This article was originally published on Cash Only. Sign up for the newsletter and follow Cash Only on Twitter
At the dawn of recreational cannabis sales in NYC, Cash Only spent a night in December visiting every single bodega, smoke shop, grey market dispensary, and exotic snacks purveyor in downtown Manhattan.
At the dawn of legal recreational cannabis sales in New York, Cash Only spent a night in December visiting every single bodega, smoke shop, grey market dispensary, and exotic snacks purveyor in downtown Manhattan — well over two dozen stores that sell green between Houston Street and Broome Street.
December 29th, 2022 marked the opening of NYC’s first licensed dispensary, the nonprofit Housing Works on Broadway. Now, more and more of these underground shops are neighbors with the “official” ones.
We wanted to talk to the people who run these not-so-clandestine spots about their businesses and get their thoughts on what to expect in 2023. Are they predicting crackdowns? Will the new state-licensed competition make it harder to survive? What type of weed do New Yorkers like best, and do they even care if it’s officially regulated?
Along the way, we made some buds at shops like Empire Cannabis Club, Granny Za’s, NYC Exotic Snacks, and more.
Watch the video, and stay tuned for more neighborhood-specific New York weed shop tours in the very near future. There’s a psychoactive seachange underway in The Big Apple, and we’ll continue documenting it in real-time.
Follow Cash Only
About Zach Sokol
Zach Sokol is a writer, editor, and the founder of www.cashonly.studio. He is also the co-editor of Sex Magazine. Previously, he was the editor of MERRY JANE, an editor at VICE, and has written extensively for publications like Playboy, Penthouse, i-D, Double Blind, and more. Visit his website www.zachsokol.com and follow him on Twitter and Instagram @zachsokol.
Enjoyed that first hit? Come chill with us every week at the Friday Sesh for a freshly packed bowl of the week’s best cannabis news!
