Leafly files legal challenge to Adult Use Regulations in New York

Leafly, Stage One Dispensary in Rensselaer, New York, and an individual consumer, jointly filed a legal challenge to certain portions of the recently adopted Adult Use Regulations in New York. On Thursday, the New York Attorney General’s Office agreed to a stay, and the court entered an order to that effect, which blocks the enforcement of the challenged regulations against Leafly and fully operational licensed cannabis dispensaries in New York State. Leafly is the only third-party platform that the stay expressly allows to continue offering paid advertising services, display retailer product pricing, and transmit orders to licensed cannabis retailers in New York. As a result, while the stay is in effect, licensed retailers in New York will continue to have access to important advertising and marketing tools to help them succeed in the legal cannabis market, and provide consumers with access to critical information as they make purchasing decisions. The lawsuit alleges that New York’s Office of Cannabis Management unfairly targeted so-called “third-party platforms” in a misguided attempt to restrict the manner in which retailers may market or promote their business and products, and prevent price-shopping consumer behaviors. Leafly believes, and the lawsuit alleges, that the adoption of these regulations by the state is both arbitrary and capricious and a violation of the United States and New York constitutions.