State Allocates Four Retail Cannabis Stores for Northern NY

ALBANY-The seven-county North Country region will be allotted four retail cannabis stores so far according to a report from WWNY-TV. The state Office for Cannabis Management based the number on population. In contrast, Manhattan will have 22, Long Island 20, and Brooklyn 19. They’re called Conditional Adult Use Retail Dispensary licenses and the state will allocate 150 of them in this first round. They’ll go to businesses owned by people convicted of marijuana offenses before March 31, 2021, or who have close family members who were. The state announced earlier this year that people affected by the state’s marijuana laws before cannabis became legal would have first crack at licenses to sell adult-use cannabis. The application window is now open and it will close on September 26. The state plans to offer another 25 licenses to nonprofits that help people with marijuana convictions. The 7-county North Country region includes Jefferson, Lewis, St. Lawrence, Franklin, Essex, Clinton, and Hamilton counties.