NY Marijuana Dispensaries Take 'Monumental Step' Toward Sparking Up

NEW YORK CITY — Get your papers in order, would-be sellers of (legal) cannabis in New York City.

Applications to run the first legal adult-use marijuana dispensaries in New York will open Aug. 25, state officials announced.

"This is a monumental step in establishing the most equitable, diverse, and accessible cannabis industry in the nation,” said Chris Alexander, executive director for the Office of Cannabis Management, in a statement.

“We’ve worked to make this application as simple as possible for all interested applicants, and I cannot emphasize it enough that you do not need any legal expertise to fill this application out.”

The announcement Thursday is one of the last steps toward opening recreational marijuana dispensaries in New York by the year's end.

New York legalized recreational marijuana in 2021, but the law that did so purposely didn't set rules for dispensaries.

That leaves 420-friendly New Yorkers in a bit of a hazy area, with the sticky green stuff being legal but nowhere in the state — despite a plethora of weed-selling shops and trucks — where it could be sold legally.

But the state's Cannabis Control Board slowly, but steadily, took bureaucratic steps toward officially legal dispensaries.

The application portal announced Thursday is perhaps the biggest step before licenses are granted and shops open.

Applications will first be granted to New Yorkers who had past marijuana convictions — a key provision under a "Seeding Opportunity Initiative" that aims to provide equity to people who unfairly bore the brunt of past marijuana laws.

The window for applications closes Sept. 26.

More information on retail dispensaries can be found here.