‘I’m More Broke Than Since I was 18.’ Cannabis Licensees Bemoan State’s Slow Rollout
The spring of 2022 brought hope to people who had served time for drug offenses and who wanted to start a state-sanctioned marijuana business. A year after legalizing pot, the state’s Office of Cannabis Management began offering those previously convicted of a cannabis-related offense, or their relatives, priority access to the emerging market through retail licenses, known as “CAURDs” (Conditional Adult-Use Retail Dispensaries).
Their optimism, however, was short-lived. More than a year after the program’s inception, nearly 500 licenses were granted statewide, but only 23 dispensaries have opened. And on Wednesday, applications for cannabis dispensaries will open to the general public.
Labor New York conducted a Zoom panel with five CAURD licensees to learn more about the application process, the reasons behind the slow rollout, and their concerns for the future. Here are their responses, some of which have been edited for clarity or brevity.
The Early Stages
New York’s Marijuana Regulation and Taxation Act is among the most progressive cannabis legislation, granting people with prior cannabis-related offenses priority access to the newly legalized business.
“I think the whole point of this program was to right the wrongs of people that they incarcerated, whether it was for a day, 30 years, 15 years for smoking a joint or selling something that is not harmful to a human being.”
– Zymia Lewis, co-owner of Big Gas Dispensary, a CAURD dispensary set to open in Mid-Hudson Valley.
“You can imagine how excited all of us were when we got put on this short list to get a license. … The excitement, the energy, the flow, everybody making moves, big moves.”
– Markel Bababekov, owner of The Herbal Care THC, a dispensary set to open in the Upper East Side of Manhattan.
“It was super exciting, super hopeful. But now it’s just endless despair day after day.”
– Max Tsiring, a CAURD licensee
Expenses Piling Up — The Injunction
Licensees’ concerns began soon after a group of disabled veterans sued the CAURD program, claiming it violated state law by awarding retail licenses to only one social-equity group, despite stating that applications had to open to all groups at the same time. Last month, a judge halted the issuance of new licenses and the approval of dispensary openings. Since then, licensees have been in limbo, shouldering costs associated with these delays.
“A lot of us spent so much money. I rearranged my whole life for this. I’m not even exaggerating. Between my career, where I live, my kids’ school, I rearranged everything just to be closer to where my dispensary is going to be when I knew I got approved.
“I already have a location, paying over $20,000 a month, in Manhattan. I invested close to half a million already and sold one of my businesses to fund this one. And now, it’s losing one huge income, not making another one when I should be open by next month. It’s just very tough, and it’s not right.”
– Bababekov
“I have a location with a lease signed in July, and we’re supposed to start paying rent in January. We’ve spent over $150,000 for this project.”
– Eyasser Noboa, who received one of the first licenses in the Mid-Hudson region.
“I’m getting bled out. I’m more broke than I’ve been since I was 18 years old.”
– Tsiring, who says he spent over $75,000 preparing for his cannabis business.
“For every week that we are being held back, it puts us back months. And it’s heartbreaking because I see all of us going through it.”
– Jillian Dragutsky, co-chair of the New York CAURD coalition Women’s Committee
Big Weed Invasion
The biggest advantage offered to CAURD licensees was a three-year head start, intended to enable them to find their footing before larger, deep-pocketed companies could enter the market. However, the Office of Cannabis Management, determined to accelerate the rollout of stores, announced the opening of the market to the general public this week. Now the sole proprietors worry they’ve lost their only advantage.
“It’s going to affect us a lot. These companies have a massive amount of money that clearly all of us CAURD licensees, put together, we don’t have. They can open up in the best area, they can buy the biggest stores.”
– Markel
“They’re also vertically integrated. They get their own brand. They get to grow their own. They get to process their own. They’re literally economies of scale.”
– Dragutsky
“From seed to sale. They grow it, and they sell their own products, which drops their overhead. Not like us. We have minimal profit margins, very minimal.”
– Bababekov
“It takes only a couple of months to bleed us out of our life savings, and it’s really easy to create these delays and confusion amongst us. Everyone forgets about the social-equity licensees. Nobody cares.”
– Tsiring
“Even if we can open up now, with the big registered organizations, it’s not going to be the same. Not even a little bit. I don’t expect to make anywhere near what I thought I would make if they open up at the same time as we do.”
– Bababekov
“Not to mention that illicit market, we’re already fighting against that.”
– Zymia
“It’s really a big problem for all of us. Everything that was really promised to us hasn’t been delivered at all.”
– Bababekov
