Officers celebrated the opening of Matawana Dispensary, the primary Black woman-owned authorized hashish dispensary in Brooklyn, on Thursday, February 29, 2024.
Photograph courtesy of Michael Appleton/Mayoral Images Workplace
Brooklyn’s first dispensary owned by a Black lady opened in Park Slope on Thursday as honor Mayor Eric Adams pledged to crack down on unlawful weed shops in New York Metropolis.
Adams joined East New York resident Leeann Mata to have a good time her new store, Matawana Cannabis Dispensary, at fifth Avenue and 14th Avenue. Matawana is the sixth authorized dispensary to open in Kings County after the state resolved a protracted authorized battle that held up licensing — the borough’s first authorized retail marijuana retailer opened in Gravesend simply over two months in the past.
“I’m inspired to see the quickening tempo of authorized retail dispensary openings within the metropolis and thank our colleagues at Hashish NYC and the Workplace of Hashish Administration for all that they’re doing to assist the expansion of the native market,” stated Deputy Mayor for Housing, Financial Growth, and Workforce Maria Torres-Springer, in a press release.
New York’s hashish regulation prioritizes leveling the sector for individuals most impacted by marijuana prohibition — which incorporates Mata and her household.
Her father was assaulted and arrested for marijuana offenses, Mata stated at a press convention on Thursday, and three of her 5 brothers even have previous marijuana prices on account of stop-and-frisk insurance policies.
“We have been simply school college students with anxiousness, and wished a manner out,” she stated. “We additionally wished a method to not must take treatment however use pure herbs.”
Matawana’s web site is stocked with marijuana flower, pre-rolls, edibles and infused drinks, and topical THC balms meant to appease aching muscular tissues and moisturize pores and skin.
Mata has employed 21 younger workers, she stated, and was glad to have the ability to provide them a dwelling wage and a way to assist their households.
“Draconian prohibition legal guidelines price my household nearly every little thing, however the plant itself is a therapeutic herb,” Mata stated in a press release. “When it turned authorized, I used it to deal with my anxiousness and created formulations that helped my mom with ache and helped her conquer an opioid habit. I’ve been capable of assist elders with selfmade CBD lotions.”
Opening the shop on the final day of Black Historical past Month confirmed that town is “taking steps to proper the wrongs of the previous by supporting equitable development within the authorized hashish business,” Adams stated. However celebrating new dispensaries isn’t sufficient.
“We should additionally shut down the unlawful operators that threaten the success of authorized outlets and put the security of our communities in danger,” he stated. “We’ve been clear in our name to state lawmakers to offer us the facility to close down unlawful smoke outlets, and we are going to proceed to work with Governor [Kathy] Hochul and all our companions in Albany who’re combating to offer us this authority.”
Although leisure marijuana was legalized in New York State in March 2021, the primary legal dispensary didn’t open in New York Metropolis for greater than a yr, in December 2022. The rollout was even slower within the outer boroughs.
Within the meantime, tons of of “gray-market” weed shops bloomed all around the metropolis, profiting from authorized loopholes that made cracking down on the companies arduous. Now that authorized dispensaries are opening, house owners and prospects are frustrated by the unlawful outlets, which largely promote unregulated merchandise.
Because the metropolis’s first authorized dispensary opened, officers have ramped up enforcement — police have confiscated huge quantities of marijuana from grey-market shops and compelled others to close altogether – however the metropolis continues to be combating for the authority to examine and shut them down.
The New York Metropolis Sheriff’s Workplace has seized greater than $29 million in “illicit merchandise” from unlawful dispensaries and located that 92% of retailers it inspected have been violating the regulation, stated Sheriff Anthony Miranda on Thursday.
“The Sheriff’s Workplace will proceed to work with our accomplice businesses on the route of Mayor Adams to conduct inspections of unlicensed smoke outlets so the authorized market can thrive,” Miranda stated. “As we defend our kids and households from these unregulated merchandise, we encourage those who do take part on this market to buy at a licensed location the place the merchandise are regulated and secure.”
