Marihuana stores sue New York after being allowed to open too close to schools

Albany, NY (AP) -A group of marijuana disabilities in New York sued the state on Friday after Cannabis regulators acknowledged that they accidentally allowed pot shops to open too close to schools and jeopardize the future of the businesses. The lawsuit asks a Judge of the Albany High Court to decide that the locations of the marijuana stores remain legal and to prevent the state from taking any enforcement against them. The case comes a few weeks after the state’s legal marijuana office told 150 existing or proposed cannabis stores that regulators had misread a state law that required dispensations to be a certain distance from schools. In the approximately three years since the state began the licensing of legal cannabis stores, officials complied with a requirement that dispensations were 152 meters from the nearest school by measuring the school’s door to the door of the business. The state now says that the law should actually measure some of the school’s line of property. About 60 stores have been licensed and opened under the wrong measurement system, public servants said, plus about 40 who have licenses but have not yet been opened for business. Then there are almost 50 other companies that have applied for licenses and awaits the final approval of the state. Those who are open have said that they can now continue to do business and work with dilapidated licenses as long as they have filed renewal applications. The state has set up a fund where applicants can amount to $ 250,000 to relocate. The Cannabis office said it called on state lawyers to make a permanent solution to let the businesses stay in their current places, but also noted that it was not guaranteed. The state law will only meet again until next year. A spokesman for the state office refused to comment on the lawsuit. The school proximity problem was the latest blow to the state’s legal cannabis program, which was plagued by management errors that brought the market to a standstill, led to legal challenges and caused illegal stores to flourish. According to the state, there are approximately 450 cannabis dispensives that are currently open in New York.