Our Story Begins

New York State officially legalized adult-use recreational marijuana on March 31, 2021, when the Marihuana Regulation & Taxation Act (MRTA) was signed into law. This landmark legislation established the Office of Cannabis Management (OCM) to regulate the market, permitted adults 21 and older to possess up to three ounces of cannabis, and automatic expungements for hundreds of thousands of past convictions. The state intentionally designed its rollout to prioritize social and economic equity, allocating over half of its licenses to individuals from communities disproportionately impacted by past enforcement. While the transition from the signing of the bill to widespread storefronts faced initial regulatory delays and a massive wave of illicit shops, the legal market has hit its stride, with hundreds of licensed dispensaries open statewide generating over a billion dollars in annual retail sales.