New York City has a new legal dispensary, and it’s Black- and veteran-owned.
Dazed Cannabis is the fifth legal dispensary to open in the five boroughs. It’s owned by Keshawn Warner and business partners Rich Rainone and Chris Vianello. The trio obtained a license under the state’s Conditional Adult-Use Retail Dispensary (CAURD) program, which awarded the first adult-use retail dispensary licenses to justice-impacted individuals.
Warner, a native of Harlem, was arrested for trying to buy weed during a 2008 sting operation. The arrest made it difficult for him to find employment, but later turned out to be an opportunity: Years later, it turned out to be one of the very reasons he was able to open a million-dollar weed dispensary in his hometown.
The CAURD program is one of the many ways New York State is looking to differentiate the launch of their legal market from California and other states.
Damian Fagon, the Chief Equity Officer at the New York State Office of Cannabis Management, says the focal points of the state’s rollout strategy are justice and representation. Through CAURD and other initiatives, New York hopes to provide some retroactive justice to the communities that were mainly impacted by the war on drugs and the criminalization of marijuana.
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"It’s the focal points of our equity initiatives for the entire state. Forty years of prohibition, intense policing of Black and Brown communities, you know, New York had to do something different than the other states at the launch of their legal market," Fagon said. "And so what we decided to do was ensure that those who were the most harmed under prohibition were the first in line to reap the benefits of the legal market.”
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For more info on how to apply for a New York State dispensary license, check out the state's Office of Cannabis Management website.
