NEW YORK (AP) — New York’s first legal recreational marijuana dispensary saw its first sales Thursday, opening what is expected to be one of the nation’s most lucrative cannabis markets — highlighted by dozens of over-the-counter stores license that have operated outdoors for years.
The long-awaited opening of the first state-licensed dispensary, operated by the nonprofit Housing Works, paves the way for a series of openings expected in the coming months in New York. The state legalized recreational marijuana use in March 2021.
“We’re absolutely thrilled to be the first, and hopefully we’re setting a model for other people to follow,” said Charles King, executive director of Housing Works, a minority-owned social service agency that serves people with HIV and AIDS. as well as those who are homeless and formerly incarcerated.
The Lower Manhattan store is the first of 36 new dispensaries approved to open, with 139 more licenses to be issued by the State Office of Cannabis Administration and 900 applicants still waiting to hear back. Among the first licensees were eight non-profit organizations that included Housing Works.
The Cannabis Showcase adjoins New York University’s sprawling urban campus.
“This location is a perfect location. We’re between the West Village and the East Village,” King said at a news conference Thursday morning. “Tourists can easily come here. So we think we’re going to bring a lot of sales here.”
In front of a group of cameras, Chris Alexander, the first executive director of the state’s cannabis office, made his first purchase: watermelon-flavored chewing gum and a box of marijuana flowers.
“It took a lot of work to get to this point,” Alexander said. “We still have a lot of work to do, many stores to open.”
Housing Works officials said the dispensary has already received more than 2,000 reservations to make purchases.
Media specialist Ben Gilbert, 38, smoked a weed cigarette right outside the new store and said he was looking forward to the store’s official opening at 4.20pm on Thursday.
“As a consumer, I’m happy to finally go to a store and buy New York-grown cannabis,” he said.
New York City Councilwoman Carlina Rivera also bought gum and said she no longer has to travel out of state for legal cannabis. He predicted more openings will be a boon to the state and city economy.
“We’re the financial center of the world, the biggest city on earth, and I think now people will come here to enjoy all kinds of things,” he said.
New York has joined nearly two dozen other US states in legalizing recreational marijuana. But unlike many other states, New York has reserved its first round of retail licenses for nonprofits as well as convicted marijuana applicants and their relatives, an acknowledgment of the inequities wrought by the country’s war on drugs.
He also planned a $200 million public-private fund to help what he called “social equity” candidates.
“I’ve seen firsthand the ravages of the war on drugs on people who use drugs, especially the most marginalized and low-income,” King said.
King said his nonprofit hires people who have been convicted of marijuana. Housing Works applied for a license because it wanted “an opportunity to mitigate some of the harsh circumstances involved in the criminalization of both cannabis and other drugs,” he said.
“Today marks a milestone in our efforts to create the fairest cannabis industry in the country,” New York City Mayor Eric Adams said in a statement. “The opening of our state’s first statutory dispensary right here in New York City is more than a promising step for this budding industry — it’s a new chapter for those most affected by the failed policies of the past.”
Governor Kathy Hochul called the first legal sale of cannabis for adults “a historic milestone in New York’s cannabis industry.”
___ See AP’s full coverage of marijuana issues here: https://apnews.com/hub/marijuana
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