New York’s first licensed cannabis dispensaries are set to open this year — and the state is highlighting its efforts to distribute licenses equitably with a new public service advertisement. 

The New York State Office of Cannabis Management on Thursday released a PSA underscoring the stark racial disparities in marijuana arrests that persisted until the state legalized recreational use last year. 

What You Need To Know

  • New York state's first licensed cannabis dispensaries are set to open this year

  • The state is highlighting its efforts to distribute licenses equitably with a new public service advertisement

  • The PSA underscores the stark racial disparities in marijuana arrests that persisted until the state legalized recreational use last year

  • The state's Office of Cannabis Management is focused on “creating a diverse and inclusive industry and repairing harm done during cannabis prohibition"

“Latino New Yorkers were eight times more likely to be arrested for cannabis than white New Yorkers over the past 30 years. Black New Yorkers? Fifteen times more likely,” the ad’s narrator says. 

“White, Black or brown, data shows we all use cannabis at the same rate. Now, New York has changed course, and legalized cannabis for adults 21 and over,” the narrator adds. “We are building an equitable industry that invests in communities.”

The PSA debuted during Game 1 of the NBA Finals Thursday night, OCM said in a press release. 

Officials have said the state’s first adult-use cannabis dispensaries are on track to open by the end of the year. 

And while the state recently “expunged or suppressed” nearly 400,000 cannabis-related convictions, it is also focused on “creating a diverse and inclusive industry and repairing harm done during cannabis prohibition,” according to OCM’s press release. 

Its current goal, set by the Marijuana Regulation & Taxation Act that then-Gov. Andrew Cuomo signed into law last March, is to distribute half of its cannabis industry-related licenses to “equity applicants,” including “those with cannabis convictions, as well as businesses owned by minorities and women, service-disabled veterans and distressed farmers,” the release said. 

Gov. Kathy Hochul recently unveiled an initiative that prioritizes retail license applicants who either had a cannabis-related conviction of their own or had a family member with a conviction. 

OCM released its PSA on the same day a cannabis industry-focused convention — CWCBExpo New York — kicked off at the Javits Center in Manhattan. 

Speaking at the convention on Friday, Mayor Eric Adams emphasized the need for equitable license distribution. 

“We’re going to be giving out 200 licenses in the area of cultivation, 200 licenses in the area of retail,” he said. “I think 162 were already issued.” 

The application and distribution process is “an opportunity of those who were left behind to really participate in this industry,” the mayor said. 

“And we want to be clear: the magic term is equity,” he said. “Those who were impacted by heavy-handed policing and had their lives destroyed, we need to make them whole.”

In a statement, OCM Executive Director Chris Alexander said he had "spent [his] career fighting to reform our criminal justice system and to end cannabis prohibition and the hyper-criminalization of Black and Brown New Yorkers."

“This public service advertisement will help ensure all New Yorkers are aware of the history here and understand the importance of the steps we are taking to achieve the goals of the MRTA and deliver real opportunity to those who otherwise would have been left behind and left out,” Alexander added.