New York allowed pot shops to open too close to schools. Now they might have to move

Since New York began to obtain the granting of recreational marijuana store licenses about three years ago, the state has used a simple tactic to ensure that pot stores are kept at a legally compulsory distance from local schools: measure the door of the dispensary at the school door.

But officials recently made a surprising admission: they had read the law badly and measured incorrectly all the time. Now, about 100 cannabis stores are in limbo, crossing their fingers for a legislative solution while wondering if they will have to move.

The news was like dropping “a pomegranate in the towers” of business owners, said Osbert Orduña, who has a New York dispensary called The Cannabis Place which is now tried too close to a nursery school nearby.

“The way they executed this was a complete and total failure in leadership,” he said.

Admission is only the last bungle of the New York besieged legal marijuana program, which was paralyzed by legal challenges, a slow deployment and gaps in the law which allowed an illegal market to flourish.

Business owners discovered the question of the cannabis management office last month, which admitted that it should have measured from the edge of a school’s property line, rather than its entry, to ensure that weed stores were kept at at least 500 feet (152 meters).

“To give you this news, and for the weight, I am incredibly sorry,” said Felicia Ab Reid, acting executive director of the cannabis agency, in opinions to companies.

The error affects a large part of the approximately 450 dispensaries of state cannabis.

About 60 of them were authorized using the erroneous measurement system, mainly in New York, plus 40 other licenses but have not yet opened their doors.

In addition to this, there are nearly 50 other companies that have requested licenses as part of the incorrect measurement system and await the final approval of the agency. The state has set aside a money pot when candidates can reach $ 250,000 to help move.

The existing stores have been informed that they could remain open for the moment and even continue to operate with their expired licenses as long as companies file a renewal request.

The regulators say that they urge State legislators to create a permanent solution that will allow stores to stay in place. But they also noted that it is not guaranteed. State legislature must not stay again on January.

Meanwhile, business owners say they are forced to operate in a gray area.

Jillian Dragutsky, who opened a dispensary called Yerba Buena in Brooklyn a few months ago, is worried about the problem always endangers the ability of a dispensary to put himself in the bank, obtain an insurance inventory and buy because they are supposed to have valid licenses in place.

“How to develop your business without knowing where you are going to be in a few months?” Said Dragutsky.

In a statement, the cannabis office said that companies can obtain “proof of a valid license or a letter of rule to operate” by contacting the agency.

An internal examination of the cannabis office published last year detailed many problems at the agency, including inexperienced management rules and change of license, while heads of state have promised an administrative overhaul.

Governor Kathy Hochul, who previously declared that the program had been a “disaster”, called the problem of proximity to the school “a major vision” and promised to find a legislative solution.

“These people worked hard. They waited for a long time. They put their savings in something that, they said, was going to help them support their families, “she said. “So what I do is first reassuring them that you are going well. Secondly, we must modify the law to have a corrective.”