New York's rule for keeping dispensaries away from schools sounds simple: 500 feet. For roughly seven months spanning 2025 and early 2026, though, an argument over where to start the measuring tape put about 150 licensed shops and applicants at risk, most of them equity-owned. This explainer walks through how the problem started, how a court and then the Legislature settled it, and what the rule means for shops trying to open now.
Where the 500-foot buffer comes from
The buffer is written into the state Cannabis Law. A retail dispensary may not sit on the same street as a school and within 500 feet of it, or on the same street as a building used exclusively as a house of worship and within 200 feet of it, according to the Office of Cannabis Management (OCM). The rule applies to adult-use retail dispensaries, Conditional Adult-Use Retail Dispensary (CAURD) licensees, microbusinesses with retail locations, and medical registered organizations that dispense.
From the first CAURD licenses in 2022, OCM measured that distance from one entrance to the other. Licensees signed leases, raised money and built out stores on the strength of that guidance.
How a measuring change put 152 businesses at risk
In mid-2025, OCM told licensees it had misread the statute and would begin measuring from a dispensary's entrance to the nearest edge of school property instead. Because a school's property line usually sits much closer to the sidewalk than its front door, already-approved storefronts suddenly fell inside the buffer. The state counted 152 affected businesses, 108 licensees and 44 applicants holding provisional licenses, according to Cannabis Business Times. Many were CAURD shops owned by people with past cannabis convictions, the group New York chose to license first.
Governor Kathy Hochul publicly faulted the agency's earlier leadership for the error and said operating shops would not be punished for it. In August 2025, about a dozen dispensaries sued the state in Albany, asking a judge to declare their locations lawful and block enforcement, News 12 reported. In September 2025, the state Supreme Court in Albany issued a preliminary injunction barring OCM from applying the property-line reading and letting affected businesses proceed under the door-to-door method through February 15, 2026, according to RiverheadLOCAL.
What the February 2026 law actually says
The Legislature passed S9155/A10140, and Hochul signed it on February 11, 2026, days before the injunction's end date. The law makes three changes that matter:
- Entrance to entrance, in statute. Distance runs between the actual doors of the dispensary and the school or house of worship. Emergency exits and doors not regularly used by students or the public do not count, RiverheadLOCAL reported.
- A definition of house of worship. The law spells out what counts as a building used exclusively for worship, which matters for the 200-foot buffer, OCM says.
- Grandfathering tied to the location. Businesses licensed before February 11, 2026 may keep operating where they are. Applicants who already had written OCM confirmation that their site complied may continue to final licensure. That protection does not travel: a licensee that moves is reviewed under the current standard.
Update: October 2026
Since the fix took effect, the fight over proximity has shifted from the 152 grandfathered sites to new locations. At its September 3 meeting, the Cannabis Control Board pulled a Bronx CAURD application from a batch of approvals after OCM licensing staff said they had learned the night before that a school might be under development near the site and asked for time to check. Written public comment from a nearby charter school said it plans a new high school building next door.
Proximity also came up in public comment at that meeting. A cannabis attorney urged OCM to say quickly whether a licensed child care center becomes a "school" for buffer purposes when it contracts with New York City to run 3-K or pre-K seats, noting that a 2025 board advisory opinion found that adding daycares to the school buffer went beyond the law. A Manhattan community board member asked OCM to check distances for an open shop on Second Avenue. Those are requests from the public, not findings.
The timing matters because many provisional licensees still need locations. Many provisional licenses run through December 31, and the board's October 1 agenda included an item on extending CAURD and adult-use provisional licenses. The board's remaining 2026 meetings are scheduled for November 5 in Albany and December 3 in New York City. As of September 3, OCM counted 717 legal dispensaries open statewide.
Local rules still shape where shops can go
The state buffer is a floor. Towns and cities that allowed dispensaries can still set reasonable time, place and manner rules. Riverhead's town code, for example, uses a 1,000-foot school buffer measured to the property line. Suffolk County courts have found parts of that code preempted by state law, and the town is still litigating, RiverheadLOCAL reported. Anyone scouting a storefront should check both the state measurement and the local zoning code.
What it means if you are shopping
At the counter, nothing changed: the licensed shops caught up in the dispute stayed open where they were. Look for a licensed store with OCM's dispensary verification tool or our New York dispensary directory. For more on how the retail map is filling in, see our coverage of New York passing 705 open dispensaries and the board adding 32 more dispensary licenses. For the equity program the measuring fight threatened, read how New York's equity program is beating its targets.
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