Gov. Kathy Hochul’s cannabis regulators are considering loosening the rules to allow more licensed pot shops to open in city neighborhoods — a half-baked idea that immediately ignited not-in-my-backyard opposition.
The current rule requires a 1,000-foot buffer between cannabis shops, but state officials revealed Tuesday they are now weighing a “public convenience and advantage” waiver — even though they have yet to determine what the criteria requirements would be.
“They must be stoned,” Queens city Councilman Robert Holden told The Post — only half in jest.
The state’s plan surfaced during a cannabis-control-board meeting — and comes just as New York City and New York authorities had been starting to make a dent in padlocking hundreds of illegal pot stores.
“We’re in bizarro world,” said Holden, whose borough has been particularly plagued by illicit marijuana shops.
If anything, the state should be lengthening the buffer zone between pot stores, not cramming more into communities, the pol said.
“One cannabis store for a commercial strip is enough,” Holden said.
But cannabis-industry sources said state officials are being pressured to ease the buffer restriction by frustrated applicants waiting for approval to open cannabis dispensaries, after a disastrously slow roll-out by the Hochul administration.
The state also could generate more tax revenue by opening more weed stores.
There are now 156 licensed cannabis dispensaries in the state — 75 in New York City and Long Island and 81 upstate.
The shuttering of illegal shops had gained steam earlier this year when Albany passed tougher measures to make it easier to padlock unlicensed cannabis stores and fueled a relatively effective crackdown by Big Apple Mayor Eric Adams.
There is currently a 1,000-foot buffer between stores in municipalities with more than 20,0000 people and a 2,000-foot limit for communities with fewer than 20,000 residents.
To potentially walk those efforts back now is lunacy, critics said.
A licensed cannabis operator vowed to file a lawsuit against the state for attempting to change the rules.
“This is a terrible idea,” Osbert Orduna, owner of The Cannabis Place in Middle Village, Queens, told The Post.
“Flooding a neighborhood is not the solution. I will lead a coalition to sue the state.”
Orduna, who heads trade groups representing disabled veteran and Hispanic cannabis operators, said easing the 1,000-foot buffer rule could cannibalize business instead of growing the budding industry.
State officials emphasized they will seek public input — including from their own cannabis advisory committee — before making any changes to the buffer rules.
“OCM [the state Office of Cannabis Management] is in the process of developing guidance to establish the criteria under which to consider requests for public convenience and advantage,” the agency said in a release after the board meeting.
“Stakeholders are encouraged to stay informed on how to submit comments on the proposed regulation and guidance to ensure their voices are heard. This initiative ensures an adaptive and responsive regulatory approach, fostering a dynamic and equitable cannabis industry in New York.”
