Three Further Marijuana Dispensaries Have Been Granted Licences in The Capital Region!

This week, regulators approved three more marijuana businesses in the Capital Region, bringing the total number of new licensees in the area to seven.

In August, authorities said only seven of the area’s applicants with past marijuana convictions would be tapped to kick off the industry, so this announcement comes weeks before some local dispensaries will start recreational sales, signaling both disappointment and a sense of closure for first-round candidates not on the list.

Humble Country, owned by Albert Attoh, Shaniqua Anthony, and Renee T. Lindo, and Thinc Provisions, Inc., both owned by Mark Richardson, both owned by Jody A. Cracco, and both recently declared as winners in the area.

Some notable locals who expressed interest in breaking into the sector early on are conspicuously absent. Mark Robinson, whose family was involved in a notorious marijuana arrest in the early 2000s, served as a municipal councilman in Albany and has since vowed to give back to the area.

State Office of Cannabis Management executive director Chris Alexander, who is “very happy” that the state is continuing to roll out the conditional licensing program that would “provide chances for folks who’ve been directly harmed by marijuana prohibition enforcement,” said he was.

There are now 66 active licensees in the state after the board gave the green light to 30 additional applications. Twenty-eight of the new retailers revealed prior convictions, and only two were charitable organizations. Even so, that’s fewer than half of the total 175 who might be chosen as winners.

Although Alexander assured the public that the initiative will “continue to roll out,” several attendees at this week’s conference brought attention to the negative effects of the delays.

During the hearing, cannabis lawyer Jeffrey Hoffman said, “I personally know (conditional license) applicants who elected to submit their (retail license) application fee rather than their complete rent.” “I know these other (retail license) applicants who are waiting would appreciate whatever you can do to reach out to them and provide them with information while they wait.”

The statements are a repetition of a theme that has come up frequently in recent discussions between supporters of applicants and the applicants themselves.

License applicants had just until September to get their applications in, but the board has been tardy to announce winners among the more than 900 applicants, and even fewer have been awarded the turnkey shop locations that were promised at the beginning of the program.

A federal judge ordered a preliminary injunction prohibiting the distribution of these in five areas due to an outstanding constitutional challenge of the program by one applicant. The governing bodies formally requested that the judge restrict the prohibition to a single geographical area.

There are now two legal dispensaries open in New York City, both of which are located in the borough of Manhattan.