The lawsuit filed by Variscite in September 2022 challenged how New York issued licenses for recreational cannabis dispensaries. That challenge resulted in a temporary injunction by a federal judge in November that prevented licenses from being granted in Brooklyn, Central New York, the Finger Lakes region, the Mid-Hudson region and Western New York.

In March, a ruling from the U.S. Second Circuit Court of Appeals lifted that injunction except for the Finger Lakes region.

General Counsel Linda Baldwin informed the Control Board that if approved by a federal judge, the settlement would end a court injunction preventing the state from granting Conditional Adult Use Retail Dispensary (CAURD) licenses to businesses in the Finger Lakes region, “The board has seen the confidential settlement agreement which will be filed later this week, which at that time will become public. But, one of the conditions of the settlement was to grant the plaintiff in that case, the one that had applied for a CAURD license, an adult use licence when those licenses become available. And those were terms we could agree upon in order to move forward with the full CAURD program.”

According to the Syracuse Post-Standard, the settlement would allow the OCM to fully launch the CAURD licensing program, but the state is also litigating a lawsuit filed by a coalition that includes some of New York’s medical cannabis companies. Plaintiffs in that case are asking a judge to compel state regulators to open up licensing for all retail dispensary applicants immediately.

NYS Cannabis Control Board approves 99 dispensaries at its April 3, 2023 meeting

The first four cannabis dispensaries in Western New York have been approved by the Cannabis Control Board.

The Board approved 99 total Conditional Adult Use Retail Dispensaries at its meeting Monday. None of the four are in Chautauqua County.

Western New York, Central New York, Mid-Hudson, and Brooklyn all received licenses, marking the first provisional licenses to be issued in these regions following last week’s modification of a court injunction that had prevented the Board from issuing them. To date, the Board has granted at least one CAURD provisional license in each region other than the Finger Lakes, which remains blocked by the injunction.

License applications will continue to be sent to the Board for consideration on a rolling basis. To be eligible, applicants themselves were required to either have had a cannabis conviction or be the family member of someone who has and have owned a profitable business. Nonprofits were eligible if they had a history of serving current or formerly incarcerated individuals, including creating vocational opportunities for them; have at least one justice-involved board member; at least five full-time employees; and have operated a social enterprise that had net assets or profit for at least two years.

The new medical home-grow regulations will allow medical cannabis patients to grow up to six plants. Caregivers can grow for a maximum of four patients, or up to 12 plants. The regulations also say landlords may not refuse to lease to patients, or penalize them for legally growing weed.

The CCB also approved amendments to the state’s cannabinoid hemp program. The new rules create a new license type that allow approved hemp farmers to sell hemp flower they grow, and raise the maximum cannabinoid allowance per serving to 100 milligrams. The maximum allowance was previously 75 milligrams.

CCB members approved conditional licenses to 19 cultivators and 10 processors, bringing the number of businesses holding conditional cultivator and conditional processor licenses to 261 and 25.

In Chautauqua County, the businesses that now have conditional cultivator licenses include The ReLeaf Market LLC, Weaver Road Farms LLC, Fare Thee Well Farm, Inc., and Tadt Services LLC.

The initial 52 farms issued conditional cultivator licenses by the NYS Cannabis Control Board

The State Cannabis Control Board has approved 52 conditional cultivator licenses to farms.

These are the first adult-use cannabis licenses granted in New York State and they advance the Seeding Opportunity Initiative.

Governor Kathy Hochul said the approved licenses are from a pool of more than 150 that have been submitted to the Office of Cannabis Management following the March 15 opening of the online application portal. She said the OCM is reviewing applications on a rolling basis and to get them to the Board for approval as quickly as possible.

In February, Hochul signed legislation creating the Cannabis Conditional Cultivator Licenses and then in March, she announced the Seeding Opportunity Initiative, which positions equity-entrepreneurs to be the first to make adult-use cannabis sales in New York with products grown by New York farmers.

Under the Initiative, these initial equity-entrepreneur, retail owners must meet two prongs of eligibility to qualify. First, they must have a cannabis-related conviction that occurred prior to the passage of the Marijuana Regulation and Tax Act (MRTA) on March 31, 2021, or had a parent, guardian, child, spouse, or dependent with a pre-MRTA cannabis-related conviction in the State of New York. Second, they must also have experience owning and operating a successful business in the State of New York.

Governor Kathy Hochul announced this as part of the “Seeding Opportunity Initiative” Thursday. This farm-to-store initiative makes sales in New York possible before the end of 2022, guarantees support for future equity applicants, and secures an early investment into communities most impacted by the disproportionate enforcement of cannabis prohibition.

Hochul said in a press release, “The regulations advanced by the Cannabis Control Board today will prioritize local farmers and entrepreneurs, creating jobs and opportunity for communities that have been left out and left behind. I’m proud New York will be a national model for the safe, equitable and inclusive industry we are now building.”

The Cannabis Control Board at its meeting Thursday advanced two components of the Seeding Opportunity Initiative.

First, it advanced to public comment regulations for Conditional Adult-Use Retail Dispensaries. As part of the Seeding Opportunity Initiative, this subset of dispensaries must be owned by equity-entrepreneurs with a prior cannabis-related criminal offense who also have a background owning and operating a small business. They will be the first to open and make sales in New York State, establishing equity-owned businesses at the front-end of New York’s adult-use market.

Second, the Board approved a license application for hemp farmers seeking to grow adult-use cannabis this spring – called the Adult-Use Conditional Cultivator License. The license was made possible by legislation Governor Hochul signed last month.

The Board designated March 15 as the opening date for the application portal.

This website educates the public on the OCM’s regulatory structure which, with the Cannabis Control Board, will oversee the licensure, cultivation, production, distribution, sale and taxation of medical, adult-use and cannabinoid hemp within New York State.

The website also provides resources for individuals seeking medical cannabis practitioners, caregivers and medical cannabis IDs as well as businesses seeking licensure to participate in adult-use, medical and cannabinoid hemp industries.

While the state works on setting up its cannabis management program, local officials are continuing to react to the legalization of Marijuana, which went into effect last week.

County Executive PJ Wendel said he’s still interested in seeing the final numbers when it comes to the boost in state revenue, which he adds, wont’ be nearly enough to close a large state budget gap.

“There’s so many questions and I’m not an expert. We need to let those question play out and get answered and then move forward. But the point is it should not be sold that we’re going to have $350 million in new state revenue. But even if that was true, we still have a $6 billion deficit, so that’s not even a drop in the bucket. So again, there are a lot of questions to that,” Wendel said during his recent interview on WRFA.

In addition to the additional revenue for local and state coffers, legalization also has the potential to create 30,000 to 60,000 new jobs across the State.