NYC doubles licensing permits for marijuana shops
New York is doubling the number of licenses it is issuing for a first round of legal marijuana stores, regulators said Thursday, although only a fraction of those dispensaries already licensed have opened and a court ruling has suspended licensing in some areas.
Nearly two years after legalizing recreational marijuana for adult use, New York is still working to ramp up its potentially large legal market. To date, 66 pharmacy licenses have been issued and four stores opened, three of them in New York City. The first legal sales were at the end of December.
Meanwhile, unauthorized cannabis stores and trucks have sprung up across the city and state. Officials have tried to take action against them.
The state originally planned to issue 150 dispensary licenses in an initial group reserved for nonprofit organizations or individuals with both business experience and a personal or family history of marijuana convictions. After receiving over 900 applications, the state cannabis agency now intends to grant 300 such licenses, executive director Chris Alexander told the state cannabis inspection agency on Thursday.
“With this expansion, more entrepreneurs will be able to participate in the first wave of this industry,” Chief Executive Tremaine Wright said in a statement after the meeting.
However, about 40% of the proposed licenses will be granted for parts of the state where the state cannot currently grant them, according to a November ruling by a federal judge. The decision froze licensing in certain areas amid an ongoing litigation over licensing rules related to the applicants’ ties to New York.
The state is appealing the decision, which applies to Brooklyn, central New York, the Finger Lakes, the Mid-Hudson area and western New York.
Jessica Naissant plans to run a pharmacy in Brooklyn, so the court decision threw her plans in jeopardy. Still, she told the board she appreciated the expanded license fee and said members would listen to applicants and try to “help us.”
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