With a retail market for cannabis on the horizon in New York, advocates for the state’s medical cannabis program are concerned about the health of their industry.

Ngiste Abebe, president of the New York Medical Cannabis Association, told Capital Tonight that a strong medical cannabis industry is needed to address the medical needs, not just the recreational demand, of New Yorkers.

Abebe said that high time and monetary costs are leaving New Yorkers that need medical cannabis to turn to the black market which does not have testing and cultivation standards.

Abebe told Capital Tonight that $25,000 people have dropped out of the system.