Peckham Industries, a politically active road construction company in White Plains, has hundreds of thousands of dollars invested in real estate and other assets connected to a company that received one of New York’s coveted licenses to sell medical marijuana.
But that is where a paper trail linking Peckham Industries to medical cannabis in New York — an industry potentially worth hundreds of millions of dollars — runs cold, as questions arise about the state Health Department’s oversight of the previously illegal venture.
Many details remain hidden about the five companies awarded licenses July 31 to grow and sell the drug, even while thousands of New Yorkers suffering from serious illnesses such as cancer and epilepsy await access to medical marijuana.
State officials have refused to discuss the process they used to pick those five companies, which beat out 38 competitors. Applications and related documents that could shed light on the process have also been withheld, at least temporarily, based on privacy laws.
Concerns about New York’s licensing process kept Terra Tech, a California-based medical marijuana company, from submitting an application, said Derek Peterson, president and chief executive officer.
“We had much less clarity on many important details in New York, which was the major reason we ultimately decided against applying in this first round,” Peterson said.
Terra Tech, which is the first cannabis-based business to be publicly traded, has instead focused on investing in its operations in California, Nevada and New Jersey, he said, adding the company would likely pursue a license if New York’s program eventually expanded beyond five companies.
New York state’s licensing process has also prompted some business leaders and watchdog groups to voice concerns about the lack of transparency.
Shocked looks and angry outbursts peppered some reactions among White Plains business owners, workers and residents when told by The Journal News about a plan for opening a dispensary, where patients would buy cannabis-based oils, pills and other non-smokeable forms of medical marijuana.
“I don’t know if that is a suitable place for that dispensary … I was hoping for a restaurant or a lawyer’s office or a store,” said Kristina Saljanin, general manager of the Westchester Business Center.
The business center is in a downtown White Plains building on South Broadway that recently underwent a major renovation. It is also next door to the East Post Road dispensary proposed by Empire State Health Solutions, another one of the five companies approved to sell medical marijuana in New York.
Discussing her concerns about the potential negative economic impact of a dispensary, Saljanin said: “A little over half a million dollars has been put into our building, and I’m scared that this will jeopardize that investment.”
More alarming, the five companies awarded medical marijuana licenses, and undisclosed private investors pumping millions of dollars into them, are operating within an industry that remains illegal under federal law, a reality that limits banking options and affects fiscal accountability.
Cases of contract disputes, fraud and other lawsuits have already plagued many of the 22 states that legalized medical marijuana before New York did in 2014. The winning companies in New York will operate five separate production facilities, which will each supply four dispensaries where patients can buy cannabis-based drugs, including two sites in Westchester County.
One of the companies is Etain LLC and involves members of the family that runs Peckham Industries — Amy Peckham and her two daughters, Hillary and Keeley. They have touted Etain as the only known women-owned medical marijuana business in New York, saying it was inspired by relatives with illnesses that could have been treated by the drug.
The Peckham’s namesake 91-year-old road construction business in White Plains also has a history of legal actions, some of which underscore concerns over gaps in the state Health Department’s handling of medical marijuana, according to a review of court records and other public documents.
Hillary Peckham, chief operating officer of Etain, declined to answer questions about connections between Peckham Industries and the new medical marijuana business, including several related to financial investments and leadership roles.
“This information is proprietary and critical to our corporate structure,” she said.
But identities and other details about people leading new medical marijuana businesses were also supposedly critical to state Health Department officials’ evaluation. The agency cited its review of the “moral character and competence” of principal stakeholders, board members and other leaders as part of the criteria for licensing companies.
Despite criticism from patient advocates, watchdog groups and business leaders, the state Health Department has yet to release thousands of pages of medical marijuana license applications, including those submitted by Etain.
Similar to Etain, officials at Empire State Health Solutions would not disclose many details about their financial operations, saying they deferred to the Health Department to determine which information should be made public.
The Journal News requested the applications June 5 via the Freedom of Information Law, and the state agency requested extensions to release them, citing privacy laws. By contrast, New York state released similar casino license applications before picking winners last year.
The local connections
Etain LLC plans to build its medical marijuana manufacturing plant in Chester, a rural town of about 3,600 people, just north of Lake George, but a review of property records show Etain doesn’t own land in the community. Cannabis-based drugs would be transported from that Chester plant to four dispensaries owned and run by Etain across New York, including one planned for the city of Yonkers, which is one of two expected to serve thousands of patients in the Lower Hudson Valley.
