Professor Terrence Coffey, co‑founder and executive director of the Cannabis Justice & Equity Initiative, and Jameel Mairi, co‑founder and chief operating officer of CGEI, told BronxNet’s Social Justice Forum that New York’s Marijuana Regulation and Taxation Act (MRTA) created a framework for equity but that significant barriers remain for communities harmed by past cannabis enforcement.

Coffey said the MRTA, signed into law on 03/31/2021, promised to correct racial disparities in enforcement and to build an equitable legal market. "We really carry the burden," he said, arguing that Black and Brown communities and people who remain incarcerated for past cannabis offenses have not yet reaped the economic benefits of legalization. Mairi added that communities most harmed “are supposed to be benefiting from” statutory measures such as expungement and licensing but that those efforts cover only a small fraction of people affected over decades.

The guests pointed to two kinds of metrics. They noted a statutory social‑equity target (described on the program as 50% of licenses) and said that, to date, roughly 56–57% of licenses issued have gone to social and economic equity applicants, calling that a noteworthy achievement. Still, both guests said, the industry is capital intensive. "You gotta have money to do this," Coffey said, noting that costs for real estate, processing, cultivation and distribution put licensed operations out of reach for many returning citizens and residents of impacted neighborhoods.

Mairi described CJEI’s community engagement work—Community Conversations, five‑borough outreach and events at the Polo Grounds—and the group’s media project, Cannabis in the City, which appears on BronxNet, YouTube and other platforms. The show and street‑level engagement, they said, are intended to raise awareness about employment and entrepreneurship opportunities as well as applicable laws, including expungement rules and restrictions on public consumption.

The guests emphasized education and outreach as immediate priorities. Coffey said CJEI works to bring both awareness and pathways into the industry "not just in the plant touching side, but also in the ancillary" businesses that support cannabis companies. Mairi stressed that legal knowledge—what is lawful and where legal risks exist—is part of community education: "You can't just puff puff past anywhere," he said.

No formal actions or policy changes were announced on the program. The conversation closed with an invitation to follow CJEI’s work online and to watch Cannabis in the City on BronxNet and other platforms.

The episode placed the conversation in practical terms: MRTA created statutory mechanisms intended to expand opportunity and provide remedies such as expungement, but guests on the Social Justice Forum described capital, property access and sustained community outreach as the primary barriers that remain to fulfilling those statutory goals.