New York still reviewing adult-use marijuana license applications from 2023

New York regulators hope to finish reviewing adult-use marijuana business license applications filed in late 2023 “by the end of the year.”

The state Office of Cannabis Management (OCM) received “nearly 7,000 applications” for recreational cannabis business permits during two application windows late last year, the agency said during an Aug. 6 Cannabis Control Board meeting.

Review of “roughly around 600” of these applications has yet to begin, according to OCM Chief Operating Officer Patrick McKeage.

Review process well behind pace

“We should be able to get through those 600 applications by November, or by the end of the year,” McKeage said during the Cannabis Control Board meeting, offering a “best estimate” based on regulators’ current pace.

That’s well behind the promise of expedited review “by early 2024,” a self-imposed deadline noted during a state audit of the OCM released on May 8.

In that same audit, conducted by New York’s Office of General Services, it was noted the “OCM did not intend to review all application nor did OCM contemplate the staffing that would be needed to do so.”

New York’s adult-use industry is still struggling to get off the ground more than three years after legalization, a rollout that Gov. Kathy Hochul famously branded a “disaster” earlier this year.

Lawsuits that halted the process contributed significantly to the slow rollout.

Those lawsuits were resolved last fall and prompted two application windows:

• One mostly for retailers that opened in October.
• A “supply-side” window that opened in November.

The audit prompted the resignation of the OCM’s inaugural executive director, Chris Alexander. A permanent replacement has not been chosen.

Licensing delays have ‘significant impact’

Business applicants have testified at public meetings that the long waits to have their applications reviewed are causing “significant impact on their personal finances,” with some applicants “continuing to incur expenses in hopes that OCM will eventually review their applications,” the May audit noted.

The state has been steadily issuing provisional licenses throughout the summer, though such permits merely allow a recipient to find appropriate real estate, necessitating further review once property is acquired.

Legal sales in New York in 2024 through the end of July totaled $332 million, according to the OCM.

The state now has 156 operating adult-use stores, including 72 in New York City, the agency said.

Meanwhile, a statewide crackdown continues on the thousands of unlicensed marijuana sellers that appeared after legalization but before licenses were issued.

Just last week, New York law enforcement agencies said they seized “thousands of pounds of marijuana” at an illicit, “multimillion-dollar operation in Astoria, the Queens Chronicle reported.