State Leaders Open To Helping Struggling Cannabis Shops

Gov. Kathy Hochul is trying to give cannabis businesses confidence in the wake of bombshell news that the state has been incorrectly granting licenses to operate, a massive error affecting over 100 businesses statewide, including 89 in New York City.

Hochul says she needs the state Legislature to pass a bill allowing them to stay open.

Now, Democrats and Republicans say they’re ready to aid dozens of cannabis business owners, who found out earlier this week they’re violating state law, even though the Hochul administration awarded them a license to operate in some cases over two years ago.

“There’s no reason for anyone to be telling anyone you might have to close your store or move. Because this can be fixed,” said Manhattan Democratic state Sen. Liz Krueger, a chief sponsor of the Marijuana Regulation and Taxation Act signed into law in 2021.

She says she’ll back a change letting businesses stay put.

“Even here as a Republican, I don’t support legalized marijuana, but even here I feel sympathetic and probably could support legislation that would cure this situation,” said state Assembly Minority Leader William Barclay, a Republican from Syracuse.

Of the over 400 currently open, 104 legal weed shops across the state were told they’re too close to a school or house of worship, they must move if the state Legislature doesn’t pass a bill for the governor to sign into law allowing them to stay put.

“We’ll make them whole, and I’ve got to go back to the Legislature and get them persuaded to change the law to be consistent with what we do for liquor stores, for example,” Hochul said during an interview on “Inside City Hall” Wednesday.

On Thursday afternoon, the state said owners’ renewal applications will be temporarily green-lit as long as there are no major problems with the business.

But the notice from OCM and Hochul also reads, “If the Legislature does not amend the law or amends the law in a fashion that does not remedy a license location’s noncompliance with the Cannabis Law, the renewal application must be denied.

“[It’s] one embarrassment after another coming out of the Office of Cannabis Management. These are the people that can’t shoot straight. We keep hearing from people like the governor saying New York is open for business, but you have this sort of clown show,” said Barclay, also a small business attorney.

“OCM and the governor’s office seem to be wanting to make this a crisis when there’s no need for this to be a crisis. Nobody imagines that they have to wake up tomorrow and close down the business they have put their life savings into,” said Krueger.

“In New York City, a standard lease is 10 years. Even if they had to move, they would still be on the hook for another nine years of rent. That’s impossible. They would never be able to reopen. In some of these circumstances, we’re talking about being out of compliance by 20 or 30 feet. Again, this is not revolutionary crisis stuff. It’s just not,” she said.

But many businesses are up for license renewal before the legislature reconvenes on Jan. 1.

“We’ll figure that out. I’m in conversation with the governor’s office, but I don’t have an answer quite yet,” state Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie said earlier this week.

Another 44 businesses approved to open will likely remain shuttered, forced to find a new location and restart the state’s process.