Bliss + Lex is a Black woman-owned cannabis dispensary in Manhattan and its team says it’s the first dispensary of its kind to do so in a March 20 announcement. Licensed adult-use cannabis businesses are beginning to appear in New York City as they compete with unlicensed businesses. 

“This is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to pull up our own seat at the table in the cannabis industry. As entrepreneurs, we have a chance to create a legacy, change the trajectory of our family’s future and give back to the community in new ways,” said Nicole Lucien, co-Founder and CEO of Bliss + Lex, who is opening the dispensary with her husband, Christopher Lucien. “As a former New York City public school educator, my life has been dedicated to family and community, our careers in service, and now we are proud to share our passion for the plant.”

It is Manhattan’s first Black woman-owned dispensary and a Conditional Adult-Use Retail Dispensary (CAURD) licensee. Bliss + Lex is the second retailer to open in collaboration with the Housing Works CAURD Community Initiative, which provides critical support for New York social-equity cannabis entrepreneurs.

The New York Cannabis Control Board (CCB) met on Feb. 16 and voted on a few new cannabis draft rules, including cultivation and research, and also announced the first round of adult-use licenses. The CCB approved a total of 109 licenses for the state, with 38 licenses that are retail-specific, and 26 that are microbusiness licenses. 

Currently, the only cannabis business license holders in the state were approved under the CAURD program, which were granted specifically to social equity applicants. While those business owners hold conditional licenses, the CCB’s most recent round of licenses are the first non-conditional licenses to be granted, meaning that they did not qualify as social equity applicants.

They benefited from a New York state program that prioritizes giving people with criminal histories the first retail licenses to sell cannabis in the state, as Nicole’s husband has a prior conviction.

“Never in my wildest dreams did I think a cannabis conviction, that until now has created a barrier to jobs, housing, and acceptance, would be the key to this door of opportunity for myself and my family,” said Christopher Lucien, co-founder and COO. “I’ve always been driven to support the underdog in my work in nonprofits serving the homeless, and becoming a business owner is an invigorating way to help my community.”

“Housing Works is honored to work alongside and support the opening of Manhattan’s first Black woman-owned dispensary, Bliss + Lex, through our CAURD Community initiative,” said Sasha Nutgent, Director of Retail at Housing Works Cannabis Co. “This opening marks a big step forward in our efforts to build an equitable market here in New York. Nicole and Christopher represent exactly what NY’s adult-use market needs more of–mission-focused and dedicated to educating and building a fostering community–and we look forward to seeing and aiding the team’s success however they need.”

Nicole is the first Black woman in Manhattan to be awarded a coveted license to open a cannabis dispensary.

Her husband, also on the license, has a prior drug conviction. They benefited from a New York state program that prioritizes giving those with criminal histories the first retail licenses to sell marijuana.

Christopher Lucien, owner, said, “I have tried to start several businesses like my wife was saying home improvement construction, and because of my criminal background I was denied, even after 20 some odd years of a clean record there was never a chance where I had a second chance this was always been held against me.”

CCB chair Tremaine Wright spoke at a recent meeting, expressing his relief that the time has come to move forward with New York’s cannabis industry, beginning with social equity applicants. “This moment has been a long time in the making,” said Wright. “We assure you it only represents the beginning. The office has been diligently working to prepare as many applications as possible for consideration, and the board will continue to approve additional licenses at future board meetings.” He added that the CCB’s goal is to “tackle a number of the matters that we hope will help propel our industry forward.”

The 2,603 square-foot retail store aims to provide highly-individualized consumer experiences including, on-the-go ordering to inclusive, step-by-step walk-through education. Bliss + Lex will carry a range of cannabis products from brands such as Off Hours, 1906, TYSON 2.0, and more. You can visit the retail store located at 128 East 86th St. with close subway access, and it is open seven days a week.  

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In New York City with no weed and nowhere to go? The House of Cannabis has you covered.

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New York’s rollout of legal weed shops has been a mess, to say the least. Designed to revolutionize the legal weed marketplace, New York has instead fallen short either by design or outside factors, including numerous lawsuits. 

One of the most significant ripple effects in this series of shortcomings is the immense impact on New York’s licensed growers. Farmers are sitting on one to two seasons worth of product, equaling an estimated 240,000-pound surplus. The situation has become so dire that many New York growers report living on dire straits, with some resorting to selling essential equipment to cover costs. 

