Power change for New Yorkers!
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In January 2022, Gov. Kathy Hochul outlined a bold vision to support the ambitious social-equity goals of New York’s new cannabis law: The state would create a $200 million fund to build out ready-to-open dispensaries in prime locations for retail licensees with past cannabis-related convictions. This, lawmakers and regulators agreed, was a chance for those who had been most harmed by decades of racist drug policies to not only participate in the legal market but to thrive from it.
Reuben McDaniel, who headed the state Dormitory Authority in charge of setting up fund-supported dispensaries before leaving that position last month, proclaimed that the new program would “help build generational wealth that has been out of reach for far too many of our citizens, and that will succeed in creating social equity when so many other states’ programs have failed.”
But nearly two years after Hochul announced the fund, financing documents obtained by THE CITY reveal that the 10-year loans it offers to dispensary owners