Dozens of NY Marijuana Dispensaries to Get Green Light Today: Here’s the Full List

New York state is expected to announce the first retail recipients of marijuana licenses on Monday, the latest step in an arduous process steeped in legal red tape and one that moves the Empire State closer to capitalizing on the economic potential that other states have reaped from recreational pot sales in recent years.

The state board will likely reveal the first 20 to 40 retail licenses. Up to 150 are expected to be made available to businesses and individuals, while another 25 licenses will be reserved for nonprofits, officials have said.

Half of the 20 to 40 retail licenses expected to be announced Monday are also expected to be within the five boroughs — and those ready to hit the ground running can open in a matter of days or weeks once the state gives them the OK.

The state Office of Cannabis Management released a list of three dozen adult-use retail applicants whose licenses have been preapproved ahead of Monday’s vote at the Harlem offices on 125th Street. Applicants in the initial round had to demonstrate “a significant presence in New York state.” See the full list here.

You won’t be able to knock on the doors today or tomorrow — once a business or nonprofit gets a license, it still has a round of paperwork to complete. But the first New York recreational pot dispensaries should be up and running by December, and that’s not even two weeks away.

It’s not clear how many total licenses will be awarded statewide or in New York City, where some in Brooklyn are waiting with bated breath after a federal judge temporarily blocked the state from issuing recreational pot licenses there and in upstairs areas amid ongoing legal challenges to the selection process.

The judge’s order temporarily bars the state from issuing retail licenses for the five regions of the state Variscite selected in its business application: Brooklyn, central New York, the Finger Lakes, the mid-Hudson region and western New York. It does not cover nine other regions of the state, including the rest of the city.

The ruling affects up to 63 of the 150 possible business licenses.

New York still plans to begin adult marijuana sales by the end of the year, starting with shop owners with past pot convictions or their relatives. State lawmakers designed the legal market to make sure the first retailers were people directly affected by drug law enforcement.

NY’s cannabis regulator says storefronts already accepting payment for marijuana are jumping the gun, but plenty of businesses are doing it. How do they get away with it? Chris Glorioso found weed entrepreneurs daring New York to shut them down, because they believe the licensing process is rigged to favor big business.

Besides aspiring sellers, hundreds of hemp farmers who recently cultivated New York’s first legal marijuana crop want clarity on when dispensaries will open to market their harvest.

“They don’t really have a lot of options but to wait and hope that they don’t end up having to suffer any losses,” said Dan Livingston of the Cannabis Association of New York, a trade group.

Whatever the wrinkles, New York’s approach to legalization has gotten some kudos for innovating and emphasizing equity, and applicant advocate and cannabis lawyer Scheril Murray Powell counsels patience. As chief operating officer of the Justus Foundation, she works to help longtime sellers go legal.