Next month, the Village of Ellenville may see a retail cannabis dispensary approved and begin the process of opening at the Ellenville Town Plaza along Route 209. This is good news, we believe, but it’s news that comes frustratingly late.

Cannabis retail was legalized in the state of New York all the way back in 2021 with a hefty piece of regulation called the Marijuana Regulation & Taxation Act. It was met with excitement in all levels of government, because of the possibilities that a new, popular, and, not insignificantly, highly-taxable retail product would freshen up dead storefronts while putting money back in county and local coffers, while also contributing to a downtrend in state arrest and incarceration rates.

They even baked in an equity component, promising half the licenses to historically disenfranchised communities, including minority communities that bore the overwhelming majority of trivial drug sentences in the War on Drugs era. Not only were we supposed to get an income stream that would revitalize communities, we were supposed to get it supercharged with justice.

It’s a win-win-win, or at least it should have been.

What actually happened was gridlock. Even Governor Hochul called the rollout a disaster. Thousands of unlicensed, untaxed retailers took advantage of their new latitude to sell marijuana – and who could blame them? – while those seeking a proper license were caught in slow-moving, overwhelming red tape. Organizations were in charge of aspects of the rollout that they didn’t know how to manage. Different parties were unclear on where their authority began and ended. Cultivators and farmers found nowhere to legally sell. And, most significantly, the state got hammered with lawsuits after they elected to prioritize licenses for those convicted of marijuana charges.

Hochul promised to overhaul the Office of Cannabis Management early in the summer, but after months, the organization still doesn’t appear to be on track. They are understaffed, overworked, and lacking leadership.

And here we are in Ellenville. Two years ago, everybody was excited as national cannabis operator Cresco Labs planned to open a manufacturing plant in town. They promised to bring up to 400 new jobs – including benefits – when the facility was fully operational. As they broke ground, it was all smiling faces under hardhats and dreams of Cresco revitalizing our economy.

The trickle-down effect was real – at least, it was supposed to be. Just this spring, we published an article about the 19-acre Wawarsing Estates property, long trapped in planning limbo, being re-pitched as workforce housing for Cresco employees.

Reading these three years of articles about the cannabis rollout and the Cresco saga is like looking at pictures of yourself smiling the day before you got fired. The optimism is almost painful in retrospect.

Where are we now? Cresco, which has been fully approved by the Wawarsing Planning Board, is nearing the end of their final extension on a project that has been hamstrung by the poorly-planned, over-ambitious rollout.

Ulster is farm country, and farm country was supposed to be where the benefits of legal cannabis flowed. Farmers from big to small in a county that, frankly, has a long association with the product, were poised to supply the area with money-making marijuana. Instead, it’s been years of headache, broken promises, and barns full of unsellable pot – at this point best used to smoke away the stress of watching it rot.

This rollout began with a promise of atonement for the wrongs of the War on Drugs only ended up with more people deserving apologies. We at the Journal hope very much that a dispensary comes to the Ellenville Town Plaza, and that it’s a success – considering it would be next door to a Taco Bell, the chances of success are pretty high. But more than that, we hope that it’s not a one-off success, but part of a pattern of progress in the processing and licensing of this long-stifled area of agriculture.