New York’s Office of Cannabis Management (OCM) approved a grower’s showcase in July 2023 to help alleviate the issue. The following month saw the rollout of its first showcase. In total, 48 events took place. Forty-six licensed events are ongoing, providing legal access to New Yorkers—with most open one or more days weekly until the current permit ends on December 31, 2023. A possible extension was in play until recently, and remained undetermined. 

The Manhattan-Brooklyn Experience

New York’s Grower Showcases stretch across the state, from the five boroughs to the Finger Lakes to Buffalo and beyond. Saratoga Springs, a town 40 minutes north of the capital Albany and roughly an hour west from legal weed state Vermont did around $70,000 in sales during its first two days on September 3rd and 5th. The event gained popularity in the ensuing weeks before going on hiatus for a month in October to move indoors. The showcase reopened on November 11. 

Positive sales and foot traffic have been reported across many of the showcases. But that hasn’t been the case at every location. In Manhattan, the Hell’s Kitchen Cannabis Collective, a farmers market inside a retail space, struggled to attract clientele while remaining compliant with state law. With minimal signage options allowed, spotting the HKCC’s side street location among the sea of shops and restaurants was challenging. 

At the same time, it is easy to walk in any direction nearby and find bodegas and unlicensed boof shops selling their unlicensed pot. While the HKCC remains barely noticeable, the illegal competition is out and proud with LED lights, bold signs, and everything else that is synonymous with New York weed shops at this point. HKCC Founder Patrick Conlin told me in early November that the shop made door signs highlighting their licensed status. Otherwise, the shop is limited with legal marketing options. 

“We’re tucked away off the street, which is great for the community board,” said Conlin, who added, “Just putting letters on our door isn’t cutting it.”

When you find the location, it can be a welcome destination for enthusiasts and newcomers alike. Featuring several strains, edibles, and extracts from local small cultivators and producers, shoppers can get an idea of what New York small growers, including many minority-owned ventures practicing organic growing methods, have to offer. The location featured several growers events over the past few months, allowing buyers to interact with the featured cultivators. 

A potential saving grace for the HKCC could be its downstairs event space, which successfully hosted an industry gathering in November. If more events were to occur, the destination could find itself with a needed additional revenue stream. Another standout positive is HKCC’s small but dedicated staff. Speaking more about effects and terp profiles rather than industry sales jargon, the team provided an educated, refreshing tone more legal shops should look into adopting. 

A similar experience took place at Good Grades on Flatbush Ave in Brooklyn. The Black-owned Good Grades was warm in spirit but minimal in shoppers. Granted, it was Wednesday around 11 in the morning when I visited. Like in Manhattan, the limited signage made the shop blend into the string of retail stores along the block. Inside, the dispensary was large with lots of room, filled with a few art pieces and a wall showcasing various iconic hip-hop albums. The sales counter had two friendly, plant-passionate budtenders. When I arrived, an elderly couple and their budtender eagerly swapped edible recipes.

My assigned budtender and I talked about effects and a little about indica and sativa, which I could have done without. I hate hearing about that, but I get why it continues to be used. It’s often easier to explain a rather binary concept than terps or whole plant profiles to a newcomer. And most existing consumers use the terminology, so why rock the boat? That aside, I enjoyed the shop, but it didn’t leave any lasting impressions. Good Grades has since closed its Brooklyn location as part of its soft launch plan, and now operates a Jamaica, Queens location, the first legal dispensary in the borough. 

There was much to enjoy about the Manhattan and Brooklyn growers showcases. But the retail locations and city prices left me feeling underwhelmed and longing for a true farmers market experience. I don’t blame either shop here. They worked within the confines of what they were dealt. 

The price-quality comparison wasn’t ideal. At HKCC, I got two eighths from two different growers for roughly $110 after tax. With the idea being a small business showcase, I naively thought there would be better deals. Maybe that’s on me, but usually, two eighths of long-unsold weed running a similar cost to a fresh half ounce is not going to win over many buyers. But, living in New York City comes at a premium, which applies to weed as well. So, here we are. 

I was excited by the aroma of a Lilac Diesel GMO I picked up. Unfortunately, the smoke was one of the more abrasive on the throat I can remember in recent memory. The Humboldt Headband from Bud + Boro was fine enough. I wish I could’ve tried more, but economic times are tight. The prices were a bit better at Good Grades, and the quality was equal or slightly more enjoyable than my HKCC picks. Two eighths cost a little more than $80 after three rounds of taxes applied. The Trainwreck by Alchemy Pure was fine and got me high with a smooth enough smoke. The Guava Jam from Rolling Green had a pleasant, fruity aroma and smoked well. 

