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Early last year, an affiliate of Central New York’s largest nursing home operator was awarded the region’s first conditional license to sell legal recreational marijuana.
Now, that health care agency, Loretto, says it let the license expire without making use of it. Loretto has no plans to get involved in the marijuana business.
“The original conditional license did expire and we will not be pursuing a renewal,” Julie Sheedy, Loretto’s chief marketing and engagement office said in an email to syracuse.com. “We do not have further interest in pursuing this opportunity.”
Asked to elaborate on the reason, Sheedy responded: “Uncertainties in the market have driven our decision to not pursue this any further.”
Confirmation that Loretto is no longer interested in operating a marijuana dispensary comes as the state’s rollout of the cannabis industry continues to be slow, mismanaged and inefficient, as a recent state audit found. There are now 127 licensed and operating dispensaries in the state, with hundreds more of the conditional licensees still waiting for final approval.
In response, Gov. Kathy Hochul ordered an overhaul of the state’s Office of Cannabis Management, including replacing its director.
The license issued to Loretto in January 2023 specifically went to an affiliate of the health care agency called Advanced Institutional Support Services LLC. It provides food services to Loretto, which operates 19 locations in Onondaga and Cayuga counties and serves about 10,000 people.
At the time, Loretto officials said they planned to find a third-party operator to run the cannabis dispensary. It never specified a location for the store.
The goal in obtaining the license was to provide a new source of revenue to help Loretto offset what it said were losses through the state Medicaid program, according to a statement Loretto provided at the time.
“This is not an effort to get into the cannabis industry, rather it’s in response to a dire need to find new sources of income,” the statement said. “… This is the first step in an effort to be prepared to diversify sources of revenue to make up for the serious deficiency in NYS Medicaid funding.”
The license to the Loretto affiliate came under the state’s Conditional Adult-Use Retail Dispensary (CAURD) program. That program was intended to give priority to applicants who had been negatively affected by prosecution of marijuana offenses no longer considered crimes.
Nonprofit agencies like Loretto qualified if their mission included serving those who have been convicted or incarcerated for marijuana offenses, and/or have employees and associates in that community.
The conditional licenses did not allow dispensaries to open immediately. It was the starting point for operator to find locations, establish a business plan and then obtain final approval to open. That is the process that has been mired in mismanagement for several years.
Although most of the licenses to open so far have gone to individuals, some of the first and most successful have gone to nonprofits, said Joe Rossi, the Syracuse-based Cannabis Practice Group Leader at Park Strategies, a statewide lobbying firm.
“It certainly is possible for a nonprofit to make it work,” Rossi said.
Another nonprofit that has operations in Central New York, the Brooklyn-based Center for Community Alternatives, received a CAURD license last year. A spokesman said it plans to open its dispensary this summer, but has not yet provided details.
To date, six for-profit CAURD licensees in Central New York have opened, with one more expected to debut this week.
Related: After many delays, 3 new legal marijuana shops are ready to open in Central New York
Don Cazentre writes for NYup.com, syracuse.com and The Post-Standard. Reach him at dcazentre@nyup.com, or follow him at NYup.com, on Twitter or Facebook.