Now that the state regulators have begun to finalize the rules for New York's marijuana industry, News 12 has learned of a newly formed group of entrepreneurs who hope to be among the first to get a license later this year.

Its members are bonded by tragedy.

The Turn To Tara team was first to report that the family members of George Floyd, Trayvon Martin, Eric Garner and Sean Bell, along with a well-known pastor from New York City, are teaming up to create a new company that will apply for a medical marijuana operating license. 

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In his first on-camera interview since helping form the team, Rev. Kirsten John Foy explained why that decision is so important to his community.

"It’s critically important that the community that bore the greatest injury and trauma and the greatest harm as a result of the war on drugs and mass incarceration, we have a moral, a political, a social and a fiduciary obligation to repair that harm. To take exceptional steps and exceptional measures to repair what has amounted to exceptional harm over decades," Foy said.

News 12 senior investigative reporter Tara Rosenblum will be spending the next year following Foy and his team on their journey to become pioneers in the field.

Legalized marijuana sales here in New York are expected to become a multi-billion-dollar industry once it's all up and running.