Why we sued over cannabis licenses

The legalization of cannabis in New York State was a transformational moment for New Yorkers looking to build businesses within the framework of a legal, fair, and accessible cannabis market. We have watched as other states and entrepreneurs, particularly those from communities often left out of opportunities to create real wealth, have been able to build thriving small businesses from the ground floor of a new industry. We are all New Yorkers, and we finally saw our opportunity when the Marihuana Regulation and Taxation Act (“MRTA”) passed.

The law passed by the Legislature and signed by the governor on March 31, 2021 could not have been clearer — everyone would be able to apply for a retail dispensary license at the same time, and six classes of underserved or distressed applicants would get priority in licensing, including service-disabled veterans.

Having registered service-disabled veteran-owned businesses in New York designed to participate in the retail cannabis market, the four of us sought to join the program of the state Office of Cannabis Management (“OCM”).

We hired lawyers and investment consultants, made employment promises, signed labor peace agreements and real estate letters of intent, and took all other necessary steps to be ready to apply when the state finally opened the retail dispensary license application period for everyone as the MRTA directed. Unfortunately, that time never came as the OCM instead elected to ignore the law and launch a program far different from the one the Legislature approved, that only prioritized those with prior convictions.

We and countless other entrepreneurs and farmers across the state called on the administration and the Legislature to address the OCM’s actions and remind them to follow the law. Still, after months of pleading for action, we felt it was our duty to take this fight to the justice system to resolve this clearly illegal and unconstitutional program and we sued.

Some people have unfortunately questioned our motives, hurled insults, and threatened our families. Our argument is and has always only been — follow the law. From the beginning, our fight has been for equal access to this new and growing industry.

The fact that some of our fellow entrepreneurs have been delayed from opening, farmers across the state are facing a far smaller market than they were promised and are on the brink of collapse, and 2,000-plus illegal stores selling untested cannabis operate in the state are unfortunate impacts of the OCM’s unwillingness to correct the flaws in its program.

And the time has come for the OCM to follow the law and come to the table so that this can be “resolved for everyone’s benefit,” as state Supreme Court Justice Kevin Bryant said. We would have expected OCM to have been working feverishly with the parties to reach a solution.

Instead of half measures and incomplete filings, the OCM has the power to open up the cannabis program in a fair and equitable way to all priority classes and scale our industry statewide so New Yorkers have access to legal, regulated, and safe cannabis, and our farmers have a market to sell their product.

We believe there is a path for a resolution that relieves farmers and preserves deserving conditional licensees but also puts the social and economic equity groups memorialized in the MRTA in something resembling the place where they would have been if the law were followed from the beginning. We believe this is possible and has the support of the thousands of other voices in the NY cannabis market who believe the OCM should finally come to the table.

We may be fighting the state apparatus as veterans, but we are not soldiers of fortune. Our fight impacts all the priority groups outlined in the law who have been forced to wait while the OCM worked to flush through as many constitutionally problematic conditional licensees as they could before they were halted by the injunction.

We will continue to fight to benefit the other priority groups in the law who don’t have cannabis convictions — including women-owned businesses, minority-owned businesses, and distressed farmers — who might not have had the resources, the will, or the mettle to take on this fight.

Every day we wait is another day that our industry lags behind the rest of the country, and millions of dollars that would be generated from a thriving cannabis industry are not being invested in underserved communities. The OCM still has time to make this right, and we stand ready to work with them.

Fiore is an Army veteran who continues to serve in FDNY. Norgard is an Army veteran. Spaccio and Mejia are Air Force veterans.