Overall, the Manhattan and Brooklyn showcases felt like a 3 out of 5 star experience, with passionate people and decent enough flower. But city prices, minimal nature in the city, and strict marketing rules made the experience feel more like classic retail than the farmers market I had been hoping to find. 

New Paltz Provides a Refreshing Alternative 

Wanting more of a farmer’s market experience, I turned to New Paltz, a two-hour and change train ride away from New York City. New Paltz was the site of the first legal cannabis grower showcase in August 2023. Numerous New York weed buddies and sources referred the quaint college town to me, with a few essentially calling it the ideal showcase experience. After visiting in November, I largely agree.

Nestled inside the town’s municipal building for the cold months, the showcase featured several tables with numerous brands. Shoppers could buy usual items like flower, pre-rolls, edibles and a small number of concentrates from six or so vendors. Refreshingly, and much like the city showcases, these sellers waxed on more about consuming pot than hawking a brand. 

One of the top standout differences at New Paltz, besides the cool autumn air and nature, was menu transparency. Before even getting to the check-in desk, I was given a two-sided sales sheet featuring all of the products available and taxed and pre-tax prices.

Once outside New York City, the prices decline. That was the case in New Paltz, where several eighths went for $30 pre-tax. The most expensive item I picked up on my $258 tab was a $50 2g hash hole made by Luci. On the low end of the pickups, I snagged two glass pre-filled chillum pipes from Jane West at $10 a piece after tax. Patrick, the veteran behind the sales desk, won me over with his passion for the plant and the idea of picking up two reusable glass pipes for trips. I’m a sucker for reusable packaging. 

When it comes to drawbacks, New Paltz wasn’t without its faults. Like the other showcases, the flower quality varied and didn’t stack up to numerous unlicensed sources. Much of the New Paltz flower was extremely dry, which is sad because some of these strains probably smelled great when they were supposed to hit dispensary shelves. 

Unlike New York City, the price is justified or close to where it should be. A $30 price tag for a dry but still aromatic enough strain of Hella Jelly from Rize isn’t all that bad. Would I pick the $30 Hella Jelly over a fresh Strawberry Jelly from the Bronx’s New Roots Garden for double or more the price? Absolutely not. But after a year of aging on the shelf, Rize’s flower still provided a good smoke and a pleasant flavor. It may not win any Cannabis Cups, but I bet it would satisfy the cannabis curious, newcomers and those without deep understanding of how the plant can taste and smell. Is that ideal? No, but it’s a good intro point to finding fresh bud from these brands or other growers in the future. 

Farmers Showcase is a Solid But Far-From Perfect Effort

The New York Growers Showcase appeared to be a largely successful endeavor. Despite the positive feedback, its future remained in doubt just three weeks until the program’s end date on December 31, 2023. With the showcase always intended to be a stopgap sales pipeline for small state growers, uncertainty grew as the state approved existing medical operators and plans to approve hundreds more applicants in early 2024. The recent news followed New York settling its most glaring court case in late November. The state also opened its application window to non-equity applicants in early October. 

As additional dispensaries hit the market, the need for the grower showcase came further in doubt. But with three weeks left, many advocates, operators and lawmakers hoped to see an extension of some kind. Instead, on December 12, New York’s Office of Cannabis Management (OCM) announced the program’s termination at the end of 2023. The decision appears to have been abrupt and out of left field, as state Assembly Agriculture Committee Chair and Assemblywoman Donna Lupardo said she had assumed the program would be extended. 

Next steps remain unclear. A compromise with OCM could take place. So too could a state bill, though it’s unclear if Governor Kathy Hochul would sign the measure. While the uncertainty looms, the fate of the thousands of remaining pounds of overstock sit, wasting away. By the time this article posts, some may be on their final days of freshness. And with that overstock dying, I suppose the state could further justify jettisoning the program. 

Whatever happens from here, I hope the state program has a place for some type of farmers market, especially in outdoor communal spaces where people can mingle, smoke and get to know their neighbors and the plant. But after the latest OCM decision, I can’t say I have much faith. I don’t know if it’s OCM or New York politics at-large, but something stinks. It stunk when the state failed the formerly incarcerated. It stunk when the state failed minority applicants. And now it stinks when the state fails the farmers one more time. 

