Despite New York’s relative progress in the weed sphere, the journey has been a rocky one. Between incredibly slow license approvals, strict marketing regulations, and racial discrepancies in cannabis-facing justice, the state’s relationship to its weed market is an interesting one. In the most recent of the state’s weed misses, over a hundred dispensaries were warned that they may need to close or relocate because of the government’s mistake.
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In a letter sent on Monday, New York State’s Office of Cannabis Management (OCM) admitted that it gave nearly 200 Conditional Use Adult Retail Dispensaries licenses permission to open dispensaries that violated school proximity regulations. This blunder means that 152 businesses may need to close, 105 being licensees and 47 pending applications. 60 of the 105 licensed businesses are already open.
88 of the aforementioned storefronts are in New York City.
According to the OCM, licensed weed sellers must operate at least 500 feet away from schools, yet the distance requirement was misapplied. Instead of measuring from the entrance of a weed shop to the beginning of a given school’s “property line,” the office measured from the doors of each establishment.
In the letter, Felicia Reid, Deputy Executive Director of the NYS OCM, admitted that the current state of affairs “does not align with cannabis law,” apologizing to those who have “poured [their] energy, time, savings, dedication, and heart into the promise of New York’s cannabis industry.”
Instead of leaving the retailers out to dry completely, the OCM and Governor Kathy Hochul (D) will request new state legislation so that all previously granted licensees may remain at the current locations.
“The legislation would essentially grandfather in affected dispensaries that were approved under prior guidance, so they’re not punished for mistakes they didn’t make,” said cannabis consultant Jose Rossi, according to the New York Post.
According to the Post, Sen. Liz Krueger (D-Manhattan) said she’ll push to address the proposed amendments by January 2026. Assemblymen Ed Ra (R-Nassau) and Matt Slater (R-Putnam) have slammed the governor in the wake of this news, calling her efforts to regulate cannabis “a disaster from the start” and “laughable.”
If the new legislation is not passed, affected operators will not have their two-year licenses renewed, requiring them to relocate, or worse, shut down completely.
“Given this risk, and that OCM cannot renew licenses at locations that do not comply with Cannabis Law, licensees will need a new Cannabis Law-compliant location before OCM can finalize license renewal,” Reid said in the letter sent out. She said OCM and other interested parties are coordinating to provide $15 million to aid licensees in the transition.
Impacted business owners can also apply for up to $250,000 to cover losses or to find new storefronts.
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Many New York dispensaries have faced closures, but in this case, the ones that did everything right—obtained the proper paperwork, abided by the law (to their best ability)—are being punished for something they had no fault in. Hopefully, the state’s government will pull through and leave the weed market intact.