Weed isn’t even legal in the state of New York yet, but the unofficial international holiday known as 4/20 doesn’t wait for silly old rules. A new medical marijuana dispensary from the West Coast dubbed the “Apple Stores of retail weed” according to Time Out will officially open its first Manhattan store on 4/20.
The dispensary will be the latest branch of Los Angeles-based cannabis company MedMen, which is gunning for the New York City market. The new store will be one of just three dispensaries legally permitted to operate in Manhattan.
It looks like MedMen’s reputation for the Apple Store-esque vibes of its stores will remain intact. The space, located on Fifth Avenue (at 39th Street, for those in the know), is a massive 2,000 square feet and promises to sell tinctures, gel caps, and vaporizers. The investment is a large one in a state that has yet to even legalize weed for recreational use; the only people who will be able to legally purchase anything at the new store will be those who need it for medical purposes and have the appropriate documentation to prove it.
Still, though, it’s worth nothing that a recent study found that New Yorkers are the biggest marijuana consumers in the world. The state smokes, vapes, and ingests the drug in various forms to the tune of 77.44 metric tons per year—that’s twice as much as Los Angeles.
MedMen has a number of other locations across California and Las Vegas, and it has also entered the New York market with locations on Long Island, Syracuse, and Buffalo. Moreover, MedMen has a cultivation and production facility in Utica.
MedMen call themselves the first billion-dollar values cannabis company in the U.S.
