How to sell legal weed in New York: Carl Anderson’s start as a dispensary owner.

NY Cannabis Insider is following Carl Anderson, a CAURD license winner, as he navigates the evolving cannabis retail landscape in New York. Anderson will share his struggles, questions, frustrations and accomplishments along the way.

Carl Anderson woke up to congratulatory text messages on Nov. 21, 2022, stupefied.

New York’s Office of Cannabis Management and Cannabis Control Board that morning awarded the initial round of Conditional Adult-Use Retail Dispensary (CAURD) licenses – and Anderson was selected, becoming one of the first people in the state with the authority to sell legal weed.

However, weeks later, Anderson told NY Cannabis Insider that with everything going on in NY cannabis – the regulations and restrictions, the lack of funding and retail space – “it’s hard for me to see a win for the business owner.”

Born and raised in Harlem, Anderson was snagged in high school with a spliff, and the resulting charge tailed him for the rest of his life: it followed him after he left the military, where he served as a marine stationed in Okinawa, Japan, and Rota, Spain; and it followed him when he applied for a job at Deutsche Bank on Wall Street, he said.

“I would have to go get these dispositions, saying that I was a kid and the record should be sealed – but for some reason, this record wasn’t sealed,” Anderson said. He eventually printed five copies of his disposition so “I wouldn’t have to keep going back to this court and dredging up a record from 1998.”

When NY launched its CAURD program, Anderson – prompted by friends – decided to throw his hat in the ring. “And it kind of worked out in my favor, which I’m thankful for. But again, amongst the other wolves, it’s just kind of a scary time for everyone involved,” he said.

Some of Anderson’s most pressing concerns: Differentiating his business from competitors with such restrictive packaging and advertising regulations; how to charge customers for delivery or secure a warehouse for delivery without having detailed guidelines from the OCM; and how to band together with other CAURD license winners to share resources and information.

“Everyone wants to be first through the door,” he said, but the confusion around what’s allowed has him reevaluating his next move.

“I’m not trying to drown in an endless, bottomless pit of ambiguity,” Anderson said. “I just can’t do it.”

As a result, he’s prioritizing delivery and pushing off setting up a brick-and-mortar store.

“If I spend the time working on that, finalizing that part, then at least I’ll have some income coming in – then I can justify everything else,” he said.

But for now, Anderson said he wants to see all CAURD licensees and applicants come together as a collective

“We have more unity as a group – we’ll have more power,” he said, adding that he doesn’t want to be at odds with the Cannabis Control Board, but that “the board has to give us more, and we almost have to demand it.”

Because at the moment, he said, “I’m in the wind – trying to find what direction to best go in.”