By: Jared Evan

Typically, disabled military veterans are given priority in receiving business licenses, but advocates say Gov. Kathy Hochul’s administration is discriminating against disabled military vets by prioritizing convicted drug felons when awarding licenses to sell marijuana — and possibly violating the very law that legalized the sale of cannabis in New York.

According to an exclusive report by The New York Post, “the whole veterans community is in an uproar,” said Carmine Fiore, chair of the Cannabis Association of New York’s Veterans Committee and a disabled Army vet.

The woke standards as set forth by Office of Cannabis Management and state Cannabis Control Board, have been a disaster.  Only the far-left NY government can botch something as simple as legalizing marijuana, which has been a success on every other state that has legalized the plant, with the exception of NYC

“Only criminal applicants have been allowed to apply,” said Fiore, an FDNY emergency medical technician who served in the Army from 2008 to 2016. Fiore said Hochul’s administration — via the Office of Cannabis Management and state Cannabis Control Board — is passing over disabled vets and likely flouting the law by shutting them out. “The OCM’s actions are not only biased and discriminatory against veterans, but they are also potentially illegal,” he charged.

The Marijuana Regulation and Taxation Action Act of 2021 that legalized the recreational sale of weed designated five “social and economic equity” classes to get 50% of employment opportunities in the budding pot industry — covering those convicted of marijuana-related crimes and “service-disabled veterans,” as well as women and minority-owned businesses and “distressed farmers.”

But so far, the first 300 cannabis dispensary licenses have been set aside solely for applicants found guilty of a pot-related charge or related to someone swept up before the drug’s legalization.

Fiore noted that OCM carved out a new “justice class” last spring, creating the Conditional Adult-Use Retail Dispensary (“CAURD”) license for applicants previously convicted of marijuana-related offenses.

“This license category was not included in the MRTA language,” Fiore told The New York Post, referring to the 2021 legalization legislation.

Disabled vets and women and minorities without a felony pot conviction must show that they have the finances necessary to operate and a lease secured for a property to open a weed dispensary, according to The New York Post.

While there could be overlap with other so-called social equity groups for the conditional licenses — such as women and minority applicants — disabled veterans are not included because individuals with drug convictions in most instances are ineligible to serve in the armed services, Fiore said.

He also said state officials eased the eligibility for the special licenses for ex-cons compared to the rules that apply to disabled vets and the other groups.

But under the conditional licenses, ex-cons can be approved without money or a lease and obtain financing via a fund that would dispense business loans, Social Equity Impact Ventures, the group whose ownership included former basketball star Chris Webber. The financing program has largely been a bust, unable to raise the necessary funds to get the program off the ground.

The woke licensing of marijuana businesses has been a total disaster, resulting in thousands of illegal pot shops popping up all over NYC. These illicit shops are frequently victims of violent robberies and crime. There have been 2 deaths connected to the illegal pot shops, including the murder of a shop worker during a robbery.