The state made convicted weed dealers the first legal sellers. Those left out sued, and a judge paused the program.
State inspectors visiting a storefront in the Bronx on a recent Thursday were so certain the owners would be cleared in a few days to open a cannabis dispensary that they handed them a window sticker announcing in bold blue letters that the business was “LICENSED.”
The owners, Deniz and Levent Ozkurt, who are cousins, thought the difficult work of getting started as one of the state’s first official retailers was finally done. They celebrated by taking their families for a fancy steak dinner.
But they had not yet been approved to open by the following Monday. That day a judge overseeing two lawsuits challenging the state’s licensing process ordered regulators to stop opening new shops. The order left the future of New York’s cannabis market in limbo.
– Read the entire article at The New York Times.
Original Article
