By Karen Dewitt, North Country Public Radio on August 23, 2023

A state Supreme Court judge will hold a hearing on a challenge to the state’s retail cannabis licensing rules that has brought New York’s troubled recreational marijuana rollout to a halt.

Earlier this month, Judge Kevin Bryant issued an injunction barring the state Office of Cannabis Management, or OCM, from licensing any new retail cannabis stores after four service-disabled veterans brought a lawsuit, saying that they were unfairly left out of the first round of awarded licenses.

They argue that, according to the 2021 Marihuana Regulation and Taxation Act, which legalized adult use of recreational cannabis in New York, the first retail licenses were to go to people convicted of a marijuana-related offense, veterans who incurred a disability due to their war service, minority- and women-owned businesses, and financially distressed farmers.

– Read the entire article at North Country Public Radio.

FOLLOW :