ALBANY, N.Y. — A New York decide blocked the state’s retail marijuana licensing program on Friday, dealing a devastating blow to the fledgling market after a gaggle of veterans sued over guidelines that allowed folks with drug convictions to open the primary dispensaries.
New York Supreme Court Justice Kevin Bryant blocked the state from processing or issuing marijuana dispensary licenses with an injunction that faulted regulators for making a program that’s at odds with the state legislation that legalized the drug.
The order represents a extreme setback for the state’s authorized marijuana business, which has been outlined by a sluggish licensing rollout, a glut of extra marijuana crops and authorized challenges which have allowed a bootleg market to growth.
The veterans’ lawsuit argues that state marijuana regulators improperly restricted the preliminary spherical of licenses to folks with prior marijuana convictions, fairly than a wider group of so-called social fairness candidates included within the authentic legislation. The decide final week briefly blocked the state’s program as authorized arguments within the case performed out, with Friday’s order extending the shut down.
In an announcement, a consultant for the veterans stated state regulators’ failure to observe the legislation have saved licenses out of the arms of veterans and different minority teams who have been imagined to be prioritized.
“From the beginning, our fight has always been for equal access to this new and growing industry,” the assertion stated, including “We look forward to working with the State and the Court to open the program to all eligible applicants.”
Lawyers for the state have warned the decide that any halting of the licensing program would financially hurt those that have already begun spending cash to ascertain companies underneath provisional licenses. The state Office of Cannabis Management didn’t instantly have a touch upon the order Friday.
Bryant, in his order, wrote that potential monetary woes are the fault of state regulators who have been undeniably conscious of authorized issues with the licensing guidelines.
Still, the decide did grant an exemption to his order for licensees who met all of the state’s necessities earlier than Aug. 7 and is permitting candidates who’re searching for an exemption to current their case earlier than the courtroom on a case-by-case foundation. He has additionally ordered for state regulators to convene and start finalizing marijuana licensing guidelines.
The order follows a vote in May through which state regulators finally settled a federal lawsuit that blocked them from issuing licenses within the Finger Lakes area after a Michigan firm alleged that New York‘s licensing system unconstitutionally favors New Yorkers over out-of-state residents.
The authorized challenges and sluggish rollout of licenses have led to complaints from farmers who develop marijuana that there aren’t sufficient authorized sellers to deal with their crops. Regulators final month authorized the sale of marijuana at festivals in an try to handle these complaints.
At the identical time, authorities have been working to close down unlawful marijuana retailers which have cropped up all around the state, notably in New York City, as unlicensed sellers fill the authorized vacuum.
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