Cannabis Watch: New York’s newest cannabis dispensary opens as state rolls out social-equity model

On Monday, Union Square Travel Agency: A Cannabis Store celebrated a ribbon-cutting and the soft launch of its popup location at 62 East 13th Street in New York City. It’s the third licensed marijuana seller in the Big Apple and the fourth in New York state.

Terrence Coffie made the ceremonial first purchase, buying a jar of New York-grown cannabis flower. Now an adjunct professor at New York University, Coffie once served a five-year sentence in prison for drug possession with intent to sell.

When Coffie got out of jail decades ago, a charity called the Doe Fund set him up with a job and housing.

The Doe Fund was one of the first nonprofits to win a license as New York state rolls out its Seeding Opportunity Initiative to award the first cannabis-business permits in the state to nonprofit groups and entrepreneurs affected by the war on drugs. The Doe Fund, which provides job placement, education and housing services to homeless and formerly incarcerated people, teamed up with Harbour Community, a private company, to operate its dispensary in New York City.

Union Square Travel Agency: A Cannabis Store opened on 13th Street, a block south of Manhattan’s Union Square, just a few weeks after the state’s first dispensary, Housing Works Cannabis Co., opened up a few blocks away.

Also read: New York opens new cannabis stores, issues more licenses as illicit stores thrive

Arana Hankin-Biggers, president of Harbour Community, said more than half the profits from the Union Square Travel Agency: A Cannabis Store retail dispensary will go to the Doe Fund, which will use the revenue for job-training programs.

Hankin-Biggers noted that while progress has been made, 40,000 people remain in jail in the U.S. for cannabis-related crimes, and only a small percentage of legal dispensaries are currently owned by people of color.

Some of the brands on the shelves at the new dispensary include Ayrloom from Beak & Skiff Apple Orchards, Florist Farms and FlowerHouse New York. Point-of-sale technology at the dispensary came from Dutchie.

New York state has been unique in the way it is helping nonprofits and people affected by the war on drugs, including those who may have formerly worked in the illicit cannabis trade, get into the industry in New York state with home-grown businesses.

Other states have instead awarded social-equity licenses alongside licenses for larger, multistate operators, which then quickly crowd out the mom-and-pop businesses.

Damian Fagon, chief equity officer at the Office of Cannabis Management, said other states such as Maryland, Virginia and Minnesota have expressed interest in New York’s social-equity program.

“We’re changing the conversation of what impact can look like in cannabis,” Fagon said.

Tremaine Wright, chair of the New York State Cannabis Control Board, said the plan is to “create opportunities for people who for too long have been left out.”

Paul Yao, CEO of Harbour Community, the company that’s running the Union Square Travel Agency dispensary, said the store received 500 applications for 50 positions.

The store is opening with 10 suppliers and nearly 200 product types on the shelves, including drinks, gummies, flower and prerolled cigarettes.

While competition with other dispensaries may become an issue, Yao said cannabis might also start to reach a larger audience and become more mainstream, helping businesses grow.

Taxes from the sale of cannabis in New York state will go toward the Community Grants Reinvestment Fund under the New York State Cannabis Advisory Board.

The state is setting up a grant program for qualified community-based nonprofit
organizations and approved local government entities to reinvest in communities that have been disproportionately affected by past federal and state drug policies.

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