Last verified: April 2026
The CAURD Program
In March 2022, Governor Hochul announced the Seeding Opportunity Initiative. The Conditional Adult-Use Retail Dispensary (CAURD) license, launched in August 2022, reserved the first round of retail licenses for “justice-involved” New Yorkers — defined as a person convicted of a New York cannabis offense before March 31, 2021, or whose parent, legal guardian, child, spouse, or dependent had such a conviction — plus qualifying nonprofits.
The state envisioned 150–200 first-round CAURD licensees. By February 2026, the CCB reported 324 active CAURD licensees statewide. The program is the most ambitious justice-involved licensing prioritization in any U.S. cannabis-legalization state.
Major NYC Equity Entrepreneurs
Roland, Patricia, and Darius Conner — Smacked Village
Roland Conner runs Smacked Village at 144 Bleecker Street with his wife Patricia and son Darius. The first Black-owned legal cannabis store in New York State; opened January 24, 2023.
Coss Marte — CONBUD
Coss Marte, founder of CONBODY (the prison-style fitness brand), runs CONBUD at 85 Delancey Street with an entirely justice-impacted staff. Marte was incarcerated for seven years on a drug conviction before founding CONBODY and then CONBUD. CONBUD’s second location, CONBUD Bronx (Summit Canna), is at 2412 Third Avenue in Mott Haven.
Charles King and Sasha Nutgent — Housing Works Cannabis Co
Charles King, CEO of nonprofit Housing Works, runs the company; Sasha Nutgent is store manager. Housing Works Cannabis Co at 750 Broadway opened December 29, 2022 as the first legal adult-use dispensary in NY. Profits fund HIV/AIDS, homelessness, and harm-reduction services. A second location, HWCC NoMad, opened December 2024.
Arana Hankin-Biggers — The Travel Agency / DOE Fund
Arana Hankin-Biggers co-founded The Travel Agency in partnership with the DOE Fund (which serves formerly incarcerated New Yorkers); half of profits flow to the DOE Fund. The Union Square location at 835 Broadway is the flagship; additional Brooklyn locations followed.
Peter Beznos — Hii NYC
Peter Beznos founded Hii NYC at 152 Bedford Avenue in Williamsburg in April 2024 (license OCM-CAURD-24-000102) and opened a second location at 9206 3rd Avenue in Bay Ridge. Same-day delivery covers Williamsburg, Greenpoint, and parts of Bushwick.
Branson — Cookies NYC
The legendary NYC dealer Branson, immortalized in Dave Chappelle’s Half Baked character “Samson,” has worked with Cookies on legal-market product. The Cookies brand operates with several NYC retail-and-delivery footprints; Branson’s involvement bridges decades of legacy-market knowledge into the legal market.
The Variscite Year
Less than a month after the CAURD application window closed, Variscite NY One, a Michigan-based entity owned 51% by Kenneth Gay (a Michigan resident with a Michigan cannabis conviction), sued in the Northern District of New York alleging that the program’s “significant presence in New York” requirement violated the U.S. Constitution’s Dormant Commerce Clause. On November 10, 2022, Judge Sharpe granted a preliminary injunction freezing CAURD licensing in five regions including Brooklyn — a ruling that single-handedly delayed the entire rollout into 2023. After Second Circuit modifications in March 2023 and a settlement in May 2023, licensing resumed; but follow-on cases (most notably Variscite NY Four, decided by the Second Circuit in 2025, and Carmine Fiore v. NYS Cannabis Control Bd., August 2023) kept litigation pressure constant. By March 2026, more than 50 lawsuits had been filed against OCM. See CAURD & Variscite.
Real-Estate and Capital Barriers
The MRTA envisioned the New York Social Equity Cannabis Investment Fund — a $200 million public-private fund, with $50 million from the state and $150 million from private investors managed by Social Equity Impact Ventures. The fund was intended to lease and build out turnkey storefronts for CAURD licensees. It did neither at scale. Reporting by THE CITY and The New York Times documented that the Dormitory Authority of the State of New York (DASNY), tapped to administer the fund, paid above-market rents to landlords; build-outs took twice as long as private-market builds; and high-cost loans saddled CAURD licensees with debt many could not service. Many CAURD licensees instead self-financed their builds.
The Cannabis NYC Loan Fund
The Cannabis NYC Loan Fund, launched October 2024 by NYC Department of Small Business Services in partnership with NYCEDC and administered by Tuatara Capital, offered up to $100,000 per CAURD licensee at flexible 36-month terms with no minimum credit score. By May 2025, $500,000 of an initial $2 million tranche had been disbursed. A Phase 2 of at least $6 million was targeted for 2025–26.
Predatory MSO Partnerships
Several CAURD licensees signed partnerships with multi-state operators (MSOs) that left them with minority economic stakes in their own businesses. THE CITY, Crain’s, and Marijuana Moment all reported on the pattern; OCM regulations on True Parties of Interest (TPI) tightened in 2024 and 2025 in response. Prospective equity applicants are now strongly advised to have any MSO term sheet reviewed by an attorney with NYS cannabis experience before signing.
The CAURD Grant Program
The CAURD Grant Program ($5 million, up to $30,000 per licensee, launched March 2025) was a partial response to the Sweet Justice campaign demands. The first 52 awards went out in June 2025. Additional rounds are anticipated through 2026.
Where the Equity Goal Stands
As of February 2026, the CCB reported 53% of newly approved licenses in that cohort went to Social and Economic Equity (SEE) applicants — a meaningful step toward the MRTA’s 50% statutory goal. See The MRTA 50% Equity Goal.
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