Between business and social justice, 100% legal cannabis arrives in New York

Naiomy Guerrero often saw her brother arrested by police in the Bronx. Jeremy Rivera, another New Yorker, doesn’t want to keep going to jail for drug trafficking. Today, both want to open a legal cannabis businessa promising market but full of difficulties.

This opportunity “it’s a really strong moment for my familyabove all knowing where we come from and what we go through due to the discriminatory policies of the city”, Naiomy, 31 years old, student of art history, who already has professional experience in the cultural field and whose parents are from the Dominican Republic.

He is part, together with his family, of the first 28 applicants who received a license on November 21st from the state of New York to open an official cannabis shop. More than a year after the legalization of adult consumption, it’s a new milestone in this region of 20 million people and stretching as far north as the Canadian border.

In New York City, the smell of weed has become as characteristic of residents and tourists as yellow cabs or skyscrapers. The city council plans to do so from 2023 there are sales of 1,300 million dollarsas well as the creation of between 19,000 and 24,000 jobs in three years.

the licenses

Since his release from prison in 2018, Jeremy Rivera has vowed never to enter again. With his arms fully tattooed, this 36-year-old family man wants to use his business acumen and cannabis knowledge to set up shop on Long Island.

This entrepreneur, who grew up amid crime in Queens, hopes “to 99.998%”, be part of the next round of licenses.

“I want to show people that I made it: I was a member of a gang for 20 years, I sold drugs and I decided to leave all this”To explain.

In this sense, his conviction in 2016 “for a non-violent crime related to cannabis” does not constitute an impediment.

In New York state, having been convicted of a cannabis-related crime – including its sale – and having a business are two of the conditions for being able to obtain one of the first 150 licenses before the full opening of the market.

The momentum of this program responds to the stance taken by this Democratic state to redress what is now considered an unjust and disproportionate impact on the African American and Hispanic communities from the previous ban on “marijuana”.

“Prohibition deprived people of opportunities, impoverished communities and separated families,” Tremaine Wright, chairman of the New York State Cannabis Control Council (CMO), told AFP.

In 2018, an official report placed 800,000 arrests for marijuana possession over 20 years, while arrests in 2017 were mostly of Afro-descendants (48%) or Hispanic (38%).

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In the 2000s, “you couldn’t be on the street without being taken away by the police (…), it was a state of constant surveillance and harassment,” recalls Naiomy Guerrero.

The program is ambitious and its implementation projects several challenges.

“We’re just getting started” as “funding and training are needed now,” says Desmon Lewis, co-founder of the Bronx Community Foundation, which helps applicants and showcased them at a showroom last week.

In recent days information on the fragility of the public-private fund of 200 million dollars that the State promised to offer soft loans and starting turnkey shops has had the effect of a cold shower.

“For some it’s very destabilizing. They had these sites and this help. I’m in a bit of quicksand,” says Eli Northrup of the Bronx Defenders.

This occurs in the context of fierce competition since the market is already covered by unofficial sales and generates the interest of large groups.

Since consumption has been legal, vendors have operated outdoors on the streets, in parks or through social networks, as well as in “smoke shops” offering marijuana cigarettes or THC candies, taking advantage of the lack of controls. Obviously untaxed products, unlike the legal market.

However, Jeremy Rivera sees opportunity. “There will also be people who have never felt comfortable in the illegal market and who now they will want to buy from a trusted and authorized reseller“, with guarantees of the origin of the product, which must have been grown within the borders of the state of New York, he explained.

“It’s the beginning of a market that’s been open for 100 years,” he adds, puffing on a large joint.

AFP agency

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