It’s going to get a bit easier to open a cannabis shop in New York state.

Both houses of the state Legislature have passed legislation (S.9155/A.10140) to clarify how to measure a proposed cannabis shop’s distance from a church or a school. The Assembly passed the bill by a 91-50 vote with both Assemblyman Andrew Molitor, R-Westfield, and Assemblyman Joe Sempolinski, R-Canisteo, voting against the bill. The Senate approved the bill 35-24 with Sen. George Borrello, R-Sunset Bay, voting against it. The legislation has already been signed by Gov. Kathy Hochul.

The legislation forbids licenses for the cannabis businesses located on the same street and within 500 feet of a school, or on the same street and within 200 feet of a house of worship. The legislation also deems all licenses issued prior to 2026 to be in compliance with the amended statute.

“If someone was here when we passed this bill, the legislative intent is exactly what we had – 200 feet (from a house of worship) and 500 feet (from a school),” Borrello said during a discussion with Sen. Jeremy Cooney, D-Rochester. “So particularly from a school standpoint, that seems very important. So why now the change if this was what the legislation actually read from the beginning.”

Cooney said the issue arose when the Office of Cannabis Management was measuring the distance between a proposed cannabis dispensary differently. Some measurements were taken from the edge of a property while others were taken from the front door. That led to some businesses finding themselves in violation of state law despite receiving approval for a dispensary license. In other instances the differing methods of measurement led prospective cannabis dispensary licensees to undergo several attempts to satisfy the 200 or 500 foot rules.

“How the agency was doing this measurement from the edge of the school ground versus from the center entrance where students go into was not defined in that legislation or in Cannabis Law,” Cooney said. “So what we’re doing is, as a legislative body, providing that direction in Cannabis Law so there can be consistency across the state for how that measurement is done and applied.”

Borrello, who has been a frequent critic over the years of the state’s rollout of legalized cannabis, used his comments on the bill to again criticize the Office of Cannabis Management and the state’s design of its legalized marijuana program.

“We have spent millions upon millions of dollars on the Office of Cannabis Management and it has been run like a combination of a mafia operation and fraternity house,” Borrello said. “It has been inept, corrupt and not done the job to create a market that is sustainable and can actually benefit the people of New York state more than it costs us. So when I see something like this, which is a corrective action, I know we’re trying to dress it up like it is not, a corrective action for an agency that has had lots of resources at its fingertips and screwed up something as simple as this, what else is there to uncover? How many more bandaids are we going to put on this?”