What Is the MRTA and How Did New York Legalize Cannabis?

The Marihuana Regulation and Taxation Act — known as the MRTA — is the New York State law signed on March 31, 2021 by Governor Andrew Cuomo that legalized adult-use cannabis for anyone 21 and older. It created the framework for the licensed dispensary system that exists across the state today, established the Office of Cannabis Management (OCM) to regulate the industry, and built in historic equity provisions designed to prioritize communities harmed most by prohibition. That is the short answer. The longer answer is something we at Silly Nice take personally — because this law is the reason we exist.

We are Shane Breen and LeVar Thomas — U.S. Army Veteran and lifelong New Yorker, partners for 25 years, and co-founders of Silly Nice Cannabis. We launched our brand in March 2024, built from the ground up in Brooklyn, and we now move our small-batch, independently lab-tested products through 150+ licensed adult-use dispensaries across New York State. None of that would be possible without the MRTA. And none of it would matter if we didn't understand — and help our community understand — exactly what this law did, what it was supposed to do, and where the work still continues.

The Full Name and What It Actually Does

The Marihuana Regulation and Taxation Act is a piece of New York State legislation that amended and replaced prior cannabis prohibition statutes. In plain terms, it made it legal for adults 21 and older to possess, use, and purchase cannabis from licensed retailers. It also decriminalized cannabis possession retroactively — meaning prior convictions for small amounts of cannabis could be expunged. That was not symbolic. For hundreds of thousands of New Yorkers — especially Black and Brown residents in neighborhoods like Brownsville, East New York, Harlem, and the South Bronx — expungement meant the possibility of clearing records that had been used to deny housing, employment, and opportunity for decades.

The MRTA also created the Cannabis Control Board and the Office of Cannabis Management to oversee licensing, compliance, and the rollout of the legal market. It established a tiered licensing system — cultivators, processors, distributors, retailers — and set tax rates for cannabis sales. Critically, it introduced the Social and Economic Equity (SEE) program to prioritize license applicants from communities disproportionately impacted by the War on Drugs. This was the law saying, out loud, that the people most harmed by prohibition deserved to be first in line to benefit from legalization.

Why 2021 and Why New York Moved When It Did

New York had attempted cannabis legalization multiple times before 2021. It failed in 2019. It stalled again in 2020. The version that finally passed in March 2021 succeeded in part because it was the most equity-focused cannabis bill ever passed by a major U.S. state at the time. Advocates, organizers, and affected communities spent years pushing Albany to get the language right — not just to open a market, but to open it with justice written into the foundation. The MRTA passed the State Senate 40–23 and the State Assembly 100–49. Governor Cuomo signed it into law on a Wednesday afternoon, and New York joined a growing number of states that had chosen to end prohibition.

CAURD Licenses and Why They Mattered

One of the most discussed early implementations of MRTA equity provisions was the Conditional Adult-Use Retail Dispensary — or CAURD — license. This license was designed specifically for individuals with prior cannabis convictions, or their close relatives, to be among the first to open legal dispensaries. The intent was direct: if the War on Drugs prosecuted you for cannabis, the new legal market should make room for you at the front. The first CAURD dispensaries opened in late 2022 and early 2023 in New York City, with the Farmers Only store in Manhattan being widely noted as one of the first to launch under this license type.

The rollout was not without controversy. Legal challenges from out-of-state operators tried to block the equity-first licensing priority. Injunctions and court battles delayed dispensary openings in multiple regions. But the principle held: New York's legal cannabis market was built with the explicit intention of ensuring that communities of color, people with prior convictions, and small businesses — not just large corporate operators — had a real path to participate. As a Black-owned, Veteran-owned brand that launched in this market, we understand what that fight was about and we respect everyone who held the line.

Expungement: The Part the Headlines Didn't Cover Enough

Under the MRTA, New York began automatically expunging records for certain cannabis-related convictions — specifically for acts that were no longer criminal under the new law. This was one of the most meaningful provisions in the bill, and one of the least covered. For New Yorkers who had spent years carrying the weight of a cannabis arrest — a weight that touched everything from job applications to apartment leases — expungement was not a talking point. It was a lifeline. We say that knowing full well that people in our own community, in our own borough of Brooklyn, carried those records for years.

The Office of Cannabis Management and Licensing Structure

The MRTA created the Office of Cannabis Management — the OCM — as the primary state agency responsible for regulating all cannabis activity in New York, from cultivation to retail. The OCM issues licenses, sets product testing requirements, enforces compliance, and oversees advertising and packaging rules. For us at Silly Nice, the OCM is the regulatory body that our entire operation operates within. Every product we make must pass independent lab testing before it reaches a shelf. Every dispensary that carries us must hold a valid adult-use retail license. That structure exists because of the MRTA.

