39-year-old's cannabis business brings in $800,000 a month—16 years after he went to prison for selling drugs

A lot can change in 16 years.

In 2009, a drug conviction landed Coss Marte a seven-year prison sentence. This year, Marte expects to bring in as much as $12 million selling cannabis legally.

Marte, 39, is the founder and CEO of Conbud, one of the first businesses fully-licensed to sell recreational cannabis in Manhattan, and the first in the city's Lower East Side. After first opening its doors in October 2023, Conbud added a second location in the Bronx last April.

Marte's business currently brings in roughly $800,000 in sales per month, including nearly $100,000 in profit, according to documents reviewed by CNBC Make It. Marte projects a final tally of roughly $7 million for 2024, he says.

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After being granted an early release from prison in 2013, Marte launched a fitness business called Conbody, based on his workout regimen from behind bars. Then, in 2021, New York legalized the sale of recreational cannabis and expunged all past convictions for marijuana-related offenses.

A year later, the state announced that entrepreneurs with past marijuana convictions would be eligible to receive the first licenses for selling recreational weed. Given his experience running Conbody and the requirements laid out by the state for retail licensees, Marte saw a golden business opportunity, he says.

"I was following this law, and what they required was two years of a net profitable business and a conviction on your record," says Marte. "Now, how many people have that to qualify for a cannabis license? Not many."

Marte grew up on the Lower East Side, surrounded by an illicit drug trade that ensnared him at age 13, after he saw other teens making money that way, he says.

"When