As someone who started in the medical cannabis space, I was completely freaked out when the hemp CBD craze emerged. To this day, there’s no head of the hemp world. That’s why, for many years, when someone asked for a reliable CBD topical for sore muscles or a tincture for mental calm, I recommended TONIC. I interviewed the founder, Long Island native Brittany Carbone, for an article that centered around the tours she’d hosted at her hemp farm in 2018, and the more we talked, the more I was impressed. Carbone and her husband grew and harvested their own hemp, processed the plant material themselves, and formulated their own products. Carbone was among the only independent CBD brands growing their own hemp in 2017, and she was also an early face at cannabis-related events in general, helping build a new cannabis community of people looking to get into the legal cannabis or hemp game.

In addition to inviting tours out to the farm, Carbone is passionate about empowering people to make the most of their newfound right to grow cannabis at home and connecting good people, like when she helped Housing Works, New York’s first legal shop, get in touch with trusted, licensed brands when they were frantically filling shelves for launch. Now, TONIC has a THC line of vapes, gummies, and pre-rolls stocked in New York dispensaries in addition to their hemp CBD offerings, which is a damn good thing because while I am a fan of their gummies, their CBD face oil remains my skin’s favorite weed-related product.

Excerpted with permission from Green Scenes by Lauren Yoshiko, published by ‎Hardie Grant Publishing, March 2024.

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A New York Senate committee passed a bill authorizing the establishment of a state-sanctioned overdose prevention center (or OPC, also referred to as supervised consumption sites or safer consumption spaces). Safer consumption spaces are supervised places to use illegal drugs under medical supervision. The legislation, Senate Bill S399A (the enactment of the Safer Consumption Services Act, or SCSA), would require the New York State Department of Health to authorize at least one supervised consumption site. While OPCs already exist, this bill will make it easier for harm reduction workers to do their jobs and solidify the work that is already happening. 

New York City opened the first city-authorized safe consumption sites in late 2021. The advancing legislation will provide a sterile environment for people to use pre-obtained substances (they won’t provide you with any), giving them a safe alternative to bathrooms or other sites frequented. In addition, the prevention center will also keep medical workers on site to ensure folks are administering the drug more safely. Such sites also offer protection that’s not available when using the drug in a non-monitored establishment, as medical workers will be there to treat any overdoses properly. Naloxone to reverse opioid overdoses will be at the safer consumption site. On-site workers will also educate participants on safer consumption practices and information on treatment. While the site can collect aggregate data on its participants and their experiences, participants and the staff at the safer consumption site will have immunity from prosecution for the sanctioned activities. 

For some history, in 2015, IDUHA (the Injection Drug Users Health Alliance) released a memo essentially directing Harm Reduction agencies to act on the assumption that people using their bathrooms would likely be using opioids and therefore be at risk of overdose, a New York City harm reduction worker explains to High Times. However, most agencies have a policy wherein anyone using the bathroom gets a knock on the door every few minutes, and staff can access the bathroom and provide overdose support (including naloxone and rescue breaths and contacting EMS) when the occupant is unresponsive. “On average, my team responds to one overdose a month in our bathroom, with several utilizations a day not resulting in overdose. We have to wait for someone to stop breathing and stop responding to a knock at the door, at which point they may have been not breathing for several minutes,” our source says. “The SCSA is an important bill because it acknowledges work that is already happening—harm reduction workers and people who use drugs and their peers are already on the front lines of the overdose crisis.” 

The Senate Health Committee passed the harm reduction legislation from Sen. Gustavo Rivera (D) in a voice vote on Tuesday, and it will now go to the Finance Committee for consideration. The Assembly companion version of SCSA, sponsored by Assemblymember Linda Rosenthal (D), cleared the chamber’s Health Committee in March.

“Harm reduction works. Harm reduction is a modality—a way to approach dealing with an issue which assumes, first, that a person who uses drugs is a person, and that they have to be met where they are,” Rivera said at the hearing. “Fact number two, criminalization has not worked.”

“Over decades of the drug war, it is pretty clear that we have lost said war,” he continues. “The notion that we could arrest our way out of addiction—that we could arrest our way out of overdoses and deaths—has been proven to be a lie based on all of these years of experience. Criminalization does not work.”

It marks a milestone in harm reduction history. “Today, the Senate recognized the dire situation New York is in because of the overdose crisis and failed War on Drugs era policies,” the advocacy group VOCAL-NY said in a press release on Tuesday. “New York is one step closer to seeing Overdose Prevention Centers authorized across the state,” the group’s Users Union leaders elaborated. “The legislature needs to keep the momentum and pass the Safe Consumption Services Act out of both houses by the end of session.”

However, the New York City harm reduction worker High Times spoke with explains that this bill may be simply securing what already exists, thanks to the hard work of passionate harm reduction groups. “Every OPC will be placed in already existing harm reduction agencies. In a very real way, the bill will not change much. Last week I went to Albany with a cohort of workers and participants at VOCAL-NY, Housing Works, and OnPoint to speak to legislators who had not signed on yet. When we met with [New York State Senator] Tim Kennedy’s legislative director, I told her: we are already doing this, but because we can’t acknowledge it, we have to keep the bathroom door closed. Let us leave the door open—that’s all we’re asking.”

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New York Governor Kathy Hochul announced on Wednesday that regulated sales of recreational marijuana will begin in the state next week with the opening of a licensed retail shop in Manhattan. The dispensary, which will be operated by Housing Works, the nation’s largest minority-controlled HIV/AIDS service organization and largest community-based HIV/AIDS service organization, will begin serving customers at its East Village location in New York City on December 29.

“We set a course just nine months ago to start New York’s adult-use cannabis market off on the right foot by prioritizing equity, and now, we’re fulfilling that goal,” Hochul said in a statement from the governor’s office. “The industry will continue to grow from here, creating inclusive opportunity in every corner of New York State with revenues directed to our schools and revitalizing communities.”

The opening of the dispensary fulfills a pledge to launch retail sales of recreational marijuana in the state before the end of the year. The New York State legislature legalized adult-use cannabis last year with the passage of the Marihuana Regulation and Taxation Act (MRTA), which was signed into law by former governor Andrew Cuomo on March 31, 2021. The launch of sales is also a milestone for Hochul’s Seeding Opportunity Initiative, which she announced in March to guide the rollout of New York’s regulated cannabis industry.

The initiative was designed to fulfill the goals of the MRTA “by building an adult-use cannabis industry that offsets the harms resulting from the disproportionate impact of cannabis prohibition.” Under the plan, 280 family farmers have been licensed to cultivate cannabis to provide safe, lab-tested products for New York’s regulated recreational marijuana economy. 

First Retail Licenses in New York Issued Last Month

The Seeding Opportunity Initiative also reserved the first 150 Conditional Adult-Use Retail Dispensary (CAURD) licenses for individuals with past marijuana-related convictions and nonprofit groups serving those harmed by prohibition. The state’s Office of Cannabis Management (OCM) issued the initial 36 licenses to 28 individuals and 8 nonprofit groups last month.

To qualify for a CAURD license, nonprofits also need to have at least one justice-involved board member and create vocational opportunities for those with a conviction for a marijuana-related offense. Housing Works has served justice-involved New Yorkers since its inception in 1990 through direct services and advocacy initiatives. The group’s Justice Initiative tailors the non-profit’s services to meet the needs of formerly incarcerated individuals, including those with marijuana convictions.

“I’m excited that a non-profit like Housing Works, with its support for formerly incarcerated individuals, will lead the way with sales,” said Tremaine Wright, chairwoman of the New York Cannabis Control Board, the state’s cannabis regulatory body. “The start of sales through the Seeding Opportunity Initiative is just the beginning of the robust ecosystem we’re building – the equitable and inclusive market will grow from here with supports throughout to ensure licensees are able to overcome barriers and build this new industry.”

The Housing Works Cannabis Co. dispensary storefront is located at 750 Broadway in the Astor Place neighborhood of the East Village. Spanning 4,400 square feet, the iconic building known as 1 Astor Place was completed in 1883. The new business will welcome patrons with an introductory shopping experience when the dispensary opens next week, with plans to build out an expanded space as cannabis products become more available. All proceeds from dispensary sales will be directed to the parent organization Housing Works.

Brian Vicente, a founding partner of the cannabis and psychedelics law firm Vicente Sederberg LLP, lauded the progress being made on the rollout of adult-use cannabis in the Empire State. 

“New York continues to blaze a bold trail with its novel approach to adult use implementation,” Vicente wrote in an email to High Times. “Allowing Housing Works to make New York’s historic first legal cannabis sales is a stroke of genius, fulfilling the state’s goal of opening adult-use access before 2023 and honoring its commitment to promoting social equity businesses.”

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