Licensed NYC pot shops sue state in turf war over competition: Rug pulled out from under us
Four licensed city pot shops have sued the state, claiming its cannabis regulators broke the law by allowing other weed dispensaries to operate within a 1,000-feet buffer zone designed to limit their competition. The law says licensed shops can’t be located within 1,000 feet of each other in the Big Apple.But waivers to the buffer zone are allowed for “public convenience and advantage” based on strict criteria, an exception that regulators apparently relied on in granting the other licenses. The civil complaint was filed in the Manhattan state Supreme Court on Thursday by the licensed marijuana merchants operating in Manhattan and Brooklyn: Actualize Dispensary Inc., Astro Management Inc., L.O.R.D.S.LLL, and R&R Remedies.The legal sellers claim Albany bureaucrats blew smoke at them with their empty promises and are now costing them dough — and possibly their livelihoods — by approving waivers for competitors within the zone “without notice, analysis, public discussion or due process.”The waivers to permit other cannabis stores to locate within the 1,000 buffer “will divert customers and diminish sales, jeopardizing petitioners’ ability to pay exorbitant rent and other financial obligations,” the suit says.The state Office of Cannabis Management — overseen by Gov.
Kathy Hochul — and the Cannabis Control Board are listed as defendants.“The Public Convenience Waiver recently issued by the CCB to an applicant seeking to open a dispensary in a location less than 1000 feet from Astro Management’s already proximity-protected location has put our company in an untenable position, endangering its viability as a business when we are only weeks away from launching,” said Jillian Dragutsky, CEO of Astro Managemen, which is located at 292 Atlantic Ave., Brooklyn.“It’s as though the rug were pulled from under us without notice or reason.”The Cannabis Control Board approved another weed seller, Buzzy’s, to operate at a site 956 feet...