New York’s Cannabis industry - One Year in review
When it comes to culture - no matter what it is, New York is without a doubt a hot spot. Whether that be fashion, food, music, and beyond. Now, 2024 has proven that's true for Cannabis too.
With over $1 billion dollars in revenue, hundreds of brand-new dispensaries, and a mountain of lengthy legal proceedings, Is New York City's cannabis industry truly blossoming - or on the verge of burning up?
Mary-Jane in Manhattan -
One year of cannabis in NYC
A Retrospective look into NYC’s newest and most lucrative industry.
Written by Aaryn Indica
THE CURRENT CULTURE of CANNABIS
It’s safe to say, the cash is flowing in New York City's cannabis industry.
With the state’s Office of Cannabis Management (OCM) happily touting over a billion dollars of revenue in 2024, New York City is no doubt becoming a big player in the international cannabis industry.
No shortage of creative companies grace the store shelves of dispensaries across the city, selling everything from THC tea bags to pill-sized tablets. Infused vegan gummies & gourmet chocolates are often sold right next to shiny high-tech THC vapes.
While emerging markets like Thailand have cultivated a culture of easy access, laid-back aesthetics and old-school flower smoking - New York’s cannabis market is taking the classy, creative - and potentially corporate - road.
Dispensaries in the city are sleek and streamlined, equipped with extensive menus on Dutchie -powered iPads. Many of them are steps away from the most populated and frequented subway stations like Union Square, Canal Street, or even the infamous Times Square. They're integrated seamlessly into spaces that make them accessible to almost anybody (over 21, that is). And with delivery operations becoming a growing trend for dispensaries, that fact is now truer than ever.
In a city with decades of legacy cannabis culture, New York state’s legalization has been a long time coming. On an international scale, NYC’s influence has the potential to shape the history of weed - and its legalization - in wonderful and interesting ways.
But that begs the question - Will Wall St. and wealth be the defining factors of NYC’s legal market? Who will be the ones defining it? And most importantly - what does that mean for the New Yorkers who actually smoke pot?
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The Winners
THE CHAINS
In the early months of 2024, New York City saw a set of promising cannabis chains setting up shop.
Housing Works - a non-profit that provides health services, housing, and other help to New York’s notable LGBTQ+ community - was one of the first. Using the same tactics as their trendy thrift stores, the inside of Housing Works Cannabis Co comes off as clean and cultured, like the numerous art galleries across the neighborhood. Inclusivity & philanthropy are chic in the city, so there’s a focus on companies led by women, BIPOC, and those that consider themselves LGBTQ+.
So far, it seems like Housing Works has lots of potential to grow - They recently welcomed their second store in Manhattan’s up-&-coming NoMad neighborhood.
While this may sound small, it’s still a good sign for the market.
Housing Works is just one of the few companies solidifying a strong string of branches and dispensaries across the city, with flashy names and logos that stick in the minds of locals and tourists alike.
Cookies has established itself as one of the first California-brands to enter and dominate the New York market.
Cookies, one of California's most prominent cannabis brands, is known most-notably for its signature and unmistakable cobalt blue branding. It’s the same shade you can see on the outside of Culture House, the brand’s new shop on 34th Street in Herald Square - just a stone's throw away from Macy’s historical flagship store.
Its bright blue color alone is enough to remind the informed stoner of Cookies’ cultural clout. Inside, large pictures of the brand’s owner - Berner - harken back to the cool and over-the-top cannabis culture of the West Coast. Upstairs, a open rooftop leaves space for cyphs, organized events, and even cannabis yoga classes.
To many versed in the legal industry - Cookies is nothing short of iconic, with many of their strains, like Girl Scout Cookies, gracing the shelves of dispensaries they don’t even own.
Cookies’ presence and success could be considered the first of many large out-of-state cannabis brands staking their claim in the NY market. A sign that may not be good for underfunded in-state brands.
Then there’s Travel Agency - another emerging tycoon. A peculiarly branded chain of dispensaries, the company takes inspiration from the tiled platforms of the city’s subway systems. The decor of its dispos are seemingly just as random as their name, with spaces that evoke spaceships in outer space or brutalist dystopian cement-covered smoothness.
