Two years after New York legalized recreational marijuana for adult use, Central New York finally has its first licensed retailer. He is Joseph B. Simons, a lawyer from Boston, Massachusetts, who was busted for smoking weed while a high school student in Oneonta.
The Office of Cannabis Management passed over local applicants and reached across the state line to choose Simons. Why?
It’s another head-scratcher from an agency that can’t seem to get its arms around one of its core missions: social equity.
New York’s cannabis program was intentionally designed to benefit people and communities harmed by the state’s war on drugs. State legislators explicitly identified people of color who were disproportionately targeted for arrest and incarceration. Half of conditional adult-use license are reserved for social equity applicants.
Simons technically qualifies. He credits his teenage marijuana arrest with inspiring him to become a lawyer. Simons, now 38, graduated from Oneonta High School, then college and law school, and operates successful criminal law practice with offices in Boston and Salem. But he hasn’t lived here since college, hasn’t settled on a location for his cannabis dispensary, and is undecided about whether he will manage it from afar or move back.
Several cannabis entrepreneurs already in Central New York seem to be ahead of Simons, at least on paper. For example, they have retail locations already lined up and are active in the state’s growing cannabis business community.
Mike Golden, who with his partner Byron Cage has been working on a retail license application for more than a year, summed it up: “Everybody is asking, ‘Who is this guy?’ No one seems to know him.”
We’re not holding our breath for an explanation from OCM. The agency’s track record on transparency is weak. For example, our sister publication Cannabis Insider is still waiting to learn if the firm chosen to raise $150 million for the program’s $200 million social equity fund has raised any money at all.
State legislators are consumed with the late budget for now. They should not end this legislative session without a thorough review of the Hochul administration’s rocky rollout of legal weed — including whether it is meeting its social equity goals.
Another crisis at Bishop nursing home
The parade of horrors at Bishop Nursing Home continues. On Christmas Eve, residents endured temperatures in the 50s and snow coming in through drafty windows, staff writer James T. Mulder reported last week. The high temperature on Dec. 24 was 14 degrees Fahrenheit.
Mulder previously reported that call bells go unanswered, residents scream for help, lay in their own waste and are served food that is often inedible. Bishop has been on a federal watchlist of bad nursing homes for a year. Conditions aren’t improving.
The facility’s vulnerable residents have endured enough. It’s well past time for the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services to cut off federal reimbursements to Bishop – either to force a sale or to shut it down.
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