Medical Marijuana Joint Opens on Fifth Ave.

POSTED BY
Evelyn Kanter

Medical marijuana dispensaries have been growing like weeds around the USA, and New York City has joined the party. The newest NYC dispensary opens later this week near Bryant Park, joining others in Murray Hill, the East Village, Queens and Bronx.

MedMen claims to be a “class leading” retail shop that just happens to sell marijuana and marijuana products.

It opens on Friday, 4/20 (of course) at 433 Fifth Avenue, just off 42nd St., replacing one of those luggage and souvenir shops we New Yorkerslove to hate.

MedMen is an import from California, like some of the product they sell

The new pot shop will be a large, 10,000 square foot dispensary, selling only to New York State residents who are medically qualified to purchase pot. That means a note from your doctor is required to purchase anything.

Available products include vape pens and gel caps. We don’t know if they’ll be selling pot cookies or gummy bears.

Another marijuana dispensary a few blocks away, at 143 E. 39th St, is a women-owned medical marijuana company, which also operates dispensaries in Yonkers, Kingston and Syracuse.

Sorry MedMen, but NYC on the Cheap recommends doing business with a women-owned local company over an out-of-state company able to afford stiff Fifth Avenue rents.

Etain, the woman-owned company, is licensed by the New York State Department of Health to grow and sell medical marijuana, under the state’s medical marijuana law, known as the Compassionate Care Act.

It is one of five companies allowed to do so by tNew York State.

In addition to the Murray Hill shop, other medical marijuana shops operating in the city are:

Columbia Care at 212 E. 14th St. in Manhattan. There are walk-in hours on Monday. Other days require an appointment
PharmaCann on Hunts Point Ave. in the Bronx and
Vireo Health on Queens Blvd. at 57th Ave. in Elmhurst is open daily..

According to the New York Daily News, Etain, like other medical marijuana growers in New York, has struggled as the state’s program has been slow to gain traction.

As of the middle of 2017, only 21,760 patients in New York had been certified by state-approved doctors to receive the drug.

Medical marijuana is used to relieve symptoms of multiple sclerosis, cancer and autism.

The NYState health department recently announced it is expanding the program by allowing doctors, nurse practitioners and physician assistants to register patients online and allow same day certification.

In case you don’t know, “420” is code for lighting up.

Image courtesy MarijuanaPolitics.com