Earlier this week, I received a call from one of New York’s first-round cannabis retail license winners.
This person had just participated in the Office of Cannabis Management’s presentation on Friday to all Conditional Adult-Use Retail Dispensary (CAURD) licensees called “Rules of the road – preparing to operate a retail cannabis dispensary.”
After the presentation, they wished to share some concerns without going on the record out of fear their words could jeopardize their relationship with the OCM. NY Cannabis Insider – and most legitimate news organizations – tend to only use anonymous sources in extreme circumstances, such as when there is a threat of physical or financial harm to the subject.
In this case, the threat of financial harm is real, and we’ve agreed to grant anonymity. What follows is a summary of our conversation in their voice. It has been lightly edited for clarity.
Sign up for the NY Cannabis Insider newsletter
——-
The fund is what I find to be the most appalling thing. It seemed, when we applied for CAURD, that the fund would be like a grant that would later be forgiven to help us start this business so we wouldn’t have to put up money of our own. CAURD recipients – most of them – don’t have a million dollars to start off their own dispensary.
So, ok. If we get an approved site, we could borrow the money from them at 10% interest, and we have to use their designers and their contractors and they’ll renovate it for us and make…
