Yo, peep this, son. New York’s whole marijuana license setup is causin’ some major drama, straight up. This time, it’s a microbusiness candidate throwin’ shade on the whole social equity hustle. Homeboy is sayin’ that the way these politicians and regulators be pushin’ for social equality in the weed game is straight-up discriminatin’ against white dudes.
Check it, Valencia Ag LLC filed a lawsuit back on January 24th in the Northern District of New York U.S. District Court. They claim that the state law that legalized recreational weed in 2021, which aims to help out women and minority entrepreneurs, is illegal as hell. They talkin’ ’bout givin’ 50% of all cannabis licenses to social equity hustlers.
The lawsuit goes on to call out the state Office of Cannabis Management and the Cannabis Control Board for knowin’ they was walkin’ on thin ice with this whole social and economic equity (SEE) scheme. They say that givin’ discounts on license fees and other perks to minority and women applicants is straight-up discrimination.
These folks from Valencia Ag ain’t playin’, yo. They say, “Defendants makin’ rules that give special treatment to certain races or genders while leavin’ white men out in the cold is a violation of the Constitution.” They ain’t holdin’ back, callin’ it like they see it.
So here’s the deal with this lawsuit, right? Valencia Ag, based out in Jamesville near Syracuse, is owned by some light-skinned dudes who you might say are Caucasian or white. The company didn’t list any owners when they registered with the state.
They tried to get a microbusiness license from October to December last year, thinkin’ they had an inside track ’cause regulators said retail applicants would get preferential treatment if they locked down a spot. Now they stuck with a $2K-a-month lease plus utilities with no license in sight.
When the state rolled out their license review queue on January 12th, Valencia Ag found out they was sittin’ at number 2,042. With only 110 microbusiness licenses and 250 retailer licenses up for grabs, they realized their chances of gettin’ a license anytime soon were slim to none.
The lawsuit says that SEE applicants got put ahead in line, givin’ them an edge in scoop