Whether they be OGs, tryhards, chads or whatever, these growers got dealt a bad hand by the state. Then, while gasping for their metaphorical last breaths before drowning, they get thrown a lifeline, only to watch the rescue boat sail away with the inflatable ring skipping across the top of the ocean until fading into the horizon. 

Here’s hoping the future involves legal farmers markets, providing ongoing platforms for New York’s small pot growers and craft enthusiasts. And if not, here’s hoping the underground market continues its similar endeavors. Someone has to do it, right? 

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After months of controversy and legal disputes, the first legal cannabis dispensary in Harlem opened its doors to customers on Wednesday. 

Gotham Buds celebrated its grand opening on West 125th Street in Manhattan –– just across the street from the historic Apollo Theater. 

According to CBS New York, the store is the “the 26th conditional adult-use retail dispensary to open in New York State,” as well as the first state-licensed dispensary to open in the iconic neighborhood with a rich history of music and the arts.

It has been a long road to opening for Gotham Buds, marked by fits and starts. 

A local business group, the 125th Street Business Improvement District, filed a lawsuit in April challenging the opening of the shop, contending that “the process was conducted secretly in order to avoid opposition from the community.” The group also raised concerns about the cannabis store’s location relative to a neighborhood school.

“We’ve taken this action to really create transparency and to create a channel of communication to understand why this location,” Mukaram Taheraly, the chairman of the 125th Street Business Improvement District, said then.

Barbara Askins, president of the 125th Street Business Improvement District, said that the group believes “this location is bad for our children.” 

But the lawsuit was dismissed in August after a “judge ruled the business across from the Apollo Theatre is exempt from an injunction blocking the Office of Cannabis Management from opening any other dispensaries while a lawsuit proceeds against its licensing program,” according to CBS New York.

The judge’s ruling set the stage for a grand opening that was tentatively scheduled for September 5, but the date was ultimately kicked to this week.

“Harlem isn’t just our location — it’s our community, our commitment. We’re here to grow roots and become a pillar of dreams realized,” Jeffrey Lopez, an owner of Gotham Buds, said in a statement, as quoted by the New York Daily News. “It’s all about passion, vision and a purpose bigger than ourselves.”

The state’s allocation of recreational cannabis dispensary licenses has drawn other legal challenges, too. In August, a New York judge slapped an injunction on the process, temporarily pausing the awarding of licenses after a lawsuit was filed by a group of veterans.

The veterans challenged the state’s policy of awarding the first round of licenses to individuals with prior pot-related convictions. 

That policy was announced last year by New York Gov. Kathy Hochul.

“New York State is making history, launching a first-of-its-kind approach to the cannabis industry that takes a major step forward in righting the wrongs of the past,” Hochul said in her announcement of the initiative. “The regulations advanced by the Cannabis Control Board today will prioritize local farmers and entrepreneurs, creating jobs and opportunity for communities that have been left out and left behind. I’m proud New York will be a national model for the safe, equitable and inclusive industry we are now building.”

According to the Daily News, the judge who heard the veterans’ case “ruled that the state’s Office of Cannabis Management had failed to comply with the court, undoing the exemption and leaving shops like Gotham Buds in limbo,” but that, “in yet another twist, Gotham Buds and four other dispensaries were cleared to open.”

More from the Daily News on Gotham Buds’ opening:

“Gotham Buds is now one of 11 legal pot shops in the five boroughs. However, there are thousands of unlicensed shops in the city that have ducked state rules and regulations to sell their ganja. The injunction was not the only hurdle the Harlem store had to jump through. Earlier this year, the dispensary faced intense community backlash and was slapped with a lawsuit from a local group of businesses who said the shop would attract crime, add to congestion and encourage drug use in an area already plagued with all three. The application window for nonconditional cannabis business licenses — for the general public — opened on Oct. 4 and will remain open until early December. The newly expanded program will take applications for new retail shops, farms, processing plants and microbusinesses.”

More than two years after New York legalized recreational cannabis for adults, the new legal weed market continues to take shape. 

The law was enacted by former New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo. After Cuomo stepped down amid allegations of sexual misconduct, he was succeeded by Hochul, who went right to work in getting the legal weed market up and running. 

