Gov. Kathy Hochul this week took charge of New York’s troubled recreational cannabis rollout, appointing one of her top commissioners to temporarily oversee the process.
Hochul asked Jeanette Moy, the commissioner of the state’s Office of General Services, to overhaul the state’s Office of Cannabis Management, or OCM, which is widely viewed as having botched the transition to adult recreational marijuana sales.
Moy also will be looking at whether an alleged incident of retaliation by an agency official against a cannabis business owner is part of a larger pattern.
New York legalized recreational cannabis in 2021. By the end of 2023, just 24 dispensaries were open out of a target of more than 150.
Moy said her top priority is to plow through the backlog of applications to get the legal stores open faster.
“I think all of us want this to be successful.” Moy said.
The delays stemmed from bureaucratic issues, including a poorly functioning online application process. Additionally, a lawsuit last August stalled for months the issuance of licenses for those who were adversely affected by the decades-long prohibition on cannabis.
As a result, licensed cannabis growers were stuck with fields full of product that they could not legally sell. Applicants for retail licenses faced months, if not years, of red tape.
Moy said the experience also needs to be streamlined and more transparent for applicants.
“Are there ways that we can cut through some of the red tape that exists?” Moy asked. “And even the basics of customer service — making sure that an applicant has better clarity as to how long it’s going to take in order to get that license approval.”
Moy said she knows “the stakes are very high.”
“Some of them have been waiting for quite some time in order to get their businesses up and running,” she said. “I’m hoping in the next few weeks we’ll be able to have a very solid … plan and a way to move forward.”
Moy also addressed accusations of improper retaliation by Damian Fagon, OCM’s chief equity officer, who was placed on leave after a cannabis grower accused him of shutting down her business after she repeatedly criticized the botched rollout.
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