens should be aware of the risks of working in the cannabis industry. As a noncitizen, can I work in a state where marijuana has been decriminalized? Employment in the marijuana industry can potentially impact a person’s eligibility for citizenship in the United States. […]
What Cannabis Employers and Employees Need to Know About New York’s Mandatory Retirement Savings Now in Effect
By Cecilia Oyediran, Esq. 1. What is the New York Secure Choice Savings Program? The New York Secure Choice Savings Program is a state-sponsored retirement savings program that requires certain employers to automatically enroll employees in a Roth IRA if they do not offer a qualified retirement plan. The program is overseen by the State […]
What Does Federal Rescheduling Mean for New York’s Cannabis Industry?
By Cecilia Oyediran, Esq. Last Updated: May 2026This information is educational only and subject to change. It is not legal advice. On April 28, 2026, the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) officially moved certain state-licensed medical cannabis from Schedule I to Schedule III under the federal Controlled Substances Act (CSA). This has created many questions […]
The Cannabis Genome
By Dr. Daniela Vergara Cannabis sativa has a diploid genome, which means it has two sets of chromosomes, for a total of 20. One set of the chromosomes comes from the mother and the other set from the father. Eighteen of those chromosomes, which are not related to sex, are called autosomes, and the last […]
Hashishene
By Dr. Daniela Vergara As we’ve discussed before in multiple other posts, our favorite plant, Cannabis sativa, produces multiple compounds, and these compounds can further turn into other compounds. Remember when we discussed that CBN is a breakdown product that accumulates as THC ages? After THCA (Delta-9-tetrahydrocannabinolic acid) is decarboxylated into THC (Delta-9-tetrahydrocannabinol), it can […]
Do Cloned Cannabis sativa Plants change over time?
By Dr. Daniela Vergara Cloning Cannabis sativa plants through cuttings is common in the industry to maintain consistency. Now tissue culture is also becoming commonly used. But over time, growers have noticed that cloned plants may lose quality. The aroma, strength, and even the size of the plants can change. Why does this happen? According […]