Four New Yorkers who served in the U.S. Armed Forces have sued Gov. Kathy Hochul’s administration, accusing state officials of favoring convicted drug felons over disabled vets in the awarding of licenses to sell legal marijuana.
The lawsuit alleges regulators with the Office of Cannabis Management and state Cannabis Control Board failed to set up a legal cannabis market envisioned by New York’s Marijuana Regulation and Taxation Act (MRTA) approved in 2021, which specifically lists disabled vets as one of five priority “social and economic equity” groups to get at least 50% of employment opportunities in the budding pot industry.
The five groups mentioned are are convicted felons of marijuana-related crimes, service-disabled veterans, as well as women and minority-owned businesses and “distressed farmers.”
But regulators excluded disabled vets from the first round of awards to sell weed after creating the program for Conditional Adult-Use Retail Dispensary licenses, the suit said.
The first licenses instead went to “justice involved” individuals or partners of drug felons as well as applicants from other categories, the suit, filed in state Supreme Court in Albany alleges.
The Post reported back in April about complaints of vets being shafted in the awarding of cannabis licenses. One of the disabled vets, Carmine Fiore, is a plaintiff in the case.
“It feels like we were used to get a law passed — a good law, one that helps a lot of people, as well as the state,” Fiore, who served for eight years in the Army and National Guard said.
“Then, once it was passed, we were cast aside for another agenda.”
Dominic Spaccio, who served six years in the Air Force, said he is “sitting in an empty retail location” in his hometown of update Montour Falls, watching helplessly as a lucrative opportunity in the legal adult-use cannabis market passes him by.
“The continued issuance of CAURD licenses puts people with criminal convictions in front of service-disabled veterans and all other MRTA-directed social and economic equity classes,” Spaccio said.
“What I am suing for is equal access under the law. The MRTA does say that there should be equity for certain individuals and not others. I qualify too.”
Army vet William Norgard said, “We take oaths to defend the laws of our nation, and trust — maybe naively — that government officials will faithfully and legally execute those laws. What the Office of Cannabis Management is doing right now is in complete breach of that trust. As veterans, we know that someone has to hold the line.”
Steve Mejia, an Air Force veteran who served in Afghanistan and Iraq and traveled to more than 20 countries during his six years of service, said he felt betrayed.
“I served in Operation Enduring Freedom and Operation Iraqi Freedom and ended up with cancer connected to my service. I sacrificed for my country and my state and swore to defend and protect its people and its laws,” Mejia said.
“Now New York is refusing to honor its legal obligations to me.”
The lawsuit calls for a temporary restraining order to stop the awarding of licenses that excludes vets.
It claims state regulators have violated the separation of powers doctrine, substituting its judgement for the law approved by the legislature.
One disabled service vet, Osbert Orduna, CEO of the Queens-based The Cannabis Place delivery service, called the lawsuit unfortunate because it will only further delay an already much-criticized slow rollout of the licensing program.
He was able to obtain an early license because his business partner has a drug conviction.
“It’s counterproductive and going to hurt all social equity operators. The only group that is going to benefit from this lawsuit are the large multi-state cannabis operators,” Orduna said.
Hochul’s office and the Office of Cannabis Management had no immediate comment.
Previously, regulators defending their handling of cannabis licensing and treatment of vets.
There are currently 21 state licensed cannabis sellers in the state, nine of which are in New York City.