Get the latest tech news

The wild,winding world of New York City's legal (& not-so-legal) cannabis market

A longtime casual weed dealer tries to navigate New York's legal cannabis market, with mixed success.

Traditionally, when people refer to “indica,” they are speaking of plants descending from India, Pakistan, and Afghanistan — mountainous regions with long winters that, over millennia, have favored “wide-leaf cultivars,” known for their higher narcotic content to induce sedation and aid in hibernation. The high-end design firm Cinema Vitae, who’ve also done interiors for Gucci, brought the store to life, complete with a convincingly real tree that looks like it’s straight out of a Jim Henson set, its branches reaching all the way to the 20-foot ceiling. I had considered applying for a license, but the state program — dubbed Conditional Adult Use Retail Dispensaries, or CAURD — under the banner of restorative justice, bestows preferential treatment upon individuals previously convicted of cannabis-related offenses in New York.

Get the Android app