What New York’s Licensing Rollout Can Teach Other Markets – Cannabis & Tech Today

Scott Mazza’s experience opening Northtowns Cannabis offers three lessons for regulators building more predictable, equitable licensing systems.

In New York, weed may be legal recreationally, but that doesn’t mean it’s easy to get the paperwork to sell it locally.

I learned this the hard way after applying for a license in my home state — a process that stretched across years and cost $100,000 in rent on an unused storefront and legal fees.

Now that our dispensary is finally open, I’m ready to share an operator’s perspective and three mistakes other markets should avoid on the path to regulation.

A Long Wait for Recreational Cannabis

In 2021, New York legalized adult-use cannabis, and my business partner and I looked like ideal candidates for its first retail licensing round. The Conditional Adult-Use Retail Dispensary (CAURD) program prioritized justice-involved entrepreneurs and also included a pathway for qualifying nonprofits. My partner was previously penalized by punitive drug laws, and we were enthusiastic to turn over a new leaf in the state’s cannabis history.

We hired an attorney and applied in 2022, but the program soon stalled. An out-of-state applicant challenged the conditional program’s New York eligibility requirements, resulting in a court injunction that froze licensing in our region for months. As the legal challenge stretched into the following year, our attorney and many others concluded that CAURD was being quietly wound down. Applicants like us were instead steered toward the general licensing round.

This round opened in late 2023, with an earlier deadline for retail applicants applying with a location. For us, that meant securing site control: signing a lease on a storefront that met the applicable location requirements. A lottery then decided the order of review. From around 2,200 applicants in our queue, we drew the bottom 5%. The wait continued.

Then, in a twist of fate in fall 2024, our first application, through CAURD, was unexpectedly approved. But regulators told us it couldn’t be used at a location already tied to a pending general application, even though both filings came from the same entity with identical details. Keeping it would have forced us to give up proximity protection on our site and start the location search from scratch. This was bittersweet — we loved the site at 2353 Millersport Highway and didn’t want to give it up — so we declined the conditional license and decided to keep waiting in the regular round. I mean, by this point, what’s a couple more months?

The Office of Cannabis Management (OCM) began reviewing our application in detail in summer 2025 and flagged minor deficiencies one at a time, weeks apart. For example, a single wrong digit in the unit number on our municipal notification letter reset a 30-day review clock, even though it was in the same business plaza. That pushed us past one board meeting, and the next one was canceled. We finally got our license approved in February 2026.

Reaching the end of the process was a relief, not only to get the license after years of trials and tribulations but to finally start using the vacant storefront we’d been spending thousands of dollars a month on.

Three Things Other Markets Should Learn From New York

It didn’t need to be this way. Of course, some teething pains are expected in moving from legalization to regulation, but applicants shouldn’t have to pay for them — in money or in other ways.

Now that our team is on the other side, I believe other domestic and international markets can learn crucial lessons from New York’s recreational rollout.

Make the Process Easier for Applicants Trying to Do the Right Thing

Requiring site control before there’s any predictable review timeline puts all the financial risk on the applicant. Consider that multiple years of rent on an unused storefront, plus an unexpected second round of legal fees, meant we were deep in the red even before opening. It’s the opposite of what a program built around equity should do. In my view, regulators should grant conditional site approval up front and require the signed lease only once a license is close.

Publish Rules Early and Keep Them Consistent

When requirements land weeks before an application window, or an entire licensing track appears to fade out without formal notice, applicants end up making decisions on their attorney’s best reading of the tea leaves. Markets launching now should publish full requirements ahead of any application window and commit to them for the entirety of that round. Also, if things change, give some grace so an applicant who qualifies under one track isn’t penalized for applying under another.

Legally Stress-Test Equity Programs Before Launch

I fully support prioritizing those harmed by prohibition. After all, people like my business partner should be brought in on the ground floor of legal cannabis. But good intentions don’t hold up in court on their own. New York’s eligibility requirements opened the door to a lawsuit that, in my view, could and should have been prevented. Markets designing their own equity programs need to pressure-test eligibility criteria against legal challenges before applications open, not after.

Finally Open for Business in the Buffalo Area

Now, don’t get me wrong. New York was in a difficult position as it built a cannabis market centered on equity. Balancing the legal demands and expectations of several stakeholders was always a tall order. But I hope other markets can take stock of what worked, what didn’t, and make the process as pain-free as possible for people trying to sell cannabis within the letter of the law.

For my team, we’re just happy to be open and serving the community. Buffalo is my home, and it’s a lifelong dream to set up shop at Northtowns Cannabis in nearby Amherst. Our first customers have ranged from college students to women in their 70s, and many are still excited to have a legal dispensary nearby.

The path here was far more convoluted than it needed to be, but every day I get to unlock the doors to a legal store and be part of our city’s green future. I hope the next markets make it easier for entrepreneurs everywhere to do the same.