New Yorkers with cannabis convictions will get first retail licenses

Officials intend to reserve the first 100 or more retail licenses to sell marijuana in New York for people who have been convicted of related offenses, or their relatives.

ALBANY, N.Y. — New York State will soon announce plans to usher in its first outlets for retail sales of marijuana by the end of the year, giving applicants access to stockpiles of the drug grown by local farmers and offering sweeteners like new storefronts leased by the state.

The only catch? To be one of the state’s first licensed retailers, you or a member of your family must have been convicted of a marijuana-related offense.

The policy, to be announced by Gov. Kathy Hochul on Thursday, is part of a concerted push to assure that early business owners in the state’s projected billion-dollar marijuana industry will be members of communities that have been affected by the nation’s decades-long war on drugs.

In favoring those with marijuana-convictions and prepping their businesses for turnkey sales, New York appears to be trying to avoid pitfalls encountered in some other states, which have seen designated “social equity” applicants and other mom-and-pop marijuana businesses struggle with issues like lack of capital or competition from deep-pocketed corporate operations.

Chris Alexander, the executive director of the state’s Office of Cannabis Management, said that by focusing early on “those who otherwise would have been left behind,” New York was in a “position to do something that has not been done before.”

To that end, Ms. Hochul has proposed — and the Legislature seems likely to pass — $200 million in this year’s budget to support the fledging businesses, money that would be spent on finding, securing and renovating storefronts for retailers. That need for state assistance is particularly acute in New York City, where real estate prices have rebounded as the worst of the Covid pandemic has receded.

Under the law passed last March that permitted the possession and recreational use of marijuana in limited amounts for adults, half of all marijuana-related licenses — including those for growers and other parts of the supply chain — are earmarked for women, minorities, distressed farmers, veterans and “individuals who have lived in communities disproportionally impacted” by the drug war.

In New York, Black and Latino residents have been far more likely to be arrested on marijuana charges than white, non-Hispanic people.

Mr. Alexander said he expected between 100 and 200 licenses to go to people who were convicted of a marijuana-related offense before the drug was legalized, or those who have “a parent, guardian, child, spouse, or dependent” with a marijuana conviction.

Mr. Alexander also said his office would evaluate applicants on their business plans and experience in retail.

The resulting dispensaries will be the first to open in the state by the end of the year, Mr. Alexander said, though some others may open shortly after, perhaps in early 2023. The state has not set a limit on the number of retail licenses it plans to issue; state officials said it will depend on market demand.

The proposed regulations were published on Wednesday afternoon on the cannabis management office’s website; the state’s Cannabis Control Board is expected to meet on Thursday to consider them, with approval anticipated.

The first wave of applicants will likely include people like Baron Fajardo, a Harlem resident who plans to apply for a retail license. He was 16 when the police found him smoking marijuana in his hallway and arrested him. A half dozen other pot arrests followed as he moved from smoker to dealer.

He said it was a blessing that New York was planning to give people like him the chance to build on their experiences in a legal way that would allow them to provide for their families and start to build generational wealth.

“As a person you feel down, a little bit defeated, like ‘Oh, I got a stain on my name,’” said Mr. Fajardo, now 34. “Now, that stain is actually the same thing that can help you.”

Mr. Alexander said that he thought giving so-called “equity entrepreneurs” a chance to woo customers before more established cannabis companies — including those currently running medical marijuana facilities — begin to compete with them would help them succeed.

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