Written by Anthony Zaguerre
New York has been used a straightforward strategy to make sure pot businesses are kept a legally required distance from nearby schools ever since it started licensing recreational marijuana outlets almost three years ago: Calculate the distance between the school’s door and the dispensary’s door.
Related Articles
-
Man accused of faking his death to avoid rape charges is found guilty of sexual assault in Utah
-
For these incarcerated students, online school has been a disaster
-
Pam Bondi fires man accused of throwing sandwich at federal agent during Trump DC intervention
-
Teacher charged with killing of hikers at Arkansas park pleads not guilty to murder
-
Social Security has existed for 90 years. Why it may be more threatened than ever
However, officials recently came clean, admitting that they had been measuring improperly the entire time because they had misinterpreted the rule. Approximately 100 cannabis stores are still in limbo, hoping for a legislative solution yet unsure if they will need to move.
According to Osbert Ordu, owner of The Cannabis Place, a dispensary in New York City that is now assessed to be too close to a local preschool, the news was like putting a grenade in the laps of company owners.
He claimed that their execution of this was a total and total leadership failure.
The admission is just the most recent setback for New York’s struggling legal marijuana program, which has been hampered by legal issues, a sluggish rollout, and regulatory loopholes that have allowed an illegal market to thrive.
Business owners learned about the problem last month when the Office of Cannabis Management acknowledged that, in order to guarantee that cannabis shops were kept at least 500 feet away, it should have been measuring from the edge of a school’s property line rather than its entrance.
In notices to the firms, Felicia A.B. Reid, acting executive director of the cannabis agency, stated, “I am deeply sorry to deliver this news and for the weight of it.”
A significant portion of the state’s around 450 cannabis dispensaries are impacted by the miscalculation.
About 60 of those, primarily in New York City, had licenses using the inaccurate measurement system, while another 40 had licenses but have not yet opened for business.
In addition, nearly 50 more companies have submitted license applications using the inaccurate measuring system and are awaiting the agency’s final clearance. In order to assist with relocation, the state has established a fund where applicants can get up to $250,000.
As long as the firms submit an application for a renewal, the current stores are permitted to stay open for the time being and even carry on using their expired licenses.
According to regulators, they are pleading with state legislators to develop a long-term solution that will let the stores to remain open. However, they have also pointed out that this is not a given. The next session of the state legislature is not expected until January.
Business owners, meanwhile, claim they are being compelled to function in a gray area.
Since dispensaries are expected to have proper licenses in place, Jillian Dragutsky, who founded Yerba Buena in Brooklyn a few months ago, is concerned that the problem still puts their ability to bank, obtain insurance, and buy merchandise at risk.
How do you expand your company when you have no idea where you’ll be in a few months? “Dragutsky said.”
According to a statement from the cannabis office, companies can get a letter of good standing to operate or evidence of a current license by getting in touch with the organization.
While state leaders pledged an administrative makeover, an internal evaluation of the cannabis office published last year revealed a number of issues at the agency, including inexperienced management and changing licensure regulations.
The initiative has been a fiasco, according to Governor Kathy Hochul, who labeled the school proximity issue a serious screw-up and promised to find a legislative solution.
These folks have put in a lot of effort. They have been waiting for a long time. According to her, they invested their life resources in an endeavor they believed would enable them to provide for their families. I have therefore been promising them that everything will be alright first. Second, in order to have a remedy, the legislation must be altered.
