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Retail Marijuana


VETERANS’ LAWSUIT SHUTS DOWN NEW YORK POT INDUSTRY ON ARGUMENT THAT ONLY DRUG
CONVICTS ARE GETTING LICENSES


UNLICENSED SELLERS HAVE FLOODED IN TO NEW YORK CITY ESPECIALLY AMID A SLOW
ROLLOUT OF LICENSES TO SELL RECREATIONAL MARIJUANA.

BY
Anthony Izaguirre
 AND 
The Associated Press
August 08, 2023 1:45 PM EDT

A woman smokes a marijuana cigarette at Washington Square Park on April 20, 2023
in New York City. Leonardo Munoz/VIEWpress

A New York judge has temporarily blocked the state from issuing retail marijuana
licenses after a lawsuit from four veterans who argue that regulators are
wrongly prioritizing applicants with drug convictions.

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A New York judge has temporarily blocked the state from issuing retail marijuana
licenses after a lawsuit from four veterans who argue that regulators are
wrongly prioritizing applicants with drug convictions.



New York Supreme Court Justice Kevin Bryant issued the temporary restraining
order Monday halting the state from issuing or processing marijuana dispensary
licenses.



The order is the latest legal setback for the state’s fledgling marijuana
market, which has been beset by a slow rollout critics have blamed on a
cumbersome process designed to give the first round of licenses to people with
prior drug convictions or to certain types of nonprofit groups.

The attorney general’s office, in a court filing, has cautioned that halting the
program will financially hurt retailers who are spending money to set up shop
under provisional licenses. The state is not expected to issue new licenses
until at least September when a cannabis regulatory board is set to meet, the
attorney general’s office said in a filing last week.

Oral arguments in the case are scheduled for Friday in Kingston, New York.



The veterans’ lawsuit alleges the state’s Office of Cannabis Management created
a licensing system that is at odds with the state’s recreational marijuana law,
improperly limiting initial licenses to people with drug convictions rather than
a wider category of so-called social equity applicants.

The order halting the state’s program comes after regulators voted in May to
settle a federal lawsuit that blocked them from issuing licenses in the Finger
Lakes region. That suit was filed by a company owned by a Michigan resident who
said New York’s licensing system unconstitutionally favors New Yorkers over
out-of-state residents.

Separately, state regulators last month approved the sale of marijuana at
festivals and other events after farmers complained that there aren’t enough
legal dispensaries in the state to handle their harvests.

As the state’s legal licensing program has stalled, authorities have begun to
shut down a glut of illegal marijuana shops that have cropped up as unlicensed
sellers move to fill the vacuum.





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