St. John's and Hofstra Cannabis Law Societies Close Out the Year at a Licensed Queens Dispensary

On Friday, May 15, 2026, the St. John's Cannabis Law Society and Hofstra's Cannabis Law Society held their end-of-year game night at Silk Road NYC, a licensed cannabis dispensary at 166-30 Jamaica Ave in Jamaica, Queens. The night was on the May calendar of High Functions, the event space in the back of our store, and the St. John's society invited its members to celebrate the end of the 2025-2026 school year and its graduating 3Ls with Hofstra.

Law students have come through our space more than once. That night was the one with both schools in the room.

I am Sohan Bashar, the owner. I hold one of New York's first retail cannabis licenses, and I opened this store at 33. When people who are about to practice cannabis law pick a licensed dispensary to close out their year, I take it seriously. Here is why I think they come, and how other groups can do the same.

Silk Road NYC is not affiliated with, sponsored by or endorsed by St. John's University or Hofstra University. Student groups named here chose to hold their own event in our space.

Why a law student comes to a dispensary

Cannabis law in New York is young. On March 31, 2021, the state signed the Marihuana Regulation and Taxation Act, the MRTA, which legalized adult-use cannabis for people 21 and over and set a goal of awarding half of adult-use licenses to social and economic equity applicants. The regulations under it are still being written, challenged and rewritten. A student who reads them in a casebook in the fall can watch them work at a counter in the spring.

The first retail licenses went to CAURD applicants: Conditional Adult-Use Retail Dispensary. The state reserved them for justice-involved people, meaning someone convicted of a marihuana-related offense in New York before the MRTA, or whose close family member was, who could also show they had run a business. Silk Road NYC holds CAURD license OCM-CAURD-24-000062, and it is on the state list at cannabis.ny.gov/dispensary-location-verification. My side of that story is in the owner letter.

What you can see from the counter

Everything a cannabis lawyer argues about shows up in a licensed store:

• Age verification. Every customer shows a government photo ID proving they are 21 or older, at the door, at the counter and at delivery.
• Seed-to-sale tracking. Every package carries a Metrc QR code from the state's tracking system, so a product can be traced from the licensed grower to our shelf.
• Testing and labels. Everything we sell was tested by a state-licensed lab, carries New York's universal cannabis symbol and comes with a certificate of analysis on request.
• Advertising rules. New York limits how a dispensary can market: no appeal to anyone under 21, required health warnings, and no claims a lab report cannot back. We write every post on this site to stay inside those rules.
• Hours and premises. A dispensary sells only during the hours it has on file with the state and only from its licensed premises, which is why we tell people that Silk Road sells only inside our store and through our own delivery.
• Delivery. Our own licensed drivers check ID at the door, and the person who ordered has to be the one who receives it.

Law students ask the questions you would expect: how a license transfer works, what happens when a landlord changes, what an inspection looks like. I answer what I can, and I tell them to verify the rest against the primary source. That is the habit their professors are trying to teach anyway.

Questions worth bringing to the counter

If your society is planning a visit, these are the questions that make for the best conversation, because each one runs straight into a rule:

• How does a store prove a product was tested before it hit the shelf, and what does the certificate of analysis actually show?
• What does a licensee have to report to the state, and how often?
• What can a dispensary say in an ad, a post or a text message, and what can it not say?
• How do delivery rules handle ID checks at the door?
• What happens to a license when the owner's lease, partners or location change?
• What did the equity promise in the MRTA look like on the ground for the first CAURD licensees, and what has changed since?

Nobody at the counter is your lawyer, and nothing we say is legal advice. But you will leave with better questions for the regulations, the court filings and the Office of Cannabis Management itself.

Why it matters to me

When I was coming up, a cannabis charge could follow someone for life. Now law students are spending their Friday nights in a licensed store owned by someone the law was written to bring in. That is not a small change, and the people who will argue the next round of these rules should see what the first round built. If they leave knowing where the system works and where it does not, the night was worth it.

The room

High Functions is the event space inside Silk Road NYC. The rules are simple:

• 21+ with ID, the same as the store.
• Entry with a $20 or more purchase per person.
• Nothing is consumed on site. The room is for games, talks, workshops and music.

Tuesdays are HISCORE League gaming tournaments, Fridays are game nights, and the rest of the calendar changes month to month. The history of the space covers everything from paint nights to community panels, and the events page has what is coming next.

For student groups, bar associations and clinics

If you run a law-school society, a bar association committee, a legal clinic or a policy group and want a room for a game night, a panel or a year-end social:

1. Make sure every guest will be 21 or older with ID. That is not negotiable inside a licensed dispensary.
2. Call 347-233-3879 or ask at the counter with your date, your headcount and what you want to do.
3. Plan for the $20 or more purchase per person that comes with entry.

We will not dress up the event as anything it is not, and we do not need you to promote us. The best thing a group like yours can do is ask hard questions.

Coming in from Hofstra and Long Island

Hofstra is in Hempstead, and most Long Island Rail Road branches run through Jamaica Station. From there it is about a 20 minute walk east along Jamaica Ave, or a short ride. Plenty of Long Island customers already make the trip; here is why. Walking maps from every station.

From St. John's, the Q31 runs from Utopia Pkwy to Hillside Ave and 169th St, five blocks from our door. The St. John's guide has the stops.

Our online dispensary, for everyone else

You do not need a society membership to shop. Silk Road NYC is a licensed online dispensary as well as a store: order on the live menu for pickup, usually ready in about 15 minutes, or for same-day delivery from 166-30 Jamaica Ave. Jamaica ZIPs 11432 to 11436 are a $1 fee on a $50 minimum, and every delivery includes FREE live GPS tracking on the tracker.

Hours

Google lists us at 10 AM to 9 PM Sunday to Wednesday and 10 AM to 10 PM Thursday to Saturday. Hours may change soon, so check today's hours on Google or call 347-233-3879 before a late trip.

Related reading: the owner letter · dispensary near St. John's University · cannabis dispensary in Jamaica, Queens.