New York Awards $5M in Grants Derived from Cannabis Taxes to Youth Organizations

Fifty youth-focused New York non-profits have been awarded grant money
from $5 million in cannabis taxes collected by retailers in the state. The
funds are the first round of grants from the state’s Community Grants
Reinvestment Fund.

In a statement, Felicia A.B. Reid, acting executive director of the New
York State Office of Cannabis Management (OCM), said the organizations
awarded the grant money “reflect the power that communities have to lead
real and lasting on-the-ground change.”

“This reinvestment is about more than funding programs; it is about
recognizing that the harms wrought by the War on Drugs are no fiction – but
that the story does not end there. These grants are evidence of a necessary
power shift; they put the resources of the State into the hands of those
best able to take a promise from idea to reality.” — Reid in a press release


The grants include $2.6 million to youth-focused mental health
organizations, $1.9 million to youth-focused workforce development
organizations, and $500,000 to youth-focused housing organizations,
according to OCM’s awardees booklet. New York City-based
organizations received $1.5 million in funding, followed by $800,000 for
mid-Hudson-based organizations; $600,000 for Long Island-based
organizations; $500,000 for organizations based in Western New York; $1.6
million for organizations based in central New York, the Finger Lakes, the
Southern Tier, North Country, Capital Region, and Mohawk regions.