The New York Office of Cannabis Management granted retail licenses to 36 applicants, including 28 “justice-involved” persons and eight nonprofit groups, to sell cannabis for adults.
They were picked from a group of 903 people who had all applied for the 175 available retail cannabis licenses in the state. One hundred fifty will be issued to commercial enterprises by the authorities, while the remaining twenty-five will be set aside for charitable organizations.
Enterprises owned by those disproportionately impacted by the war on drugs were given priority in the first round of licenses.
Applicants were only identified by their application numbers (rather than their names) on the OCM’s list of successful bidders, but at least three New York City-based NGOs were featured, including LIFE Camp, which would become the first organization managed by a Black woman to acquire a license.
This month, a cannabis company in Michigan filed a lawsuit challenging New York’s licensing standards, which temporarily halted the state’s retail cannabis licensing process.
According to a recent article in Forbes, New York state has been issuing conditional licenses to cannabis growers and processors over the past few months so that they can get their products ready for sale in the state’s dispensaries.
According to Bloomberg, dispensaries are prepared to sell approximately 300,000 pounds, with an estimated market value of $750 million.
Learn about the latest developments in cannabis with NECANN.
