New York’s first legal recreational marijuana dispensary opened Thursday in midtown Manhattan.
More than 100 people packed into the dispensary in New York’s East Village, run by the nonprofit Housing Works, a group dedicated to fighting homelessness and AIDS.
“The first legal sales of adult-use cannabis mark a historic milestone for the cannabis industry in New York City,” said Gov. Kathy Hochul, who oversees the fourth-most populous state in the United States.
Hochul said in a statement that he expects New York to serve “as a national model for the safe, equitable and inclusive industry we’re building.”
Former criminals get their first licenses
Housing Works was among the first of 36 groups or individuals to obtain a marijuana retail license on Nov. 21.
New York’s stated goal is to grant the first 150 licenses to merchants convicted in the past of possessing or selling cannabis.
The goal is to repair what Hochul described as the unjust and disproportionate impact of decades of marijuana prohibition on African-American and Hispanic communities.
The marijuana dispensary’s tax revenues will be “invested in communities across the state to support public schools, addiction services, mental health services, housing and other community programs,” the statement said.
The Housing Works Cannabis Co. Dispensary is conveniently located on Broadway Avenue, just north of Astor Place.
Inside the store, speaking to reporters, New York State Senator Liz Krueger said she expects the increase in legal marijuana dispensaries to help “those who have been most affected by the failures of the cannabis criminalization policies of the past”.
A bargain
Even hardline Mayor Eric Adams, a former police officer, nodded in favor of the dispensaries’ economic benefits, saying “the legal cannabis market could be a real boon to New York’s economic recovery…thanks to an increase of tax revenues”.
In a festive mood at the store, Housing Works founder Charles King said he “looks forward to reinvesting profits to provide essential services to tens of thousands of New Yorkers in need.”
Manhattan Borough President Mark Levine came to the grand opening and insisted on buying cannabis products, including candy.
For more than a year, it has been legal for adults over the age of 21 to consume cannabis in New York State, and in its flagship city, the smell of weed fills the streets of Manhattan and Brooklyn.
City expects $1.3 billion in sales by 2023 and 19,000 to 24,000 new jobs over three years.
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