This post was originally published on this site.
Jeffrey Hoffman is a New York City-based attorney who hosts “Ask Me Anything about Cannabis Legalization in New York” each week on LinkedIn. Hoffman and NY Cannabis Insider have partnered to bring those sessions into print in a Q&A format.
Hoffman’s practice focuses on cannabis industry clients, including licensees in the adult-use market, practitioners in the medical cannabis space, and cannabis adjacent product and service providers. He has a particular interest in social and economic equity cannabis license applicants, and he also informs and assists those convicted of cannabis offenses in getting such convictions expunged from their record. He can be reached at info@420jurist.com.
The following AMA from Jan. 10 has been edited for length and clarity.
When is the TRO / injunction hearing in the latest Variscite case?
It’s on Friday, January 26. OCM is racing to get as many stores open as they can by then. Based on how things went with the recently settled lawsuit, being open protects puts you outside of the class(es) impacted by any judicial intervention. At least so far.
How is it possible that Missouri just launched its adult-use retail program and did $1.2 billion in 2023 when New York State did $150 million?
Because Missouri let their medical operators have an inside track to start selling adult-use like most other states whereas New York did not. New York did an amazing thing by leading with folks that were actually impacted by anti-cannabis enforcement, but the lawsuits related to all this has significantly delayed the rollout of the program. Perhaps some kind of unified approach where equity folks were partnered with / mentored by established players in the space could have gotten New York off the ground more effectively. At this point it’s all woulda, coulda, shoulda.
What kind of priority do the license CAURDs have?
If you are a licensed CAURD, and you got your post-selection application in before the regular application deadline on December 18, and the location that you submitted with your post-selection application is a kosher location, then you have proximity protection and no other licensee will be allowed within 1000/2000 feet of your store depending on the population of the municipality where the store is located.
Why couldn’t OCM talk to other states before they made all these rules?
They did. I have been several events where the regulators have talked about how they went to other states to learn from them. The state that New York looks the most like, at least from a regulatory framework perspective, is Washington. Folks at OCM were particularly interested in how Washington did it and in particular how many SKUs were on the shelves of the stores.