New York State officials announced the first grant round under a five-million dollar program designed to cover startup costs for retail marijuana businesses that are owned by people who were involved with justice.
After a three-month wait, on Wednesday the Office of Cannabis Management, Empire State Development and the Office of Cannabis Management announced that the Office of Cannabis Management had awarded up to $30,000 per licensed dispensary for their startup and operating costs. These include rent, renovations or inventory systems, as well as operational expenses such a security, tracking, and monitoring.
To qualify for the program, applicants need to have been “justice involved”—in other words, impacted by a marijuana-related conviction—and have some experience running a profitable business.
Felicia A.B. Reid, the acting executive director at OCM, stated in a recent press release.
OCM is proud to be supporting the creation of cannabusinesses by entrepreneurs with a history in criminal justice,” said she. “Their work speaks to the incredible promise of business inclusivity and demonstrates what’s possible when equity is more than just a word—it’s a foundation.”
The applicant had to provide at least $10,000 worth of eligible costs to be considered for a grant. These expenses could start as soon as the day they received OCM’s final notification.
Crystal Peoples Stokes, Assembly majority leader Crystal Peoples (D), stated that “this funding will give people a small boost as they enter the cannabis industry and navigate a sector which is very new.” It’s also about social justice and reinvesting into communities. And I am happy to see the funding go to Buffalo, my hometown.
Sen. Jeremy Cooney(D), chairman of the Senate Subcommittee on Cannabis stated that, “we have never forgotten the equity promises we made back when the MRTA passed”
He said that the CAURD Grant Program was an important part of this process. It puts money in local dispensary owner’s hands to grow their business and help them achieve sustainable success. “I would like to congratulate our first awardees and look forward to continuing to work with these entrepreneurs.”
Meanwhile, OCM recently launched a new online map that’s meant to help adults locate licensed marijuana retailers—one of their latest efforts to encourage consumers to buy their cannabis from the regulated market.
The governor, along with regulators, have made it a priority to educate the public on the importance of purchasing marijuana products only from authorized dispensaries. This is a matter of health and safety.
New York’s broader campaign also included digital ads, educational materials, and graphics featuring cannabis-licensed business owners, and messages about the advantages of being part of the regulated industry.
OCM says that continued enforcement is essential to achieving a regulated health market. It cites what it calls successful enforcement efforts by 2024. Operation Padlock was launched by officials in New York City last spring to shut down illegal stores. According to an OCM study, within months of the start of Operation Padlock, sales at licensed stores that had been open prior to its launch grew by 105 percent.
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Meanwhile, in New York, regulators are moving forward with new proposed regulations around the state’s so-called “cannabis showcase” program, which allows licensed businesses to sell to consumers at pop-up, farmers market-like events.
As originally authorized, the showcase events were largely in response to the slow rollout of New York’s adult-use marijuana program, which faced multiple delays in implementation amid litigation and other matters.
But the state’s industry has gradually expanded, with officials in January touting $1 billion in total sales since the market launched.
New York Gov. Kathy Hochul (D) signed state budget legislation that did not include a controversial earlier provision that would have allowed police to use the smell of marijuana as probable cause that a driver is impaired and then force them to take a drug test.
Amendments made in the legislature removed the provision, which a coalition of 60 reform groups had argued in a letter to Hochul and top lawmakers would “repeat some of the worst harms of the War on Drugs” and allow law enforcement to “restart unconstitutional racial profiling of drivers.”
Meanwhile, a recent OCM report said the number of licensed marijuana retailers in the state grew by nearly threefold last year, fueling total sales in 2024 of nearly $870 million.
OCM stated in April, that after accounting for sales in New York up to 2025, the market will have reached $1.5 Billion in purchases.
Also that month, New York cannabis regulators and labor officials announced the launch of a workforce training program aimed at “providing comprehensive safety education to workers” in the state’s legal marijuana industry.
Separately, OCM’s press secretary recently indicated the office is working on plans to expand permitting and licensing rules that could allow adults to buy and consume marijuana at movie theaters. New York would be unique if it allowed the sale of cannabis in theaters, as part of its ongoing efforts to implement New York’s state legalization laws.
Also, earlier this year, a collective of businesses licensed under the CAURD program called on Hochul to forgive tens of millions of dollars in high-cost loans issued under a governor-created social equity loan fund.
Peoples-Stokes stated in December there is a need for financial assistance to be extended to CAURD licence holders. Many of them are suffering under high-cost loan.
Critics—including the NAACP New York State Conference, Black Cannabis Industry Association, Minority Cannabis Business Association, Service Disabled Veterans in Cannabis Association, Drug Policy Alliance, NYC NORML and VOCAL-NY—wrote to the governor earlier that month to express dismay at what they described as marijuana regulators’ “efforts in service of big corporations at the expense of small business and equity outcomes.”
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Side Pocket Images. Photo by Chris Wallis.
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