Jetty Extracts, a cannabis brand known for its concentrates and long-running Shelter Project, recently opened a manufacturing facility in Albany, New York. The expansion gives the company greater control over local production while extending its commitment to patients who cannot afford medical cannabis.
After entering the New York market last year, Jetty selected the state capital for its new production base. The Albany facility will allow the company to manufacture products locally and maintain the quality standards associated with its operations in other states.
A New Manufacturing Base in Albany
The facility has created more than 25 local jobs and returned a formerly vacant industrial building to active use. Its opening also represents a deeper investment in New York’s developing adult-use cannabis industry.
Sean Millington, a mayoral fellow in the Office of the Mayor of Albany, attended the grand opening ceremony and ribbon cutting. Public tours of the facility followed later that day.
For Jetty, however, the expansion involves more than manufacturing capacity. It also brings the company’s compassionate cannabis work into a market where patients continue to face significant barriers to affordable access.
Legalization Left a Compassionate Care Gap
When adult-use cannabis legalization began advancing state by state, it disrupted one of the industry’s founding commitments. Compassionate care programs, which provide free cannabis to patients who cannot afford it, had been central to the medical cannabis movement since the AIDS crisis.
Legalization introduced tax structures that frequently treated donated products the same as retail sales. Unable to absorb the resulting costs, many compassionate care programs closed. The regulated cannabis industry has since grown into a market worth tens of billions of dollars, yet many of the patients who helped establish the movement remain underserved.
Health insurance generally does not cover medical cannabis, while most states offer no statutory protection or tax relief for donated products. In New York, companies that donate cannabis must absorb the applicable excise taxes without reimbursement or a dedicated legal exemption.
How California Revived Cannabis Donations
California addressed the problem through Senate Bill 34, formally known as the Dennis Peron and Brownie Mary Act. Jetty’s founders supported the reform effort and participated in the Cannabis for Good tour, which gathered signatures and built public support for the legislation.
SB 34 took effect on March 1, 2020. The law allows licensed cannabis businesses to donate tested medical cannabis to qualifying low-income patients, people with chronic or terminal illnesses, and military veterans. Those donations are exempt from state cultivation, excise, and sales taxes.
The legislation revived compassionate care programs that had struggled under the taxation rules established following the passage of Proposition 64, California’s adult-use cannabis law.
The reform required years of advocacy, leaving patients dependent on private companies willing to fund compassionate care independently. Given the financial pressures confronting the cannabis industry, relatively few brands have maintained such programs. Companies including Blazy Susan, MKX, and Jetty Extracts remain among those supporting patient-focused initiatives.
The Shelter Project Reaches New York Patients
Jetty established the Shelter Project in 2014 to provide free cannabis products to cancer patients who could not otherwise afford them. The program has since served more than 1,320 patients and donated over $1.2 million in products across California, Colorado, and New York.
Fifteen patients joined the Shelter Project’s New York roster during its first summer in the state. With the opening of its Albany facility, Jetty now has a local manufacturing operation capable of supporting its commercial growth and compassionate care work in New York.
The expansion offers a model for how cannabis companies can pair regional investment with patient access. As compassionate care programs remain scarce across much of the regulated market, Jetty’s Albany operation places that commitment within the infrastructure of its growing New York business.
