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This guest column was written by Joe Rossi, the Cannabis Practice Group Leader at Park Strategies. The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the author, and do not necessarily reflect the views or positions of NY Cannabis Insider.
Last month, a Harvard Medical School article described exactly what you are going through right now.
It says, “A stressful situation — whether something environmental, such as a looming work deadline, or psychological, such as persistent worry about losing a job — can trigger a cascade of stress hormones that produce well-orchestrated physiological changes. A stressful incident can make the heart pound and breathing quicken. Muscles tense and beads of sweat appear. This combination of reactions to stress is also known as the ‘fight-or-flight’ response because it evolved as a survival mechanism, enabling people and other mammals to react quickly to life-threatening situations. The carefully orchestrated yet near-instantaneous sequence of hormonal changes and physiological responses helps someone to fight the threat off or flee to safety.”
I spent this weekend going over the public comments from the last Cannabis Control Board meeting. Most New Yorkers that have applied for a cannabis license are simply too scared to speak up out of fear of retribution or harm to their approval process. They have not fully kicked into the “flight response” to their turmoil, however they are pretty close.
Other New Yorkers, however, have had the audacity to stand up at CCB meetings and share their concerns and frustrations, which takes courage. These New Yorkers are embracing the “fight response,” and I absolutely applaud them.
Here are some examples from the last CCB meeting on April 11:
This is the face of someone who is losing everything I’ve ever worked for … I spent my savings, took out all my pension money, maxed my credit cards, took money to put away for my Sicilian girlfriend’s trip to Italy, just so I can pay my rent this month. I’m ready to open today … I’m stuck in OCM hell. There’s still no license. No one can and will tell me where I stand. I email every day, call and talk to different people all with the same answer. You’re in review. By who? How long? Where in the queue am I?
—Dispensary applicant
I haven’t slept more than three hours at a time since March, as that is when I anticipated I would have received my license. I don’t know what to do if I don’t sign the lease, I may lose the ability to open in the location I wanted to due to the site protections, as you guys have mentioned. At the same time, I’m afraid to pour the last bit of my savings into a lease only to not be awarded a license and end up homeless.
—Social Equity applicant
What do I do? I owe rent today. I don’t know whether I should pay my rent because you guys are going to end up helping me out, or it’s just going to go nowhere. I’ve emailed people in this room. I don’t want to mention names. I have nobody to call. I’m a CAURD guy. I don’t need a loan. I’ve used all our money. We did it right. We did it. How? You told us to do it. What do I do? That’s all I ask. What do I do? Who do I call?
—CAURD licensee/Social equity applicant
You know, I’m thinking about moving out of my house and living outside in a tent for the summer. If I don’t, you know, I don’t know, because we’re running out and we’re paying rent, and we have a lot of other bills to pay. We got the store up. We’re ready. We’re just waiting, like everyone. And, I’m not here to yell at the OCM board.
—Dispensary applicant
The nightmare that I’ve been experiencing trying to get my business open. I feel compelled to come here and speak today … What I have been offered are what I consider predatory investment opportunities, where someone wants to take 49% of the license and control the license before we even get open, please, we need help. I’m suffering. I need to open immediately, and I have the process to do it.
—CAURD licensee/Social equity applicant
… give it to everybody who has a lease, just make sure it’s a legitimate lease, because they’ve been spending money like I have, and they just want to know, am I going to still be spending money or do I have a shot? Or is it over now? That’s all it’s really about. So I appreciate your efforts. Thank you guys. Just please. And whatever you can do to expedite. I would love it. Thank you.
—Social equity applicant
That is just a sample of the brave public comments from New Yorkers who faced their fears and spoke up, hoping for some clarity from the government. It is uncertain if they have received any clarity.
First, why did these people secure a location already? They weren’t imbeciles; they were being prudent. Section 72 of the MRTA said no retail license would be issued to someone unless they owned the premises, or could demonstrate possession within 30 days of final approval. Also, nowhere in the MRTA did it say there would be a scoreless application lottery.
That is why I would like to humbly and respectfully urge the CCB members to make some changes so these people feel heard. For one, move the public comment section of their meetings to BEFORE they vote on anything. Instead of the board members continuing to have little to no discussion on the topics they are voting on, they should hear from the New Yorkers who have put it all on the line. Also, having the public comment section BEFORE any votes allows these New Yorkers the courtesy of some answers before the meeting ends.
I urge the CCB members at this Friday’s board meeting to imagine if you were in these New Yorkers shoes, and you had the audacity to speak up, but were not given the courtesy of a reply. How would that make you feel? These New Yorkers could have caved to the stress and retreated to the “flight response.” Instead, through their fear and stress, they found courage to speak up and to clench the “fight response.”
I also respectfully urge the OCM to begin a weekly email to all the applicants, and everyone on the OCM email listserv, on where the agency is with the November and December queue review process. It doesn’t need to be more than two paragraphs. This allows transparency about (1) which number are you at in the lottery review, (2) how many applicants have you removed from the queue for being current illicit dispensary operators, or for other discarding factors, and (3) what is your anticipated timeline to complete the review.
If you agree about moving the public comment section to the beginning of CCB meetings, as well as a weekly update courtesy email on the November and December queues, please feel free to email the public officials on the Cannabis Control Board at their public email addresses and urge them to make those changes.
And for the record, I’m not an OCM hater. On the contrary, I believe some of the hardest working public servants in New York State today are in the OCM. They know who they are and how appreciated their work is.
I am also not saying anything that OCM leadership doesn’t already know. Three months after being appointed the OCM executive director, The New Yorker did a profile on Chris Alexander, and it said:
“Alexander knows he faces a monumental task, and for as smart, put together, and ambitious as he is, he knows there’s no way to achieve the goal without making sure the public understands OCM’s moves every step of the way. More meetings. More PowerPoints. More meetings based on PowerPoints. iIf you can’t explain what you’re doing, you’ll always be at a disadvantage,’ Alexander said. ‘If you can’t speak to what’s happening and decisions that you’re making, people will never fully support what’s happening there.’
He was right. Transparency is a vital function of trust. At the start of her new administration, Gov. Kathy Hochul pledged a new era of greater transparency and accountability. Why? As NYS Comptroller Tom DiNapoli said “It’s important to have transparency so New Yorkers are empowered with information they need to hold their elected officials accountable.”