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Of the 28 businesses across New York state that were approved for the first round of Conditional Adult-Use Recreational Dispensary licenses in November — all of which went to owners who themselves or whose relatives have a past cannabis-related conviction in NYS — none are within the central New York and Finger Lakes region, home to Syracuse.

Amid a lawsuit against the state’s retail cannabis licensing program, retailers in the central New York and Finger Lakes regions are unsure when or if they’ll join licensees in other regions.

The state began its path to a legal, regulated market for recreational marijuana with issuing CAURD licenses, which aim t0 position “equity-owned businesses at the front-end of New York’s adult-use market,” according to the New York State Cannabis Control Board. Of the businesses that have received licenses so far, 13 are located in New York City, four are in the Albany area, two are located in the Southern Tier, one is in the Mohawk Valley, seven are on Long Island and one is in the North Country.

Jim Charon, chair for the central New York regional committee of the Cannabis Association of New York, said the state didn’t approve any CAURD licenses for applicants in the central New York and Finger Lakes region because of a court injunction from a pending lawsuit against NYS by an out-of-state party. Charon, also the owner of the local dispensary Syracuse Hemporium, is among those in central New York who did not qualify for a CAURD license.

The plaintiff in the lawsuit is Michigan-based Variscite NY One, a group seeking CAURD licensing with the intent to sell in New York state. It claims the program favors New York residents by requiring owners or their family members to have been convicted in New York state of marijuana-related crimes. Variscite filed lawsuits on Sept. 26th, 2022 in every region where it sought a CAURD license, including central New York and the Finger Lakes.

In response, on Nov. 10, District Judge Gary Sharpe blocked the New York Office of Cannabis Management from licensing any businesses in the five regions where Variscite sued. The OCM filed appeals in every region to lift the injunction except the Finger Lakes, Variscite’s first choice of region in which to receive a license.

A Syracuse-based cannabis professional, who works in the sale of medical marijuana and wished to remain unnamed, said there is already a lack of access to medical marijuana in rural New York areas. They said they’re concerned that this trend will now extend to the recreational market as well.

“CAURD licensees will be concentrated mostly in large urban areas, alienating much of the state’s constituency,” the source told The Daily Orange.

Jayson Tantalo, owner of Flower City Hydroponics in Fairport, applied for a CAURD license, but has not been approved because his business falls in the Finger Lakes region. Tantalo is a co-founder of the New York CAURD Coalition, a group of 70 applicants and 14 licensees seeking “collaboration over competition” in the emerging industry, according to its website.

Tantalo said he has been involved in the cannabis industry since before it was legalized, making him a “legacy” member of the community.

“The opportunity to sell legal cannabis is of immense value because that’s what I’ve been doing since I can remember, and I can extend my resources to the legal community,” Tantalo said. “The community trusts us and they support us.”

Tantalo said he maintains support for the equity-focused licensing plan.

“The prerequisite of cannabis justice-involved individuals is highly respected and we thank the state for that opportunity, not to mention that cannabis involved individuals (are given) opportunities to be successful in corporate business,” Tantalo said.

Jeremy Rivera, executive director of the NY CAURD Coalition, said the CAURD program provides opportunities for former cannabis convicts that were once far out of reach, like himself. Rivera was released from prison in 2018. Rivera emphasized that applicants to the CAURD program are not newly-released criminals but successful business people.

“Not until the CAURD program was rolled out (did) I intended to get back into the cannabis industry. The rollout affects me because it’s a dramatic change from what I thought my trajectory was to where I am now,” he said. “We aren’t people that are just coming out of prison and asking for a license. Most of the people who applied for CAURD had a conviction, yes, but they are also successful businessmen and women.”

The medical marijuana professional emphasized that CAURD licensing would bring regulation to the current “gray” market with no regulation, saying that swiftly issuing adult-use dispensary licenses would be a “massive win” for the cannabis industry and the NY community.

But Tantalo said he’s worried that the delays in distributing licenses prevents the state from resolving trauma in communities affected by the War on Drugs.

“They were supposed to be awarding the licenses November 21st. The timeline is now unknown, so it’s impossible to move forward,” Tantalo said. “The gray market is going to thrive, and continue to thrive, so reinvesting capital into the community that has been most impacted by the War on Drugs will be nonexistent until legal cannabis penetrates the Finger Lakes region.”

Charon said that having been involved in the CBD business since 2018, he is optimistic about the pace at which CAURD licensing is being carried out.

“Understanding the state’s concept makes it easy to follow the timeframe. NY is looking at doing it right the first time without having to make significant changes later,” Charon said. “Once the legal issue has been resolved, the approved CAURD applicants will be able start operating.”

For sellers like Rivera, movement in the process of issuing CAURD licenses means movement away from the negative effects of his past conviction and the larger scale impacts of criminalized marijuana.

“I never thought I would be getting into, for lack of a better word, selling cannabis, selling drugs again,” Rivera said. “It’s cool to see an emerging market opening up and to be a pioneer at the forefront of it, so that’s really cool to see something grow into fruition, especially something that had such a bad stigma and social effect on people from our neighborhoods.”

Published on January 19, 2023 at 12:45 am