More than 150 legal cannabis dispensaries across the state are being told they\u2019ll have to shut down because of an error in how the state measured their proximity to churches or schools.<\/p>\n
The state\u2019s Office of Cannabis Management notified 152 dispensaries \u2014 including 88 in New York City \u2014 that current law mandates that cannabis shops must be at least 500 feet away from the property lines of schools or houses of worship.<\/p>\n
But when the stores were originally approved by the state, the measurement was taken from the entrances of the buildings instead.<\/p>\n
Although the state says open businesses don\u2019t need to shut down immediately, they likely won\u2019t have their licenses renewed \u2014 a process that needs to be done every two years \u2014 unless the state Legislature passes legislation allowing a change to the law.\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
In a letter obtained by NY1 sent to licensed operators on Monday, Felicia Reid, deputy executive director and acting executive director of the NYS Office of Cannabis Management said: \u201cFor all pending and future application reviews, OCM will assess locations under the standard of the statute.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cAs a licensee, you are not presently required to change the location of your business; however, your location will become an issue at the time of license renewal. OCM cannot use the past unlawful standard of review to consider a license upon renewal,\u201d she added.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
In an interview Tuesday, Reid said she met with members of the state legislature to try and get them on board with backing an amendment to the law that allows currently licensed dispensaries to stay open in their current locations.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cOne of the things that I want to make sure of that I am doing, that leadership is doing, is the only way in which we can start to build trust, rebuild trust, build integrity, is if we\u2019re going back to what the law said,\u201d Reid said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cIf we’re doing anything other than that, that is going to be setting folks up to not succeed and so although I recognize deeply how difficult this announcement is and has been,\u201d she continued.<\/p>\n
Some licensed businesses are preparing for their renewal hearings with OCM within the coming weeks. Reid told NY1 there will be a grace period permitting businesses to stay open, despite having their license renewal denied, as legislation is drafted and presented before state lawmakers who will have the final say.\u00a0<\/p>\n
OCM staff later explained to NY1 that the agency is working on an advisory modeled after the way the State Liquor Authority operates that would give businesses legal protection to stay open with an expired license.<\/p>\n
Although Gov. Kathy Hochul\u2019s office is setting up a $15 million fund allowing affected businesses to claim up to $250,000 to help them relocate and restart, some argue that number doesn\u2019t come close to helping recoup expenses.<\/p>\n
\u201cA lot of these folks have been waiting years to open their doors, delayed because of lawsuits, injunctions and, you know, bureaucratic delays. And after all that, after they put their careers on hold, after they\u2019ve invested into these places,\u201d Kaelan Castetter, co-founder of The Growv and managing director at Castetter, said.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey\u2019re being told, \u2018sorry, here\u2019s a check for $250,000.\u2019 It\u2019s heartbreaking,\u201d he added.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"More than 150 legal cannabis dispensaries across the state are being told they\u2019ll have to shut down because…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":103654,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5122],"tags":[5229,13565,7448,43432,405,403,50,5226,5225,5228,5227,80,52,67,586,132,5230,68,2969,5284],"class_list":{"0":"post-103653","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-york","8":"tag-america","9":"tag-app-local-state-politics","10":"tag-app-top-stories","11":"tag-bernadette-hogan","12":"tag-new-york","13":"tag-new-york-city","14":"tag-news","15":"tag-newyork","16":"tag-newyorkcity","17":"tag-ny","18":"tag-nyc","19":"tag-politics","20":"tag-top-stories","21":"tag-united-states","22":"tag-united-states-of-america","23":"tag-unitedstates","24":"tag-unitedstatesofamerica","25":"tag-us","26":"tag-usa","27":"tag-vod"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/114939836964972822","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/103653","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=103653"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/103653\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/103654"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=103653"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=103653"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=103653"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}