Her Dispensary Was Set to Open. Then New York Got in the Way.
Then on Monday, she got an email from the state's cannabis agency admitting that it had made a significant error.
The agency, which had approved her store's location in March, said the address was closer to a nearby school than the 500 feet allowed by state law. It was the agency's fault that the distance had been measured incorrectly, the email said, but Ms. Ashley would need to move.
'I'm trying to remain as positive as I possibly can because I was like this close to open, just so close,' Ms. Ashley, 37, said. 'And then I get hit with this letter.'
The jarring message was a result of a sudden policy shift that threw the future of more than 150 existing and planned dispensaries into question. Regulators had previously measured the 500-foot distance from a dispensary's entrance to a school's. But on Monday, officials said the distance should have been measured from the school's property line.
An intense backlash from some license-holders, lawmakers and former regulators followed. They questioned why Gov. Kathy Hochul's administration had made such an abrupt change that could hurt people who followed the state's rules. Several lawsuits are in the works that could ultimately cost New York taxpayers millions of dollars in damages.
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A year after a bloody uprising, Bangladesh is far from political stability
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