Not many people have stared death in the face and lived to tell the tale, but Ozone Park resident Jeremy Rivera is a rare exception.
A three-time convicted felon on various drug charges, Rivera’s close call came after his most recent prison sentence in 2016 when he was attacked by another inmate with a razor, an altercation that would send the 29-year-old to solitary confinement for 80 days.
Rivera says it was “in the box” that he reached the lowest point in his life. That was until two weeks ago when Rivera, who is now a 36-year-old justice-involved and Conditional Adult-Use Retail Dispensaries (CAURD) provisional license awardee from the New York State Office of Cannabis Management, received word from his compliance team that he could not open Terp Bros, his legal marijuana dispensary located in Astoria.
“This was probably the most hurt, the most scared, the most emotions I’ve ever been through,” Rivera told QNS. “I don’t think I’ve ever been this low.”
Rivera is one of many other CAURD license awardees barred from opening due to an ongoing civil suit challenging New York’s licensing process, which launched in early 2021. In order to qualify, applicants needed prior business ownership experience as well as a cannabis-related offense prior to the passage of the Marijuana Regulation and Tax Act (MRTA).
The lawsuit’s plaintiffs, which include service-disabled veterans looking to apply for licenses, argue that the OCM, along with the Cannabis Control Board (CCB), failed to follow the plain text of the MRTA with the CAURD program by only allowing “justice-involved individuals” to be eligible instead of all applicants simultaneously. The plaintiffs argue further that the CAURD program violates the U.S. Dormant Commerce Clause.
When the plaintiffs first appeared in court on Aug. 7, New York State Supreme Court Justice Kevin R. Bryant issued an injunction, preventing OCM and CCB from issuing any more licenses and previous licensees,…
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