New York’s first legal marijuana dispensaries are now up and running. But with the opportunity for both consumers and sellers comes questions about how the new legal market will compete with illegal sales.

Marijuana is the most commonly used federally illegal drug in the United States. New York is one of 21 states, plus the District of Columbia, to legalize it for recreational use. It’s been more than a decade since voters approved the first ballot initiatives legalizing marijuana in Colorado and Washington. The state laws that followed have tried to capture growing public approval for a drug considered less harmful than nicotine and alcohol, and acknowledgement of the communities disproportionately affected by the criminalization of marijuana. In 2020, prior to New York’s legalization of marijuana in 2021, which included expungement of past criminal marijuana convictions, Black and hispanic residents made up 93% of marijuana arrests in New York City, despite making up 52% of the population.

The state put social restoration front and center of its approach to a legal cannabis marketplace, reserving the first licenses for “those most impacted by the enforcement of the prohibition of cannabis or non-profit organizations whose services include support for the formerly incarcerated,” according to the state.