The dispensary was opened in New York City’s East Village by Housing Works, a non-profit organisation that fights homelessness and Aids.
“We’re prioritising repairing harm, harm that’s been done even by the state’s own policies,” Chris Alexander, the inaugural executive director of the New York State Office of Cannabis Management, told a crowded news conference at the store. “It’s no accident that disproportionately people who are incarcerated for possession and sale of drugs are people who are Black, Latino or Latina.”
A gray market has flourished in the interim, with unlicensed retailers illegally selling cannabis out of stores and slickly branded vans across New York City.Alexander, the state marijuana director, said local and state law enforcement have been educating gray-market vendors on the licensing rules, following up with cease-and-desist letters and, more recently, seizing merchandise.
At Housing Works, some of the smokable flower, which sells for between $20 and $30 for about 3.5g, and the pre-rolled joints are from marijuana that Florist Farms in Cortland produced in upstate New York.
The drug? Drug ke mmao.