Loretto Health and Rehabilitation, a large nursing home and senior health care services provider based in Syracuse, NY, is the first organization in Upstate New York to be awarded a cannabis dispensary license.
Loretto applied to New York’s Conditional Adult Use Retail Dispensary Program (CAURD) as a qualifying non-profit agency. This allowed them to skirt a federal lawsuit that blocked dispensary licenses from being awarded to individuals in several parts of the state.
The only other dispensary license that has been awarded outside of the New York City area is in Binghamton.
Officials from the company say that the license was technically awarded to Advanced Institutional Support Services LLC, an affiliate agency that provides food services for Loretto. The company also has hopes of finding a third-party operator to open and run the dispensary for them.
The primary reason Loretto pursued a license was to provide a new source of revenue and offset losses they anticipate facing in the coming years due to changes to New York State’s Medicaid program.
Loretto is not the only non-profit healthcare company that’s considering entering the cannabis space to make ends meet. Others throughout the state (including right here in WNY) are seeking to identify new revenue streams as state Medicaid reforms put serious pressure on their budgets.
So far, 10 other non-profits have been awarded dispensary licenses through the CAURD program. The Center for Community Alternatives, an agency dedicated to promoting community-based alternatives to incarceration and policy advocacy, was another one of the 10 non-profits awarded a dispensary license. The organization has a presence throughout the state with locations in NYC, Rochester, and Syracuse.
Loretto is one of the largest healthcare providers and employers in the Syracuse area. The company has 2,500 employees at 19 locations and serves more than 10,000 patients.
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