Family business finally opens marijuana dispensary in Queens

Rodney Carter Jr. and his brother, Brandon Carter, can finally exhale.

Their dispensary, Trends Cannabis Dispensary, has finally opened in the Queens neighborhood of Long Island City.

They told Spectrum News NY1 that it was a long and complicated process to get a coveted license to sell cannabis in New York.

“We finally got the application. It took six months for us to get it. Once we got it, the race was getting a location, finding investors,” Rodney Carter Jr. said.

The dispensary is 6,000 square feet and is filled with colorful cannabis products. Its walls tell a story about marijuana.

During the rollout of New York’s cannabis program, state officials promised to give priority to New Yorkers with prior arrests or convictions.

Both Rodney Carter Jr. and Brandon Carter — plus their father Rodney Carter Sr. — have prior arrests for marijuana. That did not sit well with some Long Island City residents.

“We actually had some protesters at the community board. They heard it was a couple of young Black, African American brothers coming to open up a space in our community because we live here. And they were against it, so we had to get the community on board,” Brandon Carter said.

The Carter brothers persevered and now the entrepreneurs are ready to cash in on the weed market in Queens.

However, Harold Baines is not quite there yet.

Baines told Spectrum News NY1 that he invested more than $100,000 a marijuana delivery business, but was told by the state Office of Cannabis Management (OCM) that his original location is 15 feet too close to a school.

He said he was also informed that the state would stop licensing cannabis sites that exclusively deliver.

Instead, Baines must now build out a full retail location somewhere else at a cost, he says, of nearly $1 million.

“I’m devastated. I put myself in a financial situation where I have people depending on me. I used tons of money, my family’s money and to tell you the truth, I’m scared right now because I don’t know if OCM is going to help us or when they’re going to help us,” Baines said.

The Carter brothers said they hear horror stories about OCM and the licensing process all the time, but they encourage investors to keep their faith.

“Keep going. Keep trucking. Keep pushing through. There’s light at the end of the tunnel,” Brandon Carter said.

After many complaints, Gov. Kathy Hochul announced last week that the state Cannabis Control Board is speeding up its review process. So far this year, 403 licenses have been approved.