NYers With Pot Convictions Get 1st Shot At Retail Licenses [POLL]

NEW YORK — New York is getting closer to seeing the legalized sale of cannabis products actually become a reality.

On March 10, Gov. Kathy Hochul announced a first-in-the-nation initiative that will position people with prior pot-related criminal offenses to make the first adult-use cannabis sales with products grown by New York farmers.

The "Seeding Opportunity Initiative" will make sales in the state possible before the end of 2022, according to a news release.

Hochul said that the state is making history with this approach to the marijuana industry by taking a major step forward in righting the wrongs of the past.

"The regulations advanced by the Cannabis Control Board today will prioritize local farmers and entrepreneurs, creating jobs and opportunity for communities that have been left out and left behind," she said. "I'm proud New York will be a national model for the safe, equitable and inclusive industry we are now building."

The board opened to public comment regulations for having a subset of dispensaries owned by "equity-entrepreneurs with a prior cannabis-related criminal offense who also have a background owning and operating a small business." Officials said they will be the first to open and sell legal cannabis products in the state.

The board also approved a license application for hemp farmers who want to grow adult-use cannabis this spring. The portal for filling out the application opened Wednesday.

Chris Alexander, who is the executive director of the state's Office of Cannabis Management, told The New York Times he expects between 100 and 200 of the licenses to be granted to people who were convicted of a pot-related crime before the drug was legalized. The licenses can also go to someone whose family member had a marijuana conviction.

In the state, Black and Latino residents were far more likely than white, non-Hispanic people to be arrested for illegal pot.

Kassandra Frederique, executive director at Drug Policy Alliance, said New York was the marijuana arrest capital of the nation with more than 800,000 arrests over the last 20 years, Fox Business reported.

She said it was encouraging that the state is trying to help the people who should benefit most.

"The scale of damage in New York is so vast that NY must now be intentional about comprehensively addressing the massive toll of criminalization for individuals and communities," Frederique told Fox Business.

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