Albany’s slow recreational cannabis rollout is leaving veterans behind, critics charge.
Advocates say Gov. Kathy Hochul’s administration is discriminating against disabled military vets by prioritizing convicted drug felons when awarding licenses to sell marijuana — and possibly violating the very law that legalized the sale of cannabis in New York.
“The whole veterans community is in an uproar,” said Carmine Fiore, chair of the Cannabis Association of New York’s Veterans Committee and a disabled Army vet.
The Marijuana Regulation and Taxation Action Act of 2021 that legalized the recreational sale of weed designated five “social and economic equity” classes to get 50% of employment opportunities in the budding pot industry — covering those convicted of marijuana-related crimes and “service-disabled veterans,” as well as women and minority-owned businesses and “distressed farmers.”
But so far, the first 300 cannabis dispensary licenses have been set aside solely for applicants found guilty of a pot-related charge or related to someone swept up before the drug’s legalization.
“Only criminal applicants have been allowed to apply,” said Fiore, an FDNY emergency medical technician who served in the Army from 2008 to 2016.
H/T: nypost.com
