State policy seeking to right the wrongs of the past by prioritizing recreational weed licenses for those with past convictions is a step in the right direction, advocates said this week.

New York’s first cannabis dispensaries are slated to open by the end of the year, which is months ahead of the summer 2023 launch date cannabis officials had pointed to in the past, state officials confirmed Thursday. And under the new licensing regulations, people convicted of a cannabis offense before legalization in March 2021 would have a head start in the entrepreneurship process, as would the family members of those with such convictions. In an unprecedented attempt to address historic inequities, officials said that cohort would be the only group eligible to apply for the first round of retail licenses in New York.

The policy to prioritize that group would likely garner between 100 and 200 licenses, according to Chris Alexander, executive director of the state’s Office of Cannabis Management. That would likely be just a fraction of the industry as the state has not set an upper limit for the number of overall licenses.

Colorado, for contrast, doled 1,500 adult-use business licenses just seven years into legalization, according to The Denver Post.

But prioritizing these 100 to 200 businesses would represent one of the first concrete steps that New York officials have taken to deliver on the promises of equity and inclusion that were made in the Marijuana Regulation and Taxation Act, the law that legalized cannabis in March 2021. The law called for half of licenses going to so-called “social equity applicants,” a category that includes not only those who have been impacted by prohibition, but also distressed farmers, disabled veterans and women- and minority-owned businesses.

WNYC host Sean Carlson spoke with health and science reporter Caroline Lewis about what the policy could mean for the industry's future. Click listen in the player, and visit Gothamist for more on the story.