New York Officials Award First Round Of Grants To Help Marijuana Businesses With Startup Costs, Prioritizing Justice-Involved Licensees
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New York officials have announced the first round of grants under a $5 million program to help retail marijuana businesses owned by justice-involved people cover startup costs.
About three months after opening up applications for the Conditional Adult-Use Retail Dispensary (CAURD) Grant Program, the Office of Cannabis Management (OCM) and Empire State Development (ESD) announced on Wednesday that they have awarded 52 licensed dispensaries up to $30,000 each in funds meant for startup and operational costs such as rent, renovations, inventory tracking and security systems.
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.
“These grants are about more than dollars and cents, they are about investing in the people and communities who are helping to build New York’s cannabis market the right way,” Felicia A.B. Reid, acting executive director of OCM, said in a press release.
“OCM is proud to support the development of cannabusinesses led by formerly justice-involved entrepreneurs,” she said. “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.”
Applicants needed to submit at least $10,000 in eligible expenses in order to qualify for a grant, which could include costs starting from the date they received their final license notice from OCM.
“This funding is giving people entering the cannabis industry a bit of a leg up as they navigate an industry that is still very much in its infancy,” Assembly Majority Leader Crystal Peoples-Stokes (D) said. “This is also about social equity and reinvesting in communities, and I am very happy to see this funding going to communities across the state, and especially in my hometown of Buffalo.”
Sen. Jeremy Cooney (D), chair of the Senate Subcommittee on Cannabis, said that “throughout our efforts to build a thriving cannabis market in New York, we have never lost sight of the equity commitments we made when the MRTA was first passed.”
“The CAURD Grant program is an important step in this process, putting money directly in the hands of local dispensary owners to help grow their businesses and set them up for sustained success,” he said. “I want to congratulate the first round of awardees, and I look forward to our ongoing work to support 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.
After a rocky rollout of the state’s legalization law opened the door to a proliferation of illicit marijuana shops, the governor and regulators have prioritized educating the public about the need to purchase their products from licensed dispensaries as a health and safety imperative.
The broader New York campaign has also involved digital ads and educational resources, including a guide on safe consumption practices, as well as graphics and videos featuring licensed cannabis business owners and messaging about the benefits of participating in the regulated market.
OCM also advises that “continued enforcement against the illicit market is critical to building a health regulated market,” pointing to what it describes as successful enforcement efforts in 2024. Last spring, for example, officials in New York City launched Operation Padlock, an enforcement initiative meant to shutter illegal storefronts. Within months, licensed shops that were open before the operation began saw sales climb 105 percent, according to an OCM survey.
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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.
Separately in 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.
Including sales so far in 2025, New York’s legal cannabis market is now close to reaching $1.5 billion worth of purchases, OCM said in April.
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. Authorizing sales of cannabis products at theaters would set New York apart as it continues to build upon the state’s legalization law.
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 said in December that there’s a need to extend financial aid to CAURD license holders, many of whom are struggling under the high-cost loans.
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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Photo courtesy of Chris Wallis // Side Pocket Images.
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