New York’s first authorized leisure marijuana dispensary opened on Thursday within the coronary heart of Manhattan.

Greater than 100 folks crowded into the dispensary in New York Metropolis’s East Village, run by the nonprofit Housing Works, a bunch devoted to combating homelessness and AIDS.

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“The primary authorized adult-use hashish gross sales mark a historic milestone in New York’s hashish business,” mentioned Governor Kathy Hochul, who oversees the fourth most populous US state.

Hochul mentioned in a press release that she expects New York to serve “as a nationwide mannequin for the secure, equitable and inclusive business we at the moment are constructing.”

Ex-felons get first licenses

Housing Works was among the many first of 36 teams or people granted a retail marijuana license on November 21.

The said purpose of New York is to grant the primary 150 licenses to merchants convicted prior to now for possession or sale of hashish.

The purpose is to restore what Hochul described because the unfair and disproportionate influence of a long time of prohibition of marijuana, which has affected African American and Hispanic communities.

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Tax revenues from the marijuana dispensaries will “be invested in communities throughout the state to assist public colleges, habit companies, psychological well being companies, housing and different community-based packages,” her assertion mentioned.

The Housing Works Hashish Co. dispensary is at a main location — on Broadway Avenue simply north of Astor Place.

Contained in the store, talking to reporters, New York state senator Liz Krueger mentioned she expects the ramp up of authorized marijuana dispensaries will assist “these most impacted by the failed hashish criminalization insurance policies of the previous.”