Cannabis Industry Power Players

Steven Epstein is a founding partner at Barket Epstein Kearon Aldea & LoTurco, LLP, and has 29 years of experience. He is recognized as one of the foremost attorneys in the country, specializing in representing clients accused of DWI, vehicular homicides and other criminal offenses. He has successfully defended individuals accused of vehicular homicides and has tried over 100 jury cases to verdict. Mr. Epstein has developed an expertise in handling issues surrounding the cannabis industry and recently produced and lectured at a two-day symposium entitled “Cannabis in the Catskills.”

Where do you see the cannabis industry in New York State in five years?
New York offers an opportunity to be the most lucrative marketplace for cannabis in the nation. If the regulations are passed and enforced wisely, a controlled marketplace should lead to a state where the income can benefit everyone from farm to table.

What attracted you to the cannabis industry?
As an attorney who has practiced DWI defense for my entire career, I saw the future of what legalization meant to my industry, but I also recognize the social and economic advantages to our society of a regulated marketplace.

Tell us one fun fact about cannabis!
Our founding father, George Washington, cultivated hemp on his hemp farm.

Cannabis has clear value to people’s health. Tell us your favorite way to stay healthy and fit.
By making time to keep my mind clear and my body active whenever I can.

Denise Faltischek is head of international business and chief strategy officer at Tilray Brands, Inc. Ms. Faltischek is responsible for the development and implementation of Tilray’s global corporate strategy, partnerships, strategic investments, acquisitions, and Tilray’s international business operations and growth strategies across 20 countries, including the U.S. As a leader in the global cannabis industry, Denise has played an integral role in Tilray’s global expansion, providing strategic counsel to business advocates and regulators in emerging markets on the adoption of responsible cannabis reform and regulations across both medical and adult-use markets.

Where do you see the cannabis industry in New York State in five years?
Cannabis will be more widely accepted and available to medical cannabis patients and adult consumers, providing a roadmap for social equity in cannabis legislation.

What attracted you to the cannabis industry?
What excites me about the industry is that cannabis has the ability to transform people’s lives for the better, and we are in the very early stages of the legal industry globally.

Tell us one fun fact about cannabis!
Beer hops and cannabis are genetically related and come from the same family of flowering plants. Both plants have aromatic molecules called terpenes, and it is believed that millions of years ago they were actually the same plant.

Cannabis has clear value to people’s health. Tell us your favorite way to stay healthy and fit.
I employ a combination of running, spinning, and yoga to stay fit and as injury-free as possible.

David Feldman is a lawyer, advisor and entrepreneur who has been a leading out-of-the-box guide to hundreds of growing businesses in his over 30 years of experience. He’s the author of four books on finance and entrepreneurship, and is known as one of the leading cannabis finance attorneys in the U.S., having received many industry accolades and having served as co-lead of the 60-lawyer Cannabis Practice Group for an AmLaw 100 law firm.

Where do you see the cannabis industry in New York State in five years?
Thriving!

What attracted you to the cannabis industry?
The first public companies in the space went public through alternative means that had been the subject of my first few books.

Tell us one fun fact about cannabis!
It brings people together!

Cannabis has clear value to people’s health. Tell us your favorite way to stay healthy and fit.
Sleeping well and lots of walking in NYC!

Tyme Ferris is CEO and co-founder, along with Thomas Kupiec, of Pantheon Collective LLC. After over a decade of leadership roles in the cannabis industries of California, Colorado, Massachusetts, and Vermont, Ferris has come back to hometown Boonville to show New York what a conscientious cannabis business looks like. Pre-licensing, Ferris and Pantheon are working with Senator Cooney to ensure the LGBTQ+ community is finally recognized for the suffering LGBTQ+ people endured through the AIDS epidemic due to cannabis prohibition, as well as their role in getting cannabis where it is today.

Where do you see the cannabis industry in New York State in five years?
I hope to see an industry dominated by legacy and social equity entrepreneurs, owned by New Yorkers, and reflective of our state’s diversity. Hopefully, the MSOs will finally embody diversity and inclusion. And not just as a PR stunt.

What attracted you to the cannabis industry?
The people of cannabis truly attracted me into the industry; the patients, my colleagues, industry leaders, and advocates. Everyone in the cannabis industry feels like family, united by an urge to do something greater than themselves.

Tell us one fun fact about cannabis!
Regardless of whether you support cannabis legalization, every human body has evolutionarily developed an endocannabinoid system which connects every major bodily function by way of chemicals found only in cannabis (cannabinoids).

Cannabis has clear value to people’s health. Tell us your favorite way to stay healthy and fit.
Not to be cliche, but cannabis is! I have been HIV+ since 2004. In 2016 I was hospitalized with AIDS, and cannabis helped me to get my strength back and return to undetectable. Additionally, it has been crucial in helping with my anxiety and depression.

Jeffrey Finkle has served as CEO of The Arcview Group since June 2021 after co-founding the firm’s investment subsidiary, Arcview Ventures. As a leading investor network, The Arcview Group offers financial services to the cannabis and industrial hemp industries, both of which have incredible economic and social potential. As CEO, Mr. Finkle oversees the various operations of the company and is a frequent speaker, panelist, and guest lecturer on venture investing.

