First NY Adult-Use Cannabis Dispensary Is Open

and then big news here in new york city, the first legal dispensary for recreational marijuana in new york state is now open crowds turned out to housing works cannabis company thursday for its grand opening in Manhattan's East Village. The stories operated by a new york city based HIV and AIDS nonprofit and customers can get everything they want their from pre world joints edibles to cannabis Vape kits, new york legalized recreational use of marijuana back in March 2021. But it's taken until now for there to be a li eagle outpost where customers can finally get those products if they're over the age of 21. And it's just so incredible to think that it's taken this long, you know, over a year, basically of it being legal in this state to finally have a dispensary post. This is why a lot of people are saying that the illicit market is going to continue to thrive unless there's more sanctioned places by the state to actually buy this product. I mean, you make a great point bigger, that's actually kind of the root of everything that we're dealing with with these new dispensaries. You know, these, this batch of dispensaries that is opening, it's not major companies like, you know, Columbia Care, Cure leaf, These are actually non profits and individuals who have been directly harmed by the war on drugs. So their survival as businesses is really crucial to new york state regulators, it's kind of at the core of what they're trying to build with this market. And to your point baker, you know, after the passage of the bill here in new york to legalize cannabis, a crop of unlicensed operators kind of got up and running and what's so deceptive about these operators is in many cases, they're telling that they're complying with the law. Some are lying about being licensed, some are lying about testing their products. You know, there was actually a report that came out suggesting that 40% of products from unlicensed dispensaries here in new york city were contaminated with, with led E coli, salmonella. So it is really a public health risk. However, yesterday, oh cm, Executive director chris alexander was kind of outlining ways that the state is really attempting to boost businesses of folks like um, you know, housing works, this first dispensary, they were first issuing cease and desist letters. Now, they're actually seizing product and they seized about £4 million of cannabis. So they're actually taking action. But you know, to your point, these people don't have to test their products, they don't have to pay taxes. So who knows if this enforcement is going to be enough to keep this business really quickly. Having been to this place yesterday, what was your sort of initial reaction to it? I mean, you know, it's, it's hard to say it looked great, but at the moment they're kind of operating with a bit of a handicap, they had six brands available in about 100 products that's because when you're building a market from the ground up, the supply chain isn't in place. So by the end of february, the Ceo Charles King said they anticipate to have over a dozen brands available, but it's only one location serving all of new york, all of new york and new york city, which is just insane to think about.