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US (NY): "December Queue" waits on for state approval

Since 2023, Paul Steinbruckner has cashed in his stocks and 401(k) and spent his life savings on a cannabis cultivating business that doesn't even exist. It started two years ago, when Steinbruckner started leasing a property in Lockport for the cultivation business. He had to, even before he received state approval, because state regulations required that he have a facility in place to even be considered for the license he needed to operate it. For more than 1½ years, he's waited for an approval that has never come.

And he's not alone. Steinbruckner is part of what industry insiders call the December queue, a group of cannabis applicants whose license applications have been handled slowly and deliberately by the state regulators charged with reviewing them.

All the while, Steinbruckner keeps paying bills on a business he doesn't know for sure that he ever will get permission to open.

"They keep telling us to wait," Steinbruckner said. "I've spent more than $100,000 on rent alone."

Read more at The Buffalo News