Adult-use cannabis sales officially began in December, when the state’s first legal dispensary opened in Manhattan’s East Village neighborhood.

“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 at the time. “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.”

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A New York Judge recently issued a court order that allows just two cannabis retailers to open for business, while hundreds of others are put on hold.

On Oct. 6, Judge Kevin Bryant permitted Manhattan-based ConBud LLC and Queens-based Kush Culture LLC (also known as Terp Bros) to be exempt from the current hold on cannabis business operations.

Bryant initially issued the injunction in August, which prevents retail cannabis licensees from opening. Currently, more than 400 conditional adult-use retail dispensary licensees are on hold, and while no more licenses are being awarded by the Office of Cannabis Management (OCM). Only 23 cannabis businesses are operating throughout the entire state.

“While today’s ruling is a disappointment, we are committed to working with the Cannabis Control Board to find a way forward that does not derail our efforts to bring the most equitable cannabis market in the nation to life,” the OCM said in a response to Bryan’s decision.

Bryant stated that any licensees who were already ready to open by Aug. 7 would be allowed to request an exemption from his injunction. In response to this, the OCM sent a list of 30 retailers who were ready to open and seek exemption, although Bryant did not agree that most of them were actually ready. ConBud and Kush Culture are the only approved licensees so far.

According to attorney Jorge Vasquez, representing both ConBud and Kush Culture, there’s a light at the end of the tunnel in regard to the injunction. “We’re certainly pleased with the decision,” Vasquez said. “It’s certainly a step in the right direction for the CAURD program and for CAURD licensees, and we hope that these two are just the first of more to come.”

Vasquez added that there isn’t a specific date that the two businesses will open, but with Bryant’s approval, it could be as soon as tomorrow.

According to a statement from attorney Wei Hu, obtained by Green Market Report, he expressed his excitement that Bryant had approved two licensees so far, and expects possibly 14 more exemptions to be announced in the very near future. “With open applications, there is no basis for the injunction to remain against any provisional CAURD licensee… There is no basis for this litigation to continue to impose unprecedented pain against hundreds of families,” said Hu. “That being said, I am thrilled my clients Jeremy Rivera and Alessandro Cottone can resume the commitment to bringing access to licensed cannabis to the Astoria Queens community, and the dozens of living-wage jobs that come along with it.”

Kush Culture/Terp Bros also told Green Market Report about being one of few to be exempt so far. “We’re ecstatic. We’re going to try to move as fast as we can,” said Jeremy Rivera about Terp Bros. “It’s been long enough. We’ve been holding off for two months almost since the injunction started back in August. Now, it’s getting the staff trained, getting inventory in.”

Another attorney involved in representing the CAURD licensees, Duncan Delano, added that the situation is hopeful, but not entirely reassuring at the moment. “If you’re not one of those two [licensees], you’re still pretty frustrated. I have many clients in that boat. But it is hopeful, and I’m portraying that to my clients, as a sign of hope.”

A group of four military veterans also filed a lawsuit against the state of New York in August regarding the first approved licenses being awarded to individuals with cannabis convictions, and no disabled veterans or members of a minority group received a license. “The MRTA had already established a goal to award 50% of all adult-use licenses to social and economic equity applicants. But instead of following the law, OCM and CCB created their own version of ‘social equity’ and determined for themselves which individuals would get priority to enter New York’s nascent adult-use cannabis market,” reads a joint statement on behalf of the veterans.

In September, new rules were approved by regulators to open up license applications for social equity applicants (which includes veterans, minority and women-owned businesses, and struggling cultivators starting on Oct. 4. “It’s about time,” said Carmine Fiore, one of the veterans in the case. “We finally have an equitable playing field. We are finally being prioritized—as we should have been under the law.”

According to Delano, cases such as these could lead to additional lawsuits in the future. “It’s part of a strategy that continues to be working: playing hardball and OCM being on the defensive,” he said. 

While the landscape of the New York cannabis industry remains tumultuous for the time being, the city of Rochester is preparing for the influx of cannabis jobs. At the end of September, the Rochester Public Library announced a five-week cannabis certification program to help prepare city residents to embark on new careers in cannabis. “As we prepare for legal cannabis dispensaries to operate in our region, it is important to make sure we have a pool of qualified employees ready to start working in these businesses as soon as they open,” said Rochester Mayor Malik D. Evans. “The City of Rochester puts a lot of consideration into our processes to make sure cannabis businesses are set up to succeed in our city, especially for Black and Brown people who were most negatively affected by the war on drugs.