The licensing tiers include cultivators, nurseries, processors, distributors, retailers, microbusinesses, and delivery services, among others. Each tier has its own application process, fees, and compliance requirements. Retailers — the dispensaries where adults 21+ can legally purchase cannabis products — are the most visible part of the supply chain. But the entire ecosystem behind the dispensary shelf, including brands like ours, operates under OCM oversight. That is why you can walk into any of our 150+ licensed retail partners across New York and know that what you are picking up has been tested, documented, and verified.

Taxation, Pricing, and What It Means for Consumers

The MRTA established a tax structure for adult-use cannabis sales in New York. There is a 9% state excise tax on retail sales, a local tax of up to 4% in counties and municipalities, and a separate potency-based tax applied at the distributor level — charged per milligram of THC. This means the tax burden is layered across the supply chain and ultimately reflected in consumer pricing. We have worked hard to keep our pricing accessible: our Diamond Powder — 1 gram at 86.24% THC — retails at $50. Our Bubble Hash — solventless, 53.32% THC, 6.2% terpene content — is $44. These prices reflect our commitment to giving New York adults premium, lab-verified cannabis without the inflated markups that corporate brands rely on.

Born March 2024 Into a Market Built on This Law

We launched Silly Nice in March 2024 — nearly three years after the MRTA was signed — because building something right takes time. We spent that time learning the regulatory landscape, formulating our products, completing lab testing, and building relationships with licensed dispensary partners from Buffalo to Brooklyn to the tip of Long Island. Every certificate of analysis for our products is publicly available at sillynice.com/menu. That transparency is not just good practice — it is the standard the MRTA helped establish for this market, and it is a standard we embrace because our community deserves to know exactly what they are consuming.

We are a Black-owned, Veteran-owned, family-run operation. Shane served in the U.S. Army. We have been partners for 25 years. We did not come to this market as opportunists. We came to it as New Yorkers who grew up in a city where cannabis arrest records shaped lives and neighborhoods, where the promise of legalization was personal long before it was political. The MRTA created the legal ground we stand on. We intend to honor that ground with every small-batch product we put into the world.

Our Products in a Legal Market That Requires Accountability

Because the MRTA mandates independent lab testing for all adult-use cannabis products, every item in the Silly Nice lineup carries verified potency and terpene data. Our 510 Vape in Pink Stardust tests at 81.96% THC and 88.36% total cannabinoids — made with 100% cannabis-derived terpenes, not synthetic flavoring. Our 2G All-in-One in Alaskan Thunder Fuck runs at 82.46% THC with a rechargeable USB-C design, retailing at $80. Our Infused Flower — Papaya Wine — is 3.5 grams at 51.22% THC, infused with live resin and THCa diamonds, for $60. These numbers are not marketing. They are lab results. They exist because the law demands accountability, and we deliver it.

The Illicit Market and the Fight for the Legal One

The MRTA was a historic piece of legislation. But signing a law and building a functioning, equitable market are two different things — and New York has learned that firsthand. The illicit market remains massive. Unlicensed smoke shops across the five boroughs openly sell cannabis with no testing, no oversight, and no accountability. This is not just a regulatory problem. It is a public safety issue. When adults 21+ purchase from unlicensed sellers, they have no way of knowing what they are actually getting. There are no COAs, no verified THC percentages, no terpene data — just a product in a bag with a hope attached to it.

We are advocates for the licensed market — not because we have a business interest in saying so, but because we believe in what the MRTA was trying to build. A legal cannabis market where New Yorkers can walk into a licensed dispensary, pick up a Silly Nice Frosted Hash Ball — 1 gram, 67.34% THC, 5.7% terpene content, $50 — and know with certainty what they are holding. That is what legalization was supposed to deliver. Every time someone chooses a licensed dispensary, they are voting for the version of this market that actually works.

Equity in Ownership Must Continue to Be Protected

The MRTA's equity provisions were not a gift — they were a correction. And corrections require sustained commitment to hold their shape. As the New York cannabis market matures and capital from larger operators continues to flow in, the priority given to equity applicants, to communities of color, to veterans, to small businesses must be actively defended — not just in law, but in practice. We say this as people who live inside that commitment every day. We are not asking for a lane. We are asking that the lane this law created stay open.

The MRTA is more than a cannabis law. It is a document that reflects years of community organizing, legislative negotiation, and a fundamental reckoning with the damage that cannabis prohibition caused — in New York City, in Brooklyn, in every borough and county across this state. Understanding it helps you understand why the licensed market exists, why it matters, and why choosing a licensed dispensary is an act that carries meaning beyond just the transaction.

At Silly Nice, we built our brand on this foundation. We are in 150+ licensed dispensaries across New York State because we did the work — the compliance, the testing, the formulation, the relationships — that the law requires. Our full product lineup, with every verified lab result attached, lives at sillynice.com/menu. If you are 21 or older and you are in New York, you deserve access to the highest-quality cannabis this state's legal market can produce. We are here to make sure that access includes something made by people who look like you, who grew up where you grew up, and who care about this community as much as we care about what we put in the jar.

The MRTA made this possible. We intend to make it worth it. Find us at a licensed dispensary near you — and never stop supporting the market this law was built to create.