The choices on where to buy legal recreational marijuana in New York are expanding as a second dispensary opens its door in Manhattan.
When Roland Conner opened his dispensary doors at 144 Bleecker St. Tuesday morning, he became the first person with a cannabis conviction in the state to legally open a pot shop.
Smacked, Conner's store, opens for a nearly month-long "soft" launch in what used to be a Greenwich Village drug store.
New York is giving priority for retail licenses to people with prior marijuana convictions. It's seen as a move to balance the injustices of old laws that often ended with a disproportionate number of convictions for minority defendants.
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The first round of marijuana retail licenses were greenlit for three dozen businesses, making way for the first legal dispensary to open last month off Broadway, also in Manhattan.
Roland Conner is opening Smacked with his wife and son, and with the support of the New York Social Equity Cannabis Investment Fund and Bronx Cannabis Hub.
"I am so excited to become a part of history as the first individual to open a legal cannabis dispensary in New York City. Given my experience with cannabis, I never could have imagined that I would be opening a store like this," Conner said in a statement.
"But this is not just about me and my family. This is about everyone who was harmed by the draconian drug laws of the past. New York's commitment to righting those wrongs through the law is inspiring. I am proof of that commitment because I'm standing here today," he added.
Conner's shop opening is part of the state's "Pop-up" program to help stores receive an initial capital boost before a permanent opening down the road.
"As with some other initial dispensaries to be supported by the Fund, this will provide licensees the opportunity to open on a short-term basis to fast-track sales and start generating capital for their businesses, after which they will close for final construction and then re-open on a long-term basis," the governor's office said Thursday.
The first legal dispensary for recreational pot in New York opened Dec. 28 on the corner of Broadway and Astor Place. It marked a long-awaited launch of a marijuana industry that could become one of the country's most lucrative.
And more are on the way. An opening date has been set for another dispensary -- called "Union Square Travel Agency." It will open in an old Chase Bank near the Union Square subway station.
It is set to have its soft opening on Feb. 13th. Of the proceeds, 51 percent will go to the Doe Fund, which provides housing, career training and counseling to marginalized people living in NYC.
New York legalized the recreational use of marijuana in March 2021.
