Bronx dispensaries: OCM-licensed shops and CAURD (2026)

Take the subway, Metro-North or a bus. Guardian Wellness on Arthur Avenue is about 0.38 mi from Metro-North's Fordham station and 0.68 mi from the Fordham Rd station on the B and D. BX Buddiez is about 0.15 mi from the 3 Av-149 St station on the 2 and 5, Conbud's Mott Haven store is about 0.26 mi from 3 Av-138 St on the 6, and Herbwell is about 0.12 mi from Metro-North's Fordham station. These are straight-line distances from each address, so the walk is a little longer.

On the Third Avenue corridor, 3 Av-149 St is fully accessible. The Bx15 runs along Third Avenue between Fordham Plaza and The Hub, and both the Bx15 and Bx21 stop at 3 Av and E 153 St, about 180 m from BX Buddiez. Farther south in Mott Haven, neither 3 Av-138 St (6) nor 138 St-Grand Concourse (4, 5) is ADA accessible. The closest accessible station there is 125 St (4, 5, 6), across the Harlem River in Manhattan.

On East Fordham Road, Fordham station serves Metro-North's Harlem and New Haven lines and has elevators. It connects to the Fordham Rd subway and to the Bx9, Bx12, Bx15, Bx17, Bx22 and Bx41 buses, including Bx41 Select Bus Service. The Bx12, which runs between Pelham Bay and Inwood via Fordham Road, also has Select Bus Service.

Metro-North's Melrose station, the closest rail stop to BX Buddiez at about 0.56 mi, is not accessible. MTA names Harlem-125th Street and Fordham as the nearest accessible stations on the Harlem Line. BX Buddiez says street parking is usually available near its store, but we have not verified parking at the other three, so if you drive, read the posted signs, and remember that cannabis cannot be smoked in a car, moving or parked.

Two of the four stores on this page are on Third Avenue in the South Bronx: BX Buddiez (2935 Third Avenue, between 152nd and 153rd streets) and Conbud's Mott Haven store (2412 Third Avenue), about 1.0 mi apart in a straight line. The Bx15 bus runs along Third Avenue between Fordham Plaza and The Hub.

Herbwell (372 East Fordham Road) is about 0.12 mi from Metro-North's Fordham station and about 0.28 mi from the Fordham Rd station on the B and D. The Bx9 and Bx22 stop about 40 m away at East Fordham Rd and Decatur Av, and the Bx12 stops about 110 m away at Webster Av. The Botanical Garden's main entrance is about 0.63 mi east.

OCM's verification list includes other Bronx stores, for example on Hunts Point Ave and Williamsbridge Rd, so use it to find them. BX Buddiez says street parking is usually available near its store; we have not verified parking at the other three. If you drive, read the posted signs, and keep cannabis closed in its packaging in the car.

A CAURD dispensary holds a Conditional Adult-Use Retail Dispensary license, the first adult-use retail license New York issued. OCM says CAURD licensees were the first retail dispensaries to open for legal adult-use sales in the state, as businesses owned by justice-involved people.

OCM defines a justice-involved person as someone convicted of a marihuana-related offense in New York State before 31 Mar 2021, someone whose parent, spouse, child, legal guardian or dependent was so convicted, or someone who was the dependent of a person so convicted. The conviction has to be from New York; out-of-state and federal convictions do not count.

Under the business route, at least 30% of a CAURD applicant had to be owned by one justice-involved person with qualifying business experience, and the business had to be majority owned by justice-involved people. Nonprofits with a record of serving current or formerly incarcerated people could apply under a separate route.

OCM's stated reason was to speed investment into communities hit by the disproportionate enforcement of cannabis prohibition. The wider Cannabis Law sets a goal of awarding 50% of adult-use licenses to social and economic equity applicants and dedicates 40% of adult-use cannabis tax revenue to reinvestment in communities disproportionately impacted by prohibition.

Most Bronx stores hold CAURD licenses. Of the 23 operating Bronx retail licenses in OCM's data on 23 Sep 2026, 17 are CAURD licenses. BX Buddiez and Conbud's Mott Haven store both hold CAURD licenses, and Conbud describes itself as owned and operated by formerly incarcerated and justice-impacted people. Herbwell on East Fordham Road holds a standard adult-use retail license, and OCM lists it as minority- and women-owned.

Bronx neighborhoods had some of New York City's highest marijuana arrest rates from 2010 to 2017. A December 2018 analysis by then-Comptroller Scott M. Stringer, using 2010 to 2017 arrest data, found nearly half of all Bronx neighborhoods among the city's top ten by arrest rate.

Concourse, Highbridge and Mount Eden ranked third in the city, with 8,143 arrests over those eight years and an average annual arrest rate of 710 per 100,000 people. Belmont, Crotona Park East and East Tremont (655 per 100,000 a year) and Bedford Park, Fordham North and Norwood (642 per 100,000 a year) also appear in the report's top-ten table. Brooklyn had the most arrests of any borough in that period, followed by the Bronx.

Citywide, 86.5% of marijuana arrests from 2010 to 2017 were of Black and Latinx people and 10.5% were of white people, according to the same report. When New York legalized adult use, the Legislature found that existing marihuana laws had disproportionately impacted African-American and Latinx communities, and, according to OCM, the law automatically expunges records of past convictions for cannabis activities that are no longer crimes.

Prosecution was already falling before legalization. The Data Collaborative for Justice at John Jay College found that district attorneys' declinations to prosecute marijuana possession arrests rose sharply in all five boroughs from 2017 to 2020. The Bronx Times reported 437 marijuana possession arrests citywide in 2020, 109 of them in the Bronx.