A courtroom battle over New York’s hashish legislation may damage this yr’s marijuana harvest

New York on Monday issued its first 36 licenses for dispensaries, which can turn into the one locations within the state the place leisure marijuana is bought legally.

The state, although, has needed to delay plans to authorize scores extra dispensaries due to a authorized battle over its licensing standards.

U.S. District Courtroom Choose Gary Sharpe in Albany blocked the state from issuing licenses in Brooklyn and swaths of upstate New York after an organization owned by a Michigan resident challenged a requirement that candidates show “a major presence in New York state.”

In a courtroom submitting Tuesday, the state requested the decide to loosen that injunction to stop jeopardizing a marijuana harvest value an estimated $1.5 billion, now ready to be distributed to retailers.

“If the farmers, who had been already issued cultivating licenses, have nowhere to promote their crop, they may lose the hundreds of thousands of {dollars} which have been collectively invested of their companies, some might lose their companies, and they’re going to in any other case be compelled into the predicament of both watching their crops rot and expire or promoting them on the illicit market,” Assistant Lawyer Normal Amanda Kuryluk wrote.

The courtroom submitting, made on behalf of the state’s Workplace of Hashish Administration, urged that the corporate difficult its exclusion from the applicant pool, Variscite NY One, would probably solely be thought-about for a dispensary within the Finger Lakes area within the state’s heart.

Blocking the state from approving licenses in 4 different areas together with central and western New York, the mid-Hudson and Brooklyn, would trigger “considerably extra hurt than crucial,” the state argued.

It was unclear when Sharpe would possibly rule on the request.

Christian Kernkamp, a lawyer representing Variscite, mentioned in an emailed assertion that the corporate had hoped to resolve the case earlier than it wound up hindering marijuana gross sales, however the state refused to settle.

“The injunction might be over tomorrow, however the State prefers as a substitute to litigate despite the fact that the courtroom has already discovered a ‘clear probability’ that the State violated Variscite’s constitutional rights,” he mentioned.