Jonathan Maxim, the owner of Loudpack Exotics in Dewitt, says his business is on track after a legal standoff tossed him and many other prospective dispensaries into limbo.
"Now I'm at the finish line," Maxim said. "I'm just waiting for OCM for my final approval, and then the final walk-through, and then I'll be set to open."
The New York State Office of Cannabis Management (OCM) awarded Maxim a provisional dispensary license in May, under the state's Conditional Adult-Use Retail Dispensary (CAURD) program. The intent of the program was to provide "justice-involved individuals" who were impacted by marijuana law a first-mover advantage in the state's developing recreational industry, but legal troubles surrounding the licenses put most applications on ice.
New York's Supreme Court issued an injunction against the CAURD program in August, after a group of service-disabled veterans filed a lawsuit claiming the state's marijuana regulators illegally excluded them from the initial application pool. Their arguments echoed a March lawsuit by a coalition that included several of the state's medical marijuana companies.
The freeze had a significant impact on New York's cannabis industry. Marijuana farms outnumbered legal retailers ten-to-one as many dispensaries waited for final licensure to begin conducting retail sales.
"It's a bummer just watching your account just go down, down, down down," Maxim said. "I haven't made a penny here."
A settlement reached in early December put an end to the injunction and allows the state to proceed with the CAURD applications that have been sitting in limbo for over three months.
"With this settlement behind us, hundreds of new licenses can now move forward, new stores will open, and consumers can legally buy safer, legal, tested cannabis products from New York-based entrepreneurs and small businesses," Governor Kathy Hochul said in a press release issued shortly after the settlement was announced.
The governor's administration expects at least 37 adult-use dispensaries to be open for business by the end of the month.