First Woman-Owned Dispensary Supported by the State's Social Equity Cannabis Investment Fund to Open on March 30
Governor Kathy Hochul today announced that the state's first woman-owned Conditional Adult-Use Retail Dispensary license owned by an entrepreneur previously criminalized by cannabis prohibition will open for sales to the public at 2 p.m. on Thursday, March 30, at 162-03 Jamaica Avenue. The Queens dispensary, called Good Grades, is a woman-owned family business operated by entrepreneur Extasy James and her cousin, Michael James, Jr., a Jamaica, Queens native and an attorney who focuses on serving clients with a core value of advocating for the minority business community.
"With the opening of Good Grades in Queens, we're continuing to build on our progress to create a safe, regulated cannabis industry in New York," Governor Hochul said. "New York is working to support entrepreneurs and ensure that consumers can purchase safe, legal products while supporting their communities."
Good Grades is supported by the New York State Social Equity Cannabis Investment Fund and will open as a "pop-up." As with some other dispensaries that will be supported by the Fund, this will provide licensees the opportunity to open on a short-term basis to fast-track sales, provide training opportunities for employees and start generating capital for their businesses. After, they will close for final construction and then re-open on a long-term basis.
The pop-up program benefits all businesses involved in the cannabis supply chain, including farmers who have cannabis ready for distribution, processors who are making cannabis into other types of products, and distributors and retail operators who work to provide consumers with access to safe products they can trust. The dispensary opening helps advance New York's goals of equity in cannabis licensing that prioritizes providing licenses to justice involved individuals, who are people with a cannabis conviction or a close relative of someone with one.
This Queens location is part of the program authorized by Governor Hochul and the New York State Legislature and sponsored by the Fund to support the acquisition, design, construction, and outfitting of locations for cannabis dispensaries to be operated by CAURD licensees. Working with Dormitory Authority of the State of New York (DASNY) subsidiary, the Social Equity Servicing Corporation (SESC), the Fund is a public-private limited partnership formed to position social equity entrepreneurs to succeed in New York's newly created adult use cannabis industry. Managed by Social Equity Impact Ventures, the Fund will help justice involved individual CAURD licensees meet the costs of establishing adult-use cannabis retail dispensaries. It is supported by up to $50 million in licensing fees and revenue from the adult-use cannabis industry and up to $150 million from the private sector.
The CAURD license is a central pillar of the New York State Seeding Opportunity Initiative. Through the Initiative, New York's first legal adult-use retail dispensaries will be operated by those most impacted by the enforcement of the prohibition of cannabis or nonprofit organizations whose services include support for the formerly incarcerated. These dispensaries are making legal adult-use sales with cannabis products grown by farmers across New York State.
Eligible applicants are those who either had a cannabis conviction themselves or a close family member of someone who does, own, or has owned a business that had a net profit for at least two years. Nonprofits were eligible for CAURD licenses if they have a history of serving current or formerly incarcerated individuals, including creating vocational opportunities for them; have at least one justice involved board member; at least five full-time employees; and have operated a social enterprise that had net assets or profit for at least two years.