Hunter Friedland is the founder and CEO of Cirona Labs, as well as chair of the processing committee for the New York Growers and Processors Association. While a student at Cornell, he founded the company and won one of the early licenses to process hemp in New York. He has since built a team of leading scientists, operations, and CPG talent, becoming one of the leading suppliers of water-soluble hemp-derived ingredients for food, beverage, and dietary supplement products. The company plans to enter New York State’s adult-use market as a contract manufacturer.

Where do you see the cannabis industry in New York State in five years?
I see New York quickly becoming the global capital for cannabis. New York truly has the opportunity to not only build the framework for federal legalization, but be the role model for the globe’s transition to a legal market.

What attracted you to the cannabis industry?
I have seen how much value around mental and physical health this plant brings to friends and family; and I love the fast paced nature of being an operator in an emerging industry.

Tell us one fun fact about cannabis!
We have just touched the tip of the iceberg for innovation with cannabis.

Cannabis has clear value to people’s health. Tell us your favorite way to stay healthy and fit.
Playing basketball or skiing!

Jeffrey Garcia is a small business owner with over 15 years of experience in the service industry, including in a wine and coffee shop in the Bronx, as well as a number of money transfer businesses throughout New York City. Additionally, Jeffrey retired after 20 years in law enforcement, reaching the rank of First Grade Detective assigned to the NYPD Organized Crimes Control Bureau. He is also the immediate past president of the New York State Latino Restaurant, Bar and Lounge Owners Association and is a board member of the New York City Hospitality Alliance.

Where do you see the cannabis industry in New York State in five years?
This is our Bitcoin moment. The Latino Cannabis Association will create generational wealth by constructing a vertical cannabis supply chain with an ancillary ecosystem to support New York’s Latino communities and cannabis businesses.

What attracted you to the cannabis industry?
I’m a creative entrepreneur and I have always wanted to be part of an emerging business such as this industry in New York.

Tell us a fun fact about cannabis!
I went to see a baseball game with my brother and he urged me to try a gummy. A fun fact is that daily cannabis users can also be fully functional professionals; this is different from the perceived image others might have.

Cannabis has clear value to people’s health. Tell us your favorite way to stay healthy and fit.
I am an avid competitive cyclist.

Jessica García is assistant to the president of the RWDSU, a national union representing workers along the food supply chain from agriculture to retail, as well as workers in non-food retail, logistics and health care. Prior, she organized around economic and immigrant justice issues and spent her early career advocating for fair funding for public schools. Honduran-born, she grew up in Mount Vernon, New York, and earned her MSW from the Silberman School of Social Work.

Where do you see the cannabis industry in New York State in five years?
I see the industry thriving economically and creating a more equitable New York by offering new entrepreneurial opportunities to those adversely affected by the War on Drugs. The state will be funding social programs vital to our communities and creating good, union jobs that are family-sustaining.

What attracted you to the cannabis industry?
My commitment to social justice and the opportunity to transform lives through an emerging industry with endless possibilities for innovation and career-track job creation.

Tell us one fun fact about cannabis!
Most of the jobs in New York’s existing cannabis industry are good, union jobs!

Cannabis has clear value to people’s health. Tell us your favorite way to stay healthy and fit.
I try to walk or run five miles per day. My favorite walk these days is from my office in Midtown to my home neighborhood in Washington Heights, where I get to feel the diverse energy flowing through New York City block by block.

For the past five years, USA 50+ Snowboarding Champion Melissa Gibson has made it her mission to provide hemp education, support New York State and women-owned craft CBD companies, and advocate for the power of the plant to improve the human condition. Leveraging her degree in Agriculture Economics from Cornell University and an MBA in Brand Management, Melissa founded Hemp & Humanity in 2016 to bring the plant to the public. The cornerstone of her company is the Hemp & Humanity retail shop in the heart of Woodstock, New York.

Where do you see the cannabis industry in New York State in five years?
In five years, New York will have served as the prototype for national legalization, with a booming cannabis economy and proven track record on social equity and social justice, as well as having created a climate for small farms and craft businesses to thrive. I’m an optimist.

What attracted you to the cannabis industry?
After years of suffering from multiple immune diseases, cannabinoids significantly helped to improve my health. With a background in entrepreneurship and branding, it was a natural fit for me to bring my passion for the plant to the public through education, strategic marketing, and the curation of the best products available.

Tell us one fun fact about cannabis!
Putting realistic replicas of cannabis plants in the window of your New York hemp shop causes smiles, giggles, pointing, and the beginning of incredible discussions that destigmatize and promote acceptance.

Cannabis has clear value to people’s health. Tell us your favorite way to stay healthy and fit.
I’m a senior athlete in snowboarding and high jump (no pun intended) and have been active all my life. I use cannabis for mobility, energy, focus, and relief as well as to manage the effects from multiple immune disorders. I don’t go a day without it.