Peckham Industries, however, has spent nearly $1.5 million to purchase about 400 acres in Chester since 2001, including the site of a former horse barn and failed race track that Etain plans to transform into its manufacturing operation. That is where marijuana plants would be grown and processed into pills, oils and other non-smokable forms permitted under state law.
Some of that land in Chester was purchased for a Peckham construction plant expansion that never materialized.
Peter Simoneau, a vice president for Peckham, told Chester officials and residents about aspects of the real estate deal and failed expansion at a meeting in March on Etain LLC, town records show.
Officials at Peckham Industries didn’t respond to several requests for comment about the situation. Amy Peckham, chief executive officer of Etain, has sat on the board at the White Plains construction business, where her husband, John, is chief executive officer.
Peckham Industries was among six Lower Hudson Valley paving companies accused of bid-rigging by federal prosecutors in a high-profile case in the late 1980s. It ended with a mistrial, but testimony by numerous witnesses aired details about improper behavior among Westchester County paving companies, including Peckham.
The testimony of Thomas Broder, who knew he was dying when he testified, included statements that he rigged paving bids in White Plains with another paving company, according to the archives. For example, defense lawyers successfully argued against the admission of grand jury testimony of a former employee of Peckham Materials Corp., a subsidiary of Peckham Industries, according to The Journal News archives.
At least a dozen lawsuits filed against Peckham Industries and its subsidiaries ended in undisclosed settlements. The cases involved a range of factors, including a variety of contract disputes, such as legal battles over bills and unpaid debts.
Peckham Industries settled a federal discrimination lawsuit filed in 2007 by its former employee Eddie Brim, who is African American and lived in Peekskill at the time. He claimed Peckham Industries fired him improperly and mishandled discrimination Brim faced at the hands of co-workers and supervisors, court records show.
New York campaign contributions by Peckham Industries, and its political action committee, totaled nearly $105,000 during the past 15 years. That includes $12,000 to Gov. Andrew Cuomo since 2010, and $15,000 to Westchester County Executive Rob Astorino’s unsuccessful bid for governor in 2014.
But Health Department officials declined a request to discuss its review of medical marijuana license applications.
Robert Freeman, executive director of the state Committee on Open Government, raised concerns about aspects of the state agencies refusal to disclose documents and related information. The state agency seems to be improperly using state laws intended to protect trade secrets to support a blanket denial of requests for information, he said.
“When the deadline has been reached how could disclosing (some records and information) hurt; it doesn’t seem to me it would,” Freeman said.
Empire State Health Solutions is another one of the five companies awarded a license to sell medical marijuana in New York. The company is a subsidiary of Vireo Health, a Minnesota-based company already producing the drug there.
Dr. Kyle Kingsley, chief executive officer of Vireo Health, said private investors have provided about $16 million for the Minnesota operation, and the company is “well on its way” to a goal of attracting $30 million to start its operation in New York. He declined to disclose details about the company’s banking, saying there is an agreement in place related to Empire State Health Solutions.
Unenforceable regulations and insufficient government oversight of medical marijuana nationally emerged as themes when New York’s legislator debated on the state Senate’s floor last summer, and little has changed since to close holes between state and federal laws.
“We are talking about medicine for critically ill adults and children,” said Dr. Amy Piperato of Thiells, whose son, Vincent, has Dravet syndrome, an epileptic disorder treated by medical marijuana. “No one should have to go hundreds of miles to get medicine.”Against that backdrop, thousands of New Yorkers who have serious illnesses, such as cancer and seizure disorders, have also said the state’s medical marijuana law unfairly punished them by limiting access to 20 dispensaries sites
Piperato, an internist, and other patient advocates have urged New York to expand access to the drug via improved transparency and oversight.
For example, Health Department officials said they would consider approving more dispensary sites based on patient demand, but they have yet to allow patients to apply for identification cards necessary to get the drug.
“The state doesn’t know how many patients will use the medicine because the application process is not in place,” Piperato said. “I am saddened that the political and bureaucratic processes have left little room for average patients.”
Kingsley, of Empire State Health Solutions, cited his company’s operation in Minnesota when discussing plans for New York.
Patients should expect to pay between $250 and $500 per month, he said, and the company also expects to offer reduced prices based on income eligibility.
Demand for the drug in New York remains unclear, with cannabis industry estimates ranging from 10,000 patients upward to hundreds of thousands of seriously ill people. Kingsley said his company plans to start serving several thousand New Yorkers before ramping up production based on demand.
Each company in New York is also expected to generate hundreds of thousands of dollars in tax revenue and fees annually. That money would primarily go to county and state government coffers via a 7 percent tax on marijuana sales. Some industry groups expect those sales will reach hundreds of millions of dollars per year, with higher projections based on New York adding more eligible illnesses supported by many patient advocates.
Patient enrollment in New York is expected to begin in October or November.
Empire State Health Solutions is renovating space at the former Tryon detention center in Fulton County as its production site, which would supply four dispensaries, including one in White Plains. The former state-run detention center has been re-purposed into a business park as part of an economic development project in the rural community northwest of Albany.
Labor practices
Another factor weighed in New York’s evaluation of medical marijuana applicants involved workers’ rights. For example, each cannabis company should have had an agreement with a union organization that would try to represent its employees.
Details about union representation for 30-plus workers Etain plans to hire remain unclear, and court records show Peckham Industries settled a discrimination lawsuit involving union grievances and civil rights groups.
Eddie Brim sued Peckham Industries in 2007, claiming he suffered discrimination while working at one of the company’s mines.
Brim, who is African American and lived in Peekskill at the time, worked for the company’s powder crew that handles explosives. He accused co-workers and a supervisor of using racial slurs and other discrimination, including giving him insufficient safety equipment, court records show.
At one point, a powder truck caught fire inside the mine. A foreman notified and evacuated everyone except for Brim, court records show.
After the fire, Brim complained to the plant supervisor. Brim said he didn’t have a radio and feared for his safety, court records show, and the plant supervisor replied: “You know, I think we are going to have a lay-off and you’re laid-off.”
After losing his job at the mine, Brim filed a grievance with the labor union that prompted his re-hiring. Shortly thereafter, Brim got fired a second time, within two weeks of his filing a discrimination charge with the state Division of Human Rights.
Ultimately, a settlement agreement ended Brims’ federal discrimination lawsuit against Peckham Industries. He declined to comment on the case through his lawyer, Joseph Ranni, who said the company took corrective actions after the discrimination complaints.
Empire State Health Solutions affiliate in Minnesota has a labor contract in place for its nearly 40 workers. The United Food and Commercial Workers union represents those employees who have starting wages between $18 and $25 an hour, along with other benefits. A head cultivator starts at a $2,200 per week wage under the union contract.
A UFCW chapter in New York is involved in similar talks for about 75 jobs under Empire State Health Solutions plans here, including at the proposed dispensary in White Plains, Kingsley said.
“We’re anticipating our employees (in New York) enroll,” Kingsley said, adding workers from Minnesota would likely aid in getting the drug to patients in New York via training staff and working on production.
Gaps in state and federal law, however, expose cannabis companies and workers to a range of risks.
Despite some protections within their home state, patients and workers transporting marijuana plants or other forms of the drug across state borders face arrest because they’re breaking federal interstate-commerce laws.
It remains unclear how federal agents would apply those laws to other aspects of the business, such as the equipment used to grow and process marijuana plants. Even workers being transferred between cannabis businesses in different states may encounter problems.
Many business leaders and lawyers note the approach to growing marijuana in states allowing medical cannabis illustrates the absurdity of running a cannabis business while federal laws technically prohibit them.
Since it is illegal to bring marijuana seeds into New York and other states, companies are operating under the “immaculate conception” theory, essentially breaking the law to smuggle in the first marijuana seeds necessary to grow the drug.
Acknowledging fears unique to cannabis companies operating in several states, Kingsley said: “We can’t talk about any initial (marijuana) plant material being shared.”
Peterson, of Terra Tech, noted a lack of information available in New York has harmed the process for patients and companies.
“We didn’t know where New York wanted dispensaries, what the patient population would be, where we would be allowed to set our prices,” Peterson said. ““The (initial) application process was on a very short time, which was compounded by a lack of real understanding about what the market would look like during this initial lift off period.”
‘The state doesn’t know’
Much debate about medical marijuana has focused on regulating those producing and selling the drug. When the Compassionate Care Act passed in 2014, some New York legislators raised concerns about cannabis businesses abusing gaps in state and federal laws.
Many pointed to states like California, where reports of fraud and other crime marred legitimate efforts to promote marijuana’s medicinal use.
Some cited cases of people shopping for doctors known to improperly prescribe the drug. Others referenced media coverage of robberies and tax cheats, which highlighted critical problems in monitoring the primarily cash-driven marijuana industry.
They talked of these and other pitfalls as many cannabis companies struggle to access traditional banking because they are technically illegal under federal law. Contracts are also difficult to enforce because of the legal ambiguity. Similarly, marijuana patients with legitimate illnesses have a tough time paying for the drug because it isn’t covered by health insurance.
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