Cannabis Update – Office of Cannabis Management Opens Conditional Adult-Use Retail Dispensary Application Period

On Thursday, August 25th, the New York State Office of Cannabis Management (OCM) opened the application period for Conditional Adult-Use Retail Dispensaries (CAURD). “Today’s announcement brings us to the precipice of legal, licensed cannabis sales in New York State,” said Cannabis Control Board (CCB) Chair Tremaine Wright. “With the Seeding Opportunity Initiative, New York has affirmed our commitment to making sure the first sales are conducted by those harmed by prohibition. We’re writing a new playbook for what an equitable launch of a cannabis industry looks like, and hope future states will follow our lead.”

As OCM had previously announced, the first 150 retail dispensary licenses will be reserved for New Yorkers who were personally – or have a parent, guardian, child, spouse or dependent – convicted of marijuana-related offenses before April 2021. Applicants will also need to show proof that they have previously owned and operated a business that was profitable for at least two years.

The application form can be found online here: https://www.businessexpress.ny.gov/app/answers/cms/a_id/3823/kw/caurd

and a video walkthrough of how to submit the application can be found here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TbK930_3Xao.The licensing fee for conditional licenses is $2,000, which will cover the cost of processing the application. However, Executive Director Alexander has left the door open to possibly waiving the fee in the future, saying, “we kept it accessible, and we have the ability, should that prove to still be a barrier, to waive fees moving forward for equity applications.” The application window for Conditional Adult-Use Retail Dispensaries will close on September 26, 2022.

OCM also announced a geographical breakdown of how many of the first 150 dispensaries will be awarded in each region of the state. That breakdown is:

Name of Region Commuter Adj. Population Population Dist. Max. CAURD Business Licenses
Brooklyn 2,852,632 12.3% 19
Capital Region 1,145,370 5.0% 7
Central New York 1,093,219 4.7% 7
Finger Lakes 1,383,303 6.0% 9
Long Island 3,110,067 13.4% 20
Manhattan 3,375,059 14.6% 22
Mid-Hudson 2,603,489 11.3% 17
Mohawk Valley 281,983 1.2% 2
North Country 586,426 2.5% 4
Queens 2,525,120 10.9% 16
Southern Tier 480,753 2.1% 3
Staten Island 500,926 2.2% 3
The Bronx 1,565,988 6.8% 10
Western New York 1,622,461 7.0% 11