FILE — Michael Keren, left, and Scott Kisch smoke a marijuana cigarette during a "Joints for Jabs" event, April 20, 2021, in New York. New York began accepting applications, Thursday, Aug. 25, 2022, to open its first crop of legal recreational pot shops, taking a novel approach by reserving the first licenses for people with past pot convictions or their relatives. (AP Photo/Mark Lennihan, File)