New York’s cannabis board votes to settle lawsuits that have stalled legal dispensaries

NEW YORK (AP) — New York cannabis regulators have approved a deal to settle lawsuits that have blocked recreational marijuana shops from opening. The state’s Cannabis Control Board approved the settlement on Monday. It still needs a judge’s approval before if can take effect. The deal would lift a court order that has blocked the state from processing or issuing retail marijuana licenses since August, following lawsuits over rules that promised many of the first licenses to people with past drug convictions. Bureaucratic problems and lawsuits have allowed only about two-dozen legal shops to open, while farmers sit on a glut of crops and an ever-growing black market of storefronts fill the void.