Simon Malinowski
Right here comes extra New York hashish program litigation.
After one lawsuit halted a good portion of New York Conditional Grownup Use Retail Dispensary (CAURD) program, a new lawsuit filed on March 16, 2023 by the Coalition for Entry to Regulated & Secure Hashish towards the Hashish Management Board (CCB), Workplace of Hashish Administration (OCM), CCB Chairwoman Tremaine Wright and OCM Govt Director Chris Alexander seeks to abolish the CAURD program in its entirety and open the retail dispensary utility portal now.
As first reported by Brad Racino of NY Cannabis Insider, the coalition consists of a number of New York registered organizations (i.e. medical hashish suppliers), together with Acreage Holdings, PharmaCann, Inexperienced Thumb Industries and Curaleaf, two potential retail dispensary candidates and a medical hashish practitioner.
Right here’s what the “petitioner” is requesting from a authorized perspective:
- a judicial declaration that the OCM’s creation of the CAURD program exceeded the OCM’s authority beneath New York’s structure (i.e. abolishing the CAURD program fully);
- a judicial order requiring the CCB and OCM to open the adult-use retail dispensary utility window instantly (i.e. letting anybody apply now); and
- a judicial order requiring the CCB and OCM to take motion to cease illicit and unlicensed hashish companies.
Right here’s the fulcrum of the coverage argument (setting apart the technical structure and procedural argument):
“Defendants-Respondents’ arbitrary and capricious foray into legislative policymaking has (i) harmed these people the MRTA was designed to learn (e.g., veterans, women-owned companies, distressed hemp farmers and people communities most affected by the Struggle on Medicine to call just some), and (ii) diverted Defendants-Respondents’ consideration from the enforcement duties with which the MRTA entrusts them. In consequence, Defendants-Respondents have allowed New York’s illicit market to flourish, placing medical sufferers and adult-use shoppers in danger and robbing communities impacted by the Struggle on Medicine of crucial tax income. Thus, as of this writing, solely 4 licensed adult-use retail dispensaries are open in all the State of New York.11 In the meantime, hundreds of illicit retailers are promoting unregulated, untested, and untaxed hashish merchandise of questionable origin and doubtful security throughout the State. In truth, it’s estimated that there are 1,400 shops retailing illicit hashish in New York Metropolis alone.”
The petition additionally takes the OCM and CCB to job for his or her alleged sensible failures to determine New York’s authorized adult-use hashish business:
“In brief, OCM and CCB have failed to satisfy their principal duty beneath the MRTA. As a substitute, Defendants-Respondents have (i) taken twenty months to suggest a set of laws for the adult-use market and nonetheless haven’t finalized or promulgated them; (ii) routinely violated – and proceed to violate – the State Administrative Process Act by governing by means of an ever-changing set of steering paperwork to control cultivators and processors as a result of ultimate guidelines nonetheless don’t exist; (iii) licensed solely sixty-odd CAURD dispensaries – solely 4 of which have opened; (iv) promised to offer CAURD licensees state-subsidized actual property and authorities loans nevertheless it has delivered neither; (v) induced New York’s conditional adult-use hashish cultivators to develop 350,000 kilos of flower in 2022 with out creating an ample retail infrastructure to promote it; and (vi) waged a thinly veiled assault towards the registered organizations that has harmed – and continues to hurt – the prevailing medical market and threatens to impede their growth into the adult-use market.”
There’s clearly rather a lot to unpack right here, nevertheless it’s not notably shocking that New York hashish business stakeholders are taking motion to attempt to transfer the licensing course of ahead. With the total utility portal nonetheless closed and no clear indication on when it should open, this litigation was an apparent (and probably the one choice) to pressure the OCM and CCB to take motion. Keep tuned!