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By J. F. Burke

Most of my life it’s been boo, booze and blow. I didn’t get into trips until I was 42, in 1957, when a friend of mine in Santa Fe introduced me to peyote. A Taos Indian had given a dozen peyote buttons to each of several persons in Santa Fe’s art colony. One of them a serigrapher who did realistic still lifes of mushrooms had been waiting for me to arrive and trip with him.

I knew very little about peyote at that time, but I did know enough to be aware of the problem of getting it past our palates, so I pulverized the dried buttons in a Waring blender and tamped the powder into gelatin capsules. Otherwise our soft palates might have reflexively ejected the peyote, which I’d been told was incredibly bitter. We washed the caps down with cold mountain well water.

My friend’s trip must have been very strange, for he spent the first eight hours wrapped in a Navaho blanket, curled up like a chrysalis in a cocoon and chanting in a language that sounded Indian to me. After eight hours he emerged from his cocoon smiling, looking beatific and saying nothing. Very mysterious.

Afterwards, when I asked him what language he’d been chanting, he said English. I objected that it didn’t sound remotely like English but very much like some Indian tongue. He said that was just my own mental confusion, a peyote hallucination. When I asked him what he’d been chanting about, he said he’d been chanting “in praise of everything,” as he put it. Just what an Indian shaman might do, I commented. He ridiculed the thought. But if he really believed he’d been chanting English, he was out of his tree. English it was not.

As for my own trip, I spent the first four hours laughing, just laughing, for everything was laughable. It seemed to me that laughter was the truest response to the world. Apparently I’d needed a good laugh for a long time.

The next time Mescalito came to me, I was with my wife Rosa. We ate peyote every day for 15 months. Mescalito stayed with us all that time. Sometimes I feel he never left.

Rosa and I sent to Smith’s Cacti Ranch in Laredo, Texas, for peyote, which was legal then and was being sold in the East Village for 25 cents a button. We got it by mail order at $10 per 100 buttons plus $3 postage. You received your shipment via parcel post with a U.S. Department of Agriculture stamp on the carton attesting to the purity of the contents. This was back in 1961—the good old days!

Our first shipment arrived on a Friday. A few of the buttons had rotten spots from being locked up in the mailing carton for several days. These were big, fresh, green, juicy buttons. We cut out the bad spots. Then we set the hundred buttons out around the apartment, wherever there was a horizontal surface. They were everywhere. They seemed to have presence, as we say in theater. They were fleshlike to the touch, and they looked lovely with their elegant little silvery tufts. We could smell them, too, an earthy smell, quite delicate. They looked like big, round living emeralds. Or perhaps imperial jade.

I cut a slice off one, and we tasted it. Words have not been coined for such unbelievable bitterness. So we had a problem. How to eat this little green god? You can’t pulverize the fresh, juicy buttons and cap them as with the dried ones. We knew that people had tried to minimize the taste by brewing infusions, boiling porridge, making milk shakes. We decided that somehow we’d meet the problem head-on. So we slept on it.

While we slept, Mescalito was everywhere in the room, 100 of him. Saturday morning we woke up knowing how to handle the eating problem. We removed the tiny silvery tufts, washed the buttons in cold water, dried them gently with soft towels and then chopped up a few of the biggest, fattest, juiciest. We minced them. We also ground some dark Brazilian beans and made a pot of strong coffee laced with honey.

Still, it’s no easy task chewing the bitter green mass prior to swallowing it. You chew like a rabbit, keeping it in the front of your mouth, well away from the soft palate. Then, when it’s ready to be swallowed, you put the cup of coffee to your lips, swallow the peyote and follow it immediately with the coffee so that you’re washing the peyote past the esophagus before the soft palate can react. Once it’s past the esophagus you’re home free, except perhaps for a queasy stomach.

Some people experience nausea, and some even throw up, but it’s no big thing, for the peyote comes up much easier than it goes down, and it doesn’t have to stay in the stomach long for the active principle (mescaline) to enter the bloodstream. I’ve never had more than a very slight queasiness, and I’ve never thrown up. The queasy feeling doesn’t last long. Anyway, I enjoy the initial toxic reactions, particularly the muscle spasms. Orgasmic.

