The New York Cannabis Control Board approved the 99 new licenses on April 3, increasing the total provisional retail dispensary licenses for Conditional Adult-Use Retail Dispensaries (CAURD) to 165.

“We are proud of today’s approval of 99 CAURD provisional licenses, marking a vast expansion of the Seeding Opportunity Initiative as we continue to build an equitable market that offsets harms caused by cannabis prohibition and its disproportionate enforcement,” Tremaine Wright, the chair of the Cannabis Control Board, said in a statement.

Chris Alexander, the executive director of the Office of Cannabis Management, said that “the approval of these licenses will help expedite building a robust and diverse supply chain while also ensuring that individuals that have been disproportionately impacted by cannabis prohibition have meaningful opportunities to participate in the industry.”

Wright thanked New York Gov. Kathy Hochul and members of the state legislature in Albany “for helping us reach this day,” and noted that the “new licenses will allow entrepreneurs to fairly participate in the legal market while promoting innovation and creative diversity throughout New York’s ever-growing cannabis supply chain.” 

The Cannabis Control Board said in a press release on Monday that the “licenses included four for Western New York, one for Central New York, five for MidHudson, and three for Brooklyn, marking the first provisional licenses to be issued in these regions following last week’s modification of a court injunction that had prevented the Board from issuing them.”

The board explained the application process: “License applications will continue to be sent to the Board for consideration on a rolling basis. To be eligible, applicants themselves were required to either have had a cannabis conviction or be the family member of someone who has and have owned a profitable business. Nonprofits were eligible if they had a history of serving current or formerly incarcerated individuals, including creating vocational opportunities for them; have at least one justice-involved board member; at least five full-time employees; and have operated a social enterprise that had net assets or profit for at least two years.”

New York launched its adult-use cannabis market late last year with the opening of a retailer in New York City’s East Village neighborhood. 

Other dispensaries have opened in Manhattan since then, while the first legal dispensary in Queens opened late last month, but Brooklyn, New York City’s most populous borough, has so far been left out due to a court-ordered ban last year. 

A federal judge lifted that ban last month, clearing the way for licenses to be awarded not only in Brooklyn, but also Central New York, Western New York and Mid-Hudson.

The Cannabis Control Board said on April 3 that, to date, it has “granted at least one [Conditional Adult-Use Retail Dispensary, or “CAURD”] provisional license in each region other than the Finger Lakes, which remains blocked by the injunction.”

The CAURD license “is a central pillar of the Seeding Opportunity Initiative,’ the board said, noting that the initiative ensures that “New York’s first legal adult-use retail dispensaries will be operated by those most impacted by the enforcement of the prohibition of cannabis or nonprofit organizations whose services include support for the formerly incarcerated.”

“As stated in the MRTA, marijuana laws had disproportionately impacted African-American and Latinx communities. For the past 30 years, Black individuals in New York have been 15 times more likely to be arrested for cannabis-related offenses than their white counterparts. For Latinos, it was 8 times more likely. These arrests perpetuated a cycle of poverty in Black and Brown communities. Accordingly, the criteria for obtaining a CAURD license included having been impacted by the enforcement of the prohibition of cannabis,” the board said in Monday’s press release.

“We are thrilled to announce the addition of 99 more CAURD provisional licenses as we continue to work swiftly and equitably to establish New York’s cannabis industry,” said Alexander.

The post New York Regulators Approve 99 New Dispensary Licenses  appeared first on High Times.

The post New York Regulators Approve 99 New Dispensary Licenses  appeared first on Paradise Found.

Regulators in New York on Thursday approved dozens of licenses for cultivating cannabis as part of the Empire State’s forthcoming recreational cannabis program.

The New York Cannabis Control Board said that it had signed off on “the first 52 adult-use cannabis cultivation licenses for farms across the state.”

“The first cannabis product on dispensary shelves will come from NY’s hard-working family farmers, not out-of-state corporations,” the board announced on Twitter.

Political leaders in New York heralded the announcement as a big step toward the state’s intended launch of retail cannabis sales later this year.

“New York’s farms have been the backbone of our state’s economy since before the American Revolution, and now, New York’s farms will be at the center of the most equitable cannabis industry in the nation,” New York Gov. Kathy Hochul said in a statement. “I’m proud to announce the first adult-use cannabis cultivation licenses in the state, and I’m proud of the work the Office of Cannabis Management and the Cannabis Control Board are doing to get adult-use cannabis sales up and running as fast as possible without compromising our mission to uplift communities and individuals most impacted by the past century of cannabis prohibition.” 

Last month, Hochul announced the Seeding Opportunity Initiative, which requires that the first 100-200 recreational dispensary licenses in New York go to individuals with previous cannabis-related convictions, or who have family members with such convictions on their records.

As part of the initiative, New York farmers already growing hemp were given the first crack at growing cannabis for the adult-use market.

“Farmers must adhere to quality assurance, health, and safety requirements developed by the [Office of Cannabis Management],” Hochul’s office explained in the announcement of the initiative. “They must also take part in sustainability and equity mentorship programs that will help build the first generation of equity cannabis owners across the entire supply chain. These conditional licenses make it possible for farmers to grow cannabis in the 2022 growing season.”

New York Assembly Majority Leader Crystal Peoples-Stokes said Thursday that the “approval of the first 52 provisional cultivation licenses will help create a responsible start to the [New York state] cannabis industry by granting cultivators the ability to produce enough product and inventory for social equity retail dispensaries to meet the initial demand of the anticipated legal market.”

“We are on our way towards realizing our goal of creating a viable and inclusive path for minorities and small farmers to have the opportunity to create generational wealth for their families and communities. I am proud of the work conducted thus far by the NYS Office of Cannabis Management and the Cannabis Control Board, and I look forward to our actions bearing fruit,” Peoples-Stokes said in a statement.

New York legalized recreational cannabis use last year when then-Gov. Andrew Cuomo signed a bill into law.

But the regulated market was slow to take shape under Cuomo, who resigned in August amid allegations of sexual misconduct.

Since taking over as the state’s first female governor, Hochul has been determined to get the adult-use program up and running.

In September, she completed overdue appointments to the Office of Cannabis Management.

“New York’s cannabis industry has stalled for far too long—I am making important appointments to set the Office of Cannabis Management up for success so they can hit the ground running,” Hochul said in a statement at the time.

Officials in New York are hopeful that recreational pot sales will begin later this year. Until then, New Yorkers can always cross the bridge to New Jersey, where adult-use dispensaries are slated to open next week.

The post New York Approves First Slate of Cannabis Cultivation Licenses appeared first on High Times.

The post New York Approves First Slate of Cannabis Cultivation Licenses appeared first on Paradise Found.