Long Island’s First Legal Recreational Weed Dispensary to Open in East Farmingdale This Month
Long Island’s first legal, adult-use marijuana dispensary will open in East Farmingdale within the next three weeks, New York’s Office of Cannabis Management (OCM) announced on Wednesday.
It will join the 12 other dispensaries across the state as one of the first Conditional Adult-Use Retail Dispensaries (CAURD), while the second CAURD dispensary in New York State will be opening in Syracuse.
“We’re thrilled to be opening multiple new, legal cannabis dispensaries in regions of New York State where we currently have none, and it is a point of pride that these locations are operated by CAURD licensees, who were disproportionately harmed during the era of cannabis prohibition in the State,” said Chris Alexander, executive director of New York’s Office of Cannabis Management.
In March 2022, Gov. Kathy Hochul announced the establishment of the New York State Seeding Opportunity Initiative, a program to assist business owners who had been previously incarcerated or impacted by inequitable enforcement during cannabis prohibition by providing them with a CAURD license.
To further New York State’s goal of opening more cannabis dispensaries in the state, Hochul and the New York State Legislature authorized the New York State Cannabis Social Equity Investment Fund as a part of the 2022-2023 budget.
“We’re very proud to support these small businesses in their efforts to establish and grow New York’s legal cannabis industry, and we are adapting our nation-leading program every day to meet the needs of cannabis entrepreneurs as we race to expand the legal market in New York,” Alexander said.
The fund will use public and private funds to assist the opening of up to 150 CAURD dispensaries. The $200 million in the fund will be used as jumpstart capital for CAURD dispensary owners while the Dormitory Authority of the State of New York (DASNY) aims to raise $150 million more in private capital.
DASNY will assist the state’s efforts to increase the amount of dispensaries in New York by helping CAURD licensees find a retail location. In the meantime, DASNY will allow these dispensaries to operate as delivery services and will suggest locations to CAURD licensees or make sure that locations brought forth by CAURD licensees are up to OCM standards.
Cannabis was outlawed in New York from 1927 to 2014, when then-Gov. Andrew Cuomo signed limited medical use into law. Now, adults 21 and older can possess or consume up to 1.5 ounces of cannabis, 12 grams of concentrated cannabis, or a total amount of product that does not hold more than 750 milligrams of THC.
