New York regulators gained’t end reviewing functions for adult-use marijuana enterprise licenses submitted late final yr till 2025.
That’s the timeline set by Felicia Reid, the performing director of the state’s Workplace of Hashish Administration (OCM), throughout an interview final week with Spectrum Information 1.
There are nonetheless 600 candidates from the so-called November queue of retail and microbusiness hopefuls that stay to be evaluated.
Critiques will proceed till “early subsequent yr,” Reid informed Spectrum.
Candidates from the December queue, which consists of cultivation permits, will wait even longer: These functions will likely be reviewed “on a rolling foundation” after the November queue is accomplished Reid informed the New York Metropolis-based information outlet.
The most recent estimate contradicts an earlier, extra hopeful promise from OCM Chief Working Officer Patrick McKeage, who informed the state Hashish Management Board earlier this month his company would full its overview of final yr’s queues by the tip of 2024.
And it’s all effectively behind the preliminary promise to candidates that the state would resolve which candidates would obtain licenses “by early 2024.”
Reid took over administration of New York’s marijuana business in June, after preliminary OCM Government Director Chris Alexander resigned on the heels of criticism from Gov. Kathy Hochul that preceded a scathing audit launched in Could.
One downside that audit recognized was understaffing: The OCM had 65 unfilled positions, together with not less than 13 vacancies on its licensing overview workforce.
However almost 4 months after the audit’s Could 8 launch and two months into Reid’s tenure, that state of affairs hasn’t modified.
The OCM nonetheless has 65 vacancies and stays “woefully understaffed,” Reid informed Spectrum Information 1,