The push for legal, recreational marijuana is sweeping across America. Delaware just became the 22nd state to legalize recreational cannabis — and four more states could join the party in the coming years.
In the densely populated Tri-State area of New York, New Jersey and Connecticut, the rollout of legal weed has been called slow and cumbersome, allowing for the proliferation of "gray" market storefronts and businesses to sell marijuana without going through the regulatory process. In New York City, for example, the mayor's office estimates the city is home to 1,400 illicit businesses selling marijuana without a license.
"Those legitimate businesses face stiff competition from shops that are not following the rules," said Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg during a Feb.7 news conference. "It is time for the operation of unlicensed cannabis dispensaries to end."
At the same time, state officials are trying to right the historical wrongs brought about by the decades-long "War on Drugs." New York, Connecticut and New Jersey all have social equity components in their recreational marijuana programs, focusing on granting licenses to applicants with previous marijuana-related criminal convictions.
Get top local stories in Southern California delivered to you every morning. >Sign up for NBC LA's News Headlines newsletter.
"Every cannabis company should be focusing on hiring people who have had previous cannabis charges and people who have come from communities that have been impacted by the war on cannabis," said social equity applicant Tahir Johnson, who's about to open Simply Pure Trenton, in New Jersey's capital city.
The recreational marijuana market is a high-stakes affair. The national cannabis market is estimated to reach $71 billion in sales by 2030, according to data from research firm New Frontier. And the New York state market alone could make up 10% of that, the data forecasts.
Watch the video above to find out how the legal cannabis rollout is going in the most populous metropolitan area in the United States, how the push for legal weed is attracting a new class of entrepreneurs and how anti-marijuana activists are trying to slow the fast pace of legal cannabis adoption.
