Major update on New York’s cannabis licensing front:
The New York Supreme Court has granted a preliminary INJUNCTION impacting Conditional Adult Use Retail Dispensary (CAURD) and the entire December provisional round.
In sum, applicants who met the location and municipal notice requirements (November) will proceed through the licensing process. Non-compliant applications from CAURD and December provisional applicants will remain on hold pending legal resolution.
Applications filed during the November window (October 4 – November 17, 2023) are being reviewed in sequence. Applicants with secured, municipally noticed locations will have priority in the review process.
CAURD Applicants: Applicants who submitted under the CAURD program are affected by the injunction if they failed to secure and municipally notify a location by November 17, 2023. These applications will NOT proceed further until the legal challenge is resolved.
1734031646248December Provisional Applicants: Provisional applications from the December window (November 17 – December 18, 2023) are also HALTED if proof of a secured, municipally noticed location was not included by the November 17 deadline.
The court granted the injunction because the CCB and OCM were found to have unlawfully waived key legal requirements outlined in the Cannabis Law, such as all dispensary applications being made available at the same time, requiring a secured a location and submitting municipal notice before applying.
The law mandates that the initial application period for adult-use dispensaries must be opened to all applicants simultaneously. By allowing CAURD applicants to apply nearly a year earlier, and by waiving location and notice requirements for CAURD and December provisional applicants, the CCB and OCM exceeded their authority and created an unfair advantage.
The court recognized that the waivers harm applicants who followed the rules. Specifically, those who secured and notified municipalities about their locations risk losing their “proximity protection.” This could allow later applicants with provisional licenses to claim locations too close to the rule-abiding applicants’ sites, effectively pushing them out of the market.
The court’s decision was based upon the November applicants facing significant financial (rent) and strategic losses (being zoned-out), while the delay in processing provisional licenses has minimal impact on CAURD and December applicants, as they aren’t yet burdened with location requirements.
Yep, just another day in the life of New York’s cannabis licensing programme..