The New York Office of Cannabis Management recently announced that the state’s 164th licensed marijuana dispensary opened its doors on August 16. But there are still at least 300 other “legally involved” adult-use recreational dispensary (CAURD) license holders trying to open one, noted Jayson Tantalo, one of those licensees.

Tantalo, who serves as vice president of operations for the New York Cannabis Retail Association, said he and his wife, Britni, were fortunate to receive final approval for their CAURD store, Flower City Dispensary in Rochester, which is scheduled to open in September.

But, he said, only about 90% of the legal dispensaries that have opened so far are among the 463 CAURD permits issued last year. The rest are still struggling to either find a compliant retail location that is no less than 300 metres from another legal cannabis shop with “proximity protection” or are struggling to find financing to expand their locations.

Those two hurdles have proven enormously difficult, Tantalo said, especially proximity protection, because there is a delay between the time the CAURDs request a legal notice from the OCM confirming that their site can proceed and the time that protection is actually granted.

That delay, he said, allows other recreational license holders — who often received their permits this year and are not “legally involved” — to find locations within 1,000 feet of the proposed CAURD site, obtain “proximity protection” from the OCM, and force the CAURD to start all over again in the search for a legal storefront.

The OCM maintains an online map showing which locations have been granted proximity protection, Tantalo said, but that map is updated once a week at most. It would be far more helpful if the OCM used artificial intelligence or some other technology to update the map daily, he said. That would save CAURD permit holders — all of whom have been trying to open a business since last year — a lot of time and energy in their ongoing search for dispensary locations.

“If a CAURD does not receive proximity protection, they cannot pursue their license,” Tantalo said. “My members are upset because they see that the pending proximity protection, even though it was applied for a month ago, is given to someone who only received their license a month ago.”

There is also ongoing confusion regarding the state fund originally intended to be administered by the New York State Dormitory Authority that provides $200 million in low-interest loans for CAURD permit holders. Tantalo said he has tried to inquire about how he could access some of those funds himself for Flower City Dispensary, but has not received a response. He said there has been no real communication from regulators about what is happening with that pool of money, which was originally earmarked by Gov. Kathy Hochul as a resource for many of the CAURDs.

“Proximity protection, funding – if there is no real transparency about the building blocks, how can a CAURD ever be operational?” asked Tantalo.

However, Tantalo pointed out that there has been tremendous progress at the OCM over the past 12 months and that every time the opening of a new pharmacy is announced, “one of our members is there.”

He also said that since restructuring its staff and replacing former executive director Chris Alexander with Felicia Reid, OCM has become much more responsive in basic communications with license holders because the office has begun to seek help from other state agencies.

“This is progress,” said Tantalo.