New York cannabis regulators have approved a deal to settle lawsuits that have blocked the opening of recreational marijuana stores
By means ofThe Associated Press
November 27, 2023, 5:57 PM
FILE – Marijuana plants are seen at a cultivation facility in Washington County, NY, May 12, 2023. New York cannabis regulators on Monday, Nov. 27, approved a deal to settle lawsuits that have blocked the opening of recreational marijuana stores, as officials move to address the troubled legal market of the state again. (AP Photo/Hans Pennink, File)
The Associated Press
NEW YORK — New York cannabis regulators approved a deal Monday to settle lawsuits that have blocked the opening of recreational marijuana dispensaries as officials move to restart the state’s troubled legal market.
The settlement still needs a judge’s approval before it can go into effect. The state Cannabis Control Board did not immediately release the terms of the settlement.
The deal would lift a court order that has prohibited the state from processing or issuing retail marijuana licenses since August, following lawsuits over rules that promised many of the first licenses to people with prior drug convictions.
New York’s marijuana market has been in disarray since sales began nearly a year ago. Bureaucratic problems and lawsuits have prevented only about two dozen legal stores from opening, while farmers sit on a glut of crops and an expanding black market of storefronts fills the void.
The New York State Cannabis Control Board said more than 400 provisional retail licensees could move forward with their stores if the settlement is approved by a judge. Regulators also recently opened a general application window for growing, processing, distributing or selling marijuana, expecting to issue more than 1,000 new licenses in an effort to reinvigorate the market.
The lawsuits — one filed by a group of four military veterans and the other by a coalition that included major medical marijuana companies — violated state rules that allowed people with drug convictions to open the first dispensaries.
Last summer, Supreme Court Justice Kevin Bryant blocked progress on the state’s licensing program. He ruled that regulators improperly limited the first round of licenses to people with prior convictions, rather than to a broader group of so-called social equity applicants included in the original law that legalized marijuana.
A representative of the veterans group declined to comment Monday. An attorney for the coalition of medical marijuana companies did not return an emailed request for comment.
The vote on a settlement came during an emergency hearing in New York City.