BUFFALO, N.Y. — Legal marijuana will be making its way to Western New York.
The Cannabis Control Board approved 99 Conditional Adult-Use Retail Dispensary (CAURD) licenses at their meeting Monday including four license applications for the Western New York region.
The businesses and owners to receive a license are Aaron Van Camp, AMSM LLC. owned by Gina and Glen Miller, Flower City Shop LLC. owned by Jamie Donato-Rivera and Phetnakhone Duangtavilay out of Rochester, and Premier Earth Corp owned by Joseph Wojciechowski.
Aaron Van Camp, who attended Monday's regulatory board meeting in Brooklyn, said after months of waiting he almost threw in the towel last week.
"I wanted my money back for the application and I was just done with this and I just didn't know what was going on," said Van Camp said.
Shortly after Monday's meeting, he told 2 On Your Side from his hotel room that he was glad he "stuck with it."
"It wasn't real, it was a total surprise," Van Camp said.
Gina Miller told 2 On Your Side she and her husband were also "excited" to receive the news. She declined an on-camera interview and said she wanted to touch base with her husband and family first.
Miller said similar to Van Camp they still need a location before they can open and they aren't sure if they will sublet through the Dormitory Authority of the State of New York (DASNY) or find a location of their own.
That's the next step.
"We want to be somewhere where people want us," Van Camp said.
"I'd like to end up in Elmwood Village Hertel or something like that. We'll see what hoops we have to jump through to get there."
The four recipients are the first in the Western New York region. Eighteen others are set to be awarded conditional licenses for a total of 22 CAURD dispensaries in the region.
The State Office of Cannabis Management has said it plans to give out 300 total. Prior to Monday's meeting 66 conditional licenses had been awarded, and by the end of it, 165 had been issued.
Joe Schafer, an attorney at Lippes Mathias LLP that specializes in cannabis law told 2 On Your Side the next step for these license holders is to submit a more detailed business plan, which will then be reviewed by the Office of Cannabis Management.
"It's that submission of that paperwork that will ultimately allow the people licensed today to go from provisional license to you know operating conditional licenses under the CAURD program," Schafer said.
It's unclear how long the process could take for Western New York's four recipients. However, the very first CAURD dispensary Housing Works received approval for their license on November 21, 2022, and opened on December 21, 2022.
The state's second adult-use retail pot shop Smacked received its license that same day but didn't open until January 25, 2023.
Van Camp added that he will try to speed the process along and hopes to "get rolling" in a couple of weeks. But whatever the wait, he said he is grateful for this opportunity from the state.
"The same way I was unfortunate in my legal situation where I fit into all these groups that made me do a lot of time for marijuana this was like I fit into all these little groups that made me perfect for this application and gave me a high score," Van Camp said.
Thirteen of Monday's ninety-nine approved license recipients come as a direct result of a U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit decision last week. That decision narrowed an injunction zone that was preventing the Office of Cannabis Management from awarding licenses in five regions including Western New York.
Now, only the Finger Lakes Region is blocked while the lawsuit plays out in court.
The plaintiff in the lawsuit has argued the application process to get a license to open a marijuana store in New York State was unconstitutional, and their application was rejected because one of their principal applicant partners was convicted of a marijuana-related crime outside of New York.
