New York’s Office of Cannabis Management (OCM) announced today that it plans to issue up to 1,500 more marijuana business licenses including for growers and retail outlets.
New York legalized recreational marijuana in 2021, but a slow rollout of the program means that less than two dozen licensed marijuana stores are currently open throughout a state with a population of almost 8.5 million. The newly announced rollout of hundreds of additional licenses is meant as at least a step towards remedying this.
The OPM said it will begin applications for those seeking these licenses on October 4, with potential applicants having 60 days to get their applications completed. Licenses will be issued for marijuana cultivation and processing, and for marijuana retail outlets and microbusinesses.
Up to this point New York has issued around 700 conditional licenses, including over 450 for marijuana retailers.
Late last month Supreme Court Judge Kevin Bryant put a hold on all marijuana licenses, in response to a lawsuit filed by a group of military veterans who claim that the state’s approach of giving the first batch of marijuana licenses to “justice-impacted individuals” is unconstitutional. The judge said that the state provided “contradictory and confusing” information and “failed to comply” with a judge’s order.
