Brandon Carter, COO of TRENDS – Interview Series

Despite the challenges surrounding New York’s Conditional Adult-Use Retail Dispensary (CAURD) program—one of the nation’s most ambitious social equity initiatives—program participants and social equity brands continue to push forward. By combining strong business acumen with a deep personal connection to the plant, these entrepreneurs are driving commercial success while advocating for their communities and advancing policy reform in Albany and Washington, D.C. Many social equity brands have grown beyond New York City’s five boroughs, expanding into thriving markets across Long Island.

To explore the CAURD program and how social equity cannabis brands and dispensaries are establishing a strong professional footprint, mycannabis.com spoke with Brandon Carter, COO of TRENDS.

What subjects in accounting did you mainly study while attending SUNY Old Westbury? How did studying accounting help you better understand the financial side of business ownership?

I studied General Accounting, Auditing, Bookkeeping, AP, Taxes. I would say having a general understanding of Accounting definitely helped prepare me for running a business as I handle the Accounts Payable, balancing the books and working closely with our Accountants to run a more efficient business by eliminating unnecessary expenses.

Before applying for the CAURD license and starting the dispensary that would become TRENDS, what were the most detrimental ways previous cannabis policy negatively impacted you and your loved ones?

The war on drugs which included cannabis was very detrimental to myself and the lives of my family. It painted a target on us and anybody who looked like us as automatic criminals and gave law enforcement unlimited power to harass us and jail us at disproportionate rates. There are people doing more time for cannabis convictions than murder and other heinous crimes.

Given your familiarity with the New York cannabis industry, how would you describe the overall process of successfully applying for a CAURD license?

What all was required from you and your brother as applicants and how truly accessible of a program is it for other possible social equity applicants? The application process to me was the easiest part of this process. Don’t get me wrong it definitely was the longest and most difficult application I ever filled out. I don’t know the exact number but it had to be over 80 pages long and you had to go to court houses and get dispositions and other things as well. Lawyers were charging $10k plus to complete the application for people. Myself and my brother are both college educated and have a ton of common sense so we knew we could figure it out ourselves.

What were the most unplanned problems you ran into during the CAURD licensing process or another part of the cannabis business startup process in New York? Did you any pushback from local authorities or representatives?

It was unplanned problem after unplanned problem for us as I’m sure it has been for many other dispensary owners. The first unplanned problem was finding a location which is super limited due to all the restrictions such as a dispensary cannot be in a building that has a federal loan on it, has to be 200 feet away from a church, and 500 feet away from a school, it took us a while to find a good location. The next unplanned problem was major as it was the first injunction that put a halt to the whole process for 4 months.

Our deal, our lease, our business, our dreams, all on a standstill due to big MSO’s trying to deny us New Yorkers a fair chance. Once we got past that we had to deal with a bunch of protestors at our community board hearing. Another major unplanned problem was we are caught in the middle of a dispute between our landlord and the condo board of the building we are located in which has affected the construction process of Trends so bad that they tried to prevent us from getting internet and didn’t want to give us access to reroute internet cables away from the middle of our sales floor. Our construction was delayed numerous months and cost us the first mover advantage in Long Island City.

What are some of your regular duties as COO of TRENDS? How have those duties evolved since the dispensary first opened?

My duties as COO is making sure the operations run as smoothly as possible. I oversee the Inventory, purchasing as well as the budtenders and making sure everyone is doing what they are supposed to while ensuring they have the tools needed to do their job effectively. My duties have shifted somewhat as when we first opened I was doing everything, all the above plus marketing, street team, budtender, and inventory person. I was working open to close 10 and 20 days straight in the beginning with no pay.

What are some fellow New York social equity brands that TRENDS works with and features on their menu? Why do you feel that it’s important for social equity brands to work together beneficially?

We work with a few social equity brands such as FYRE, Weekenders, Foy, Chime and Chill, Banzzy, and Chunky Black to name a few. It’s extremely important that we work together because “Together We Stand, Divided We Fall”. The big MSO’s and corporations do not want us here because of the money potential so it is a constant fight and struggle to stay in business. If we don’t work together then it will be a bunch of new faces who do not look like us.

From both a business and personal standpoint, why is it so monumental to own and operate the first Black-owned dispensary in Long Island City and one of the largest in Queens?

We are definitely the largest in Queens, if not the whole NYC. But it is very monumental because we come from Queens, this is home. It carries pride with it. We are Trendsetters in every sense of the word. The younger generation see us and have a blueprint to do what we doing but bigger and better.

What are some notable ways that you’ve advocated for cannabis reform in both Albany and Washington DC? Why is it important to advocate for future cannabis reforms in both cities?

I’ve only had the opportunity to advocate for cannabis reform in DC so far, I will get to Albany soon. In DC, we joined NCIA in May and lobbied for 2 days speaking to Senators and their Teams about Safer Banking and rescheduling. It’s extremely important because sometimes they do not know the issues and hardships we are facing. They need people to bring it to their attention over and over again until they say alright it’s time we do something about this. We are pioneering a whole industry that currently is not set up for us to win so it will take a lot of rolling up our sleeves and getting our hands dirty. We can not be lazy or hope someone else fights for us.

From your experience in both New York’s capital and the national capital, what are the most effective ways fellow cannabis advocates can advocate for cannabis reform at the state and federal level?

My opinion with politics is always the same. Do as the big players do, get together with our fellow dispensaries, processors, distributors, cultivators, put our funds and resources together and find State and Federal representatives with power who will champion for us.

What do you predict the next few years will bring for the New York cannabis industry? Do you think the CAURD program will expand, and how do you think New York cannabis businesses will be impacted by partial cannabis rescheduling?

I predict a lot of consolidation, people are buying up stores left and right so it will be a handful of chains around NY with 20 to 30+ stores. The CAURD program will be dismantled most likely as it has no benefits and the state reneged on everything they promised. The partial rescheduling is very detrimental to Adult Use businesses as that is the majority of dispensaries in the country. Many Adult use businesses will go under or get bought out due to not being able to sustain. The medical operators just so happen to have more money and political connections so of course they received the rescheduling.

Thank you for joining us, Brandon! For more information on TRENDS, please visit its website.