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United StatesIt’s legal: The first cannabis shop opens in New York
Since Thursday it has been perfectly legal to buy cannabis in the official shops of the State of New York: the very first activity authorized by the authorities has been opened in Manhattan.
Behind this first official shop is the Housing Works association, which helps HIV-positive people, ex-convicts and the homeless.
Getty Images via AFP
More than 100 people crowded the trendy boutique-like premises of Housing Works, a non-profit organization, the first to open under license from New York State, out of 36 permits issued since Nov. 21.
“The first sale of legal cannabis for adults represents a historic milestone for the cannabis industry in New York,” said Democratic Governor Kathy Hochul of the US fourth state.
The leader cheered in a statement, “Today is just the beginning and I look forward to continuing our efforts to make (State of) New York a national model for industry that is safe, fair, and for as many , that we are in the process of building”.
Former drug offenders
Behind this first official shop is the Housing Works association, which helps HIV-positive people, ex-convicts and the homeless.
Because the immense state of New York, whose territory extends to Canada and the Great Lakes, wants to grant the first 150 licenses to traders convicted in the past for possessing or selling cannabis.
The goal: to remedy what he now sees as the unfair and disproportionate impact of decades of prohibition of “marijuana,” the criminalization of which he believes has particularly targeted African-American and Hispanic communities.
“Missed penalty”
In the shop, during a press presentation, local New York State Senator Liz Krueger, who led the project to legalize this trade, said she was “honored to participate in the launch of adult cannabis retail”. She welcomed cooperation between authorities and Housing Works for “marginalized communities” which have been “hardest hit by the failure of past policies to criminalize cannabis”.
Even the fiery mayor of the New York megalopolis Eric Adams, a former police officer, acknowledged in a press release that “the legal cannabis market could be a boon to New York’s economic recovery (…) by raising the income tax” .
In an atmosphere of celebration and applause, Charles King, founder of Housing Works in 1990, declared that he “can’t wait to reinvest the profits to provide essential services (housing and health, ed) to tens of thousands of New Yorkers needy”. .
Around him, Manhattan Borough Mayor Mark Levine and director of the cannabis management office for the state of New York Chris Alexander bought, moved, products containing cannabis: dried plants, electronic cigarettes or gummies.
For more than a year, it has been legal for an adult over the age of 21 to consume cannabis in New York State, and in its flagship city, the smell of weed has invaded the streets of Manhattan and Brooklyn. . City is counting on $1.3 billion in sales from 2023 and 19,000 to 24,000 jobs created in three years.
(AFP extension)