Now, one of the most significant things that Mescalito taught us about ourselves during our 15 months’ regimen is that peyote itself does not taste bitter. This is not a paradox. If you continue eating peyote every day, and long enough, the bitterness decreases. Eventually it will go away altogether. But the peyote itself is a constant factor, so it can’t be the cactus that changes. If it was bitter, it will still be bitter. Ergo, the peyote wasn’t bitter; the peyote eater’s taste was.

Certainly peyote clears and heightens the senses, all of them, so that we see, hear, taste, feel and smell differently, more intensely, deeply, clearly. It shouldn’t be surprising, then, that the taste of the taster changes. To put it another way, Mescalito is not only a teacher. The little god is also a profound physician. For some of us, peyote can be a psychic purgative.

We’d done our homework, so we knew what was then generally known about Lophophora williamsii. Since the main active principle is the alkaloid mescaline, the dosage of which varies around 400 milligrams, depending on one’s body weight, we assumed the peyote dosage should be measured likewise. Being a small woman, Rosa ate only three of the buttons, big ones. I’m 5’11” and then weighed 175 pounds, so I ate nine. Then we smoked some reefer and waited.

In about 20 minutes, I became restless, so instead of waiting for the reaction I went out and spaded the new garden plot. We’d just moved into the apartment and had yet to start our first seeds. The arable part of our garden measured some 30 by 40 feet, but it took me only half an hour to turn the earth and weed it. When I was done, I was sweating so heavily I looked like I’d been standing in a cloudburst. And I smelled like a cab horse. I undressed and went into the shower. Rosa joined me.

When we came out, still naked and dripping wet, we saw with wonder the paintings on our walls glowing as if alive. The walls themselves seemed to breathe. The big tree in our garden was moving not only its limbs, branches and leaves, but its very bark seemed to undulate. Everything was in pulsating motion.

I felt like singing, so I picked up my mandola and began to tune it. And here Mescalito rid me of a very annoying problem. I’d always loved to play stringed instruments and sing, but I had no tone control. I was utterly incapable of tuning the instrument accurately, and I couldn’t sing on pitch. I could hear the awful sounds I made, all right, but I couldn’t help it. My habit was to play and sing only when I was alone, but of course from time to time someone would have the misfortune to hear me.

On this peyote morning I tuned the mandola accurately and sang truly for the first time in my life. I felt like a fledgling in first flight. Free! Rosa and I often sang duets after that, when we were tripping. She taught me her Portuguese songs, fados, and I taught her Mexican and Spanish songs.

On that first peyote Saturday we were so charged that despite our long shower we had to take our energy to bed, and there we merged, entwined like Aztec stone carvings into a single complex form, interpenetrating, so that we could not tell who was inside whom. For a time we seemed to be lying atop a great pyramid in Mexico, alone together under a high blue sky, our kaleidoscopic orgasms surging, ever changing, reaching into all parts of our bodies, filling us with brightness and sheer ecstasy.

It must have been early afternoon when our apartment and unplanted garden were suddenly transformed into a Mexican hacienda somewhere in Chihuahua, and we seemed to see golden chamiso bushes and a tall yucca with a yucca moth hovering among the pearly flowers. We could smell the desert and hear lizards and small birds chirping. The fantasy—or as Carlos Castaneda later would say, this other reality—was very substantial even though we knew we were in Manhattan and there were no chamisos or yuccas, much less yucca moths, in our backyard. And we saw much more, which later I set down in a poem.

Yucca welcomes her lover under the moon.

He hovers like pale kisses, fluttering. Silkworm weaves his mandarin cocoon.

Cat schemes by a groundhole, muttering.

Owl waits and watches, hooting mirth.

Hummingbird drinks nectar from the rose.

She opens her secret petals ardently.

Roots strongly embrace the warm and willing earth.

And all things love to be sweetly bound, not free.

Ask the yucca’s personal moth, who knows.

Of thoughts like these our waking dreams are spun:

We would be as flowers that follow the sun—

Oh, never count the hours!—As the river grows

from streams and flows to the sea, so would we be.

After our first four hours’ rush, we had four hours of very high euphoria and fresh perceptions and then four hours of gently settling back, except that we didn’t get all the way back to where we’d started. We never did. Not quite.