That’s probably why Travel Agency finds much of its market with (unsurprisingly) tourists.
While winning over customers of the legacy market may be a struggle - Travel Agency is cornering a more amicable market - the cannabis curious. Though, this isn’t new. Called ‘cannabis tourism’, cannabis markets from Thailand to The Netherlands have been taking advantage of this phenomena for a while now.
The sleek facades and minimalistic design of Travel Agency is alluring for tourists from locations where cannabis is less than legal, turning the hippie herb we all know and love into a luxury fit for 5th avenue.
But not all that glitters is gold - behind closed doors, many NYC cannabis workers report that Travel Agency is plagued by extremely high turn-over rates in employees, little to no training, and a competitive, profit-driven work culture.
THE CREATIONS
The chains aren’t the only ones cashing in.
With the legal market struggling to convert local cannabis users from the legacy market - traditional flower smoking surprisingly isn’t the center of attention. In the city known for its modern and creative prowess, cannabis brands across the boroughs are seeking creative and innovative new outlets.
That is - edibles and vaporizers.
Foodies can find themselves surrounded by dozens of edible offerings - from THC-infused soda, teas, and drink packets to kosher-certified gummies and ethically-sourced dark chocolates. Even infused cooking ingredients have hit the market in brands like the cleverly named Chef for Higher (- take it from me, their extra virgin olive oil and honey is worth the positive reception).
For the fast-paced city consumer, dab pens and vaporizers are a beloved (and sometimes bougie) pick. Pods and carts with THC levels topping 90% and higher are the expected standard for most dispensary menus.
Although there’s no shortage of 510 carts, many brands seem to prefer proprietary technology - with disposables and brand-specific batteries often duking it out for the most user-friendly vaporizer design.
In a city full of fast-paced and fashionable busy-bodies, cannabis brands have found themselves focusing on two things: creativity and convenience. While California’s cultural influence in the New York market is a noticeable - almost unignorable - undercurrent, brands centered in the city still manage to display a unique and artful grittiness only known to the East Coast. From the canna-curious to the connoisseur, New York City truly has everything you could ever consider - and more.
Innovation in cannabis and the creative inventory that grace dispensary menus and shelves are a sign of New York City's growing and evolving cannabis culture. One that is creative, classy and curious.
On the international scale, New York is interested in something new and daring in today’s world - truly pulling cannabis into the everyday, mundane, & mainstream. With chains as recognizable as McDonalds, and vaporizers that can replace your ElfBar. It’s very unlike the coziness of Amsterdam and their mastery of the breeding craft, or Thailand's carefree and rapidly adapting weed wonderland.
While the OCM battles the illicit, Wall Street is seemingly working their ‘magic’ on the weed industry. NY’s legal weed market is quickly shaping up to be a war of wealth, instead of weed.
But nobody said it would be easy. Or welcomed.
The woes
THE CHALLENGES
While some chains have managed to cash-in on brand recognition to corner the tourist market, the cannabis industry in the city isn't considerably kind otherwise.
Independent dispensaries and shops face insane tax and fees - plus insurmountable wait times. While quick on punishment, many find that the OCM isn't nearly as swift with approval.
Soaring rents and unclear wait times mean that many promising dispensaries can’t find a way to stay afloat throughout the months. They simply cannot afford to wait and pay.
Plus, operating outside of proper regulation to balance out the books only paves the way to more punishment.
Many legacy sellers hoping to find a home in the legal bud market instead found themselves entrapped by bureaucracy, and nearly going broke. Crushed by corporate competition, many dispensary owners are now claiming the OCM is ignoring the minimum proximity rule between retail locations - which only adds to the saturation and pressure.
If you don't have the cash to wait, the venture investment, or the rapid revenue, you’re simply left to waste away - That is, if you take the law into consideration.
Some however, don't.
In the span of a couple months, busy Brooklyn neighborhoods like Bushwick and Park Slope have developed a network of ever-changing (and legal-dubious) dispensaries and smoke lounges - some more reputable and well-loved than others.
Some even undistinguishable from legal locations, following the same protocol and procedures, but without a license.
Others posed a more shadier business - From the early days of legalization, in places with no lucrative license holders, lower income neighborhoods have been swamped with the inescapable: illicit smoke shops and dangerous cannabis products.
THE CLOSINGS
Ask any smoker in New York, and they’ll tell you about the onslaught of ‘Smoke Shops’.
Whether it be your local bodega or a ‘Rick & Morty’ themed cannabis candystore, there was a point where these illicit smoke shops could be seen on almost every block.
Many were (and are) full of suspicious or straight-up counterfeit products, some imitating brands from whatever places consumers like best - like Colorado and Cali. In the early months, brands like Stiiizy, PackMan and Jeter's became mainstay on the shelves of these shops.
If they were real or fake was anybody’s say.
These shops were the perfect climate for the creation of something sensationalized and completely unsafe - what is known today as ‘Spray Packs’.
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Now notorious in New York, these colorful mylar bags are covered in images of cake, fruits, ice cream, and desserts. Inside, scented terpenes are sprayed across B-grade cannabis flower for a more ‘flavorful’ smoking experience. Right now, they’re a sensation in the city. Especially with eager, low-income smokers - many living in pockets where the OCM hasn’t designated any local legal smoke spots.
The regulations and raids that crush the promising cannabis creatives don't stop the countless suspicious smoke shops that pop up in multiples across the city, driven by dangerous smoke packs and questionable counterfeit products like vapes and edibles.
Now, months after reckless raids that left many of the city's dubious smoke shops shuttered, people are asking if it might have been all for nothing.
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THE COURTS
Armed officers dressed in riot gear were the NYPD's response to these smokes shops, and nearly all dispensaries that didn't follow the letter of the ever-evolving law. Even those nearly identical to their legal counterparts, but left in license-limbo, found themselves subjected to sudden armed raids by NYPD officers. Many times without a warrant.
Lots of routine partakers were seeing many of their favorite local businesses seemingly disappear overnight.
Originally it had seemed that the OCM had earned itself a win. That was until late last year when a New York State judge ruled the NYPD's raids as unlawful.
Now it’s being discussed whether or not the NYPD's rapid shutdowns and raids have overstepped the rights of dispensary owners and cannabis retailers. Court cases and lawsuits are being aimed at the OCM, backed by those very owners.
One such case is the high-profile Empire Cannabis Clubs, owned by 30-year cannabis veteran Jonathan Elfand. After being subjected to years of raids and setbacks - Empire Cannabis Club is taking the OCM to court.
The lawsuit paints of picture of the NYPD’s ruthless raids. One shocking incident in the suit details a NYPD deputy allegedly threatened the life and family of an Empire Cannabis Club manager - in a raid she called ‘absolutely despicable’ and a ‘horrendous experience’.
In the OCM’s case - the battle against the legacy market is still ongoing - and in an apparent backslide.
The case is clear though - with the OCM's glacial approval pace, tenuous taxes and strict laws, it’s no wonder so many business owners are left in limbo. This in turn creates a climate where creative cannabis passion projects simply can’t thrive - and a dispensary experience that comes off as either chaotic and unsafe or corporate and clinical.
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THE CONCLUSION
Looking back on an extremely lucrative year for the international cannabis industry's most interesting newcomer, it’s safe to say - New York City is shaping up to truly change cannabis culture.
Legalization across the country is slow and slowing, but across the world cannabis is finally coming to light.
New York is creating a climate that past cannabis consumers could only dream of - by creating stores and experiences that make cannabis as commonplace as fashion or consumer electronics. (Whether that’s particularly good or not is up to you.)
New York City seeks to make cannabis classy and sophisticated, but it can never escape the plant’s gritty roots in the five boroughs. That culture definitely clashes with corporate interests, creating legal tensions and some consumer disenchantment.
But make no mistake, that could always change, and it is. 2025 brings new court proceedings and regulations that are shaping the way stores operate and approach cannabis as a fresh, blossoming market.
In the city that never sleeps, cannabis is finally in the spotlight.