We went to sleep high that night, slept beautifully and woke beautifully in the dawn, ready for love and a good breakfast. We were in for a surprise. When we’d prepared our usual eggs and toast, we didn’t want the eggs. Couldn’t eat them. Though very hungry, we were nauseated by the smell of cooked eggs. What we really wanted, and what we ate with gusto, was fresh fruit, bread, cheese and coffee. We didn’t know it yet, but Mescalito was already turning us into vegetarians, curing us of smoking tobacco and giving us a distaste for alcohol. The little god also got us into reading yogic literature, but that came with time.

We ate peyote again at sunset that day, which was a Sunday, and made a night trip. Again we took it to bed and got deep into our inner spaces. Clinging together, entwined, floating freely in space that was both microcosm and macrocosm, we saw atoms and molecules as miniature solar systems and galaxies, and we saw the visible universe as a crystal of star systems, which of course we recognized as the mescaline molecule. When we’d reached the thumping conclusion that the universe was a colossal crystal of mescaline, we understood. Mescalito has a cosmic sense of humor. To put it philosophically, the little god was demonstrating oneness.

The following day was Monday, but I didn’t go to the office. I’d decided during the night to try working behind peyote, since we’d found it to be such a powerful energizer. However, discretion being the better part of valor, I thought I’d better run the experiment at home. I could imagine some pretty funny scenes if I should start tripping at Westpark Publications. I wasn’t sure what a working dosage should be, but that it was possible to work on peyote I had no doubt, for a seafaring friend of mine had once dealt craps in Las Vegas while on peyote, and he had to keep a lot of action sorted out in his mind. He said peyote helped him do it fast and accurately. Three buttons, he said.

Huxley had written in The Doors of Perception, “Mescaline… gives access to contemplation—but to a contemplation that is incompatible with action and even with the will to action, the very thought of action.” Well, I didn’t think so. That was his trip. Not my seafaring crap dealer’s. Certainly the Huichol, the Tarahumara and other nations get into a lot of action when they’re tripping on peyote. They sing, dance, run up and down mountains.

As it turned out, I could as well have made the test at the office. I ate three buttons of medium size and waited an hour, then got into some manuscripts. It wasn’t a trip, on this smaller dosage, but I still felt enormously energized. I was, however, allowing myself to get too deep into the work, deeper than it called for. This, I could see, was something I’d have to watch if I wanted to work behind peyote.

I’ve worked behind grass for over 20 years, and I recall that at first I had to learn how to handle, how to concentrate behind smoke. Well, concentrating behind peyote is a bit harder to learn, but once you’ve got it, you can concentrate better than before. Deeper, more focused. Or centered. By noon the work was done.

The next day was Tuesday, and I went to the office after breakfasting on three peyote buttons, medium size. A number of my associates commented on my appearance and mood. “You’re looking great. Been smoking something?” That sort of thing. The day went fast and I got a mountain of work done. When I got home I found that Rosa had spent the whole day, instead of her usual two or three hours, writing in her journal.

And that’s the way it went for the next 15 months: love first thing in the morning, peyote for breakfast, good work all day, together again for dinner and a quiet evening talking, then bedtime and more love and sleep.

Weekends we’d sometimes take larger doses and see how far out (or in) we could trip. And from time to time we’d abstain for a day or two, to check up. At first we found that peyote’s salutary effects seemed to last only two or three days before we developed a yen. Nothing heavy. Just a yen. But as time went by we also noticed that we needed less to get off, until at the end of 15 months I was taking a single large button in the morning, and Rosa a smaller one. Of course, we sometimes replenished ourselves during the afternoon with another button.

There was no comedown at the end of the day, no crash, only a pleasantly tired feeling and a readiness to rest. If we wanted more energy then, we simply ate another button. Why no crash? Where did all the energy come from? Not from peyote. The cactus acts like a catalyst. The energy comes from the peyote eater. We have a much greater energy potential than we’re ordinarily aware of. It’s like the mind’s potential, which, as is well known, we barely tap. Well, peyote taps it but doesn’t exhaust it. There’s always more. On occasion, say a weekend, we’d trip on and on, without sleep, eating a button or two from time to time, for 36 or 48 hours. How long we could have gone, I have no idea, but there seemed to be no reason to try and set a record on that count. We’d already set one by the end of our first month on peyote.

I soon began taking my lunch to work. I kept a basket of bread and cheese, fresh fruit and raw vegetables on my desk, and one of the fruits (vegetables) was always a large peyote button, in case I felt like recharging during the afternoon.

The first of my fellow workers to ask about the strange green fruit in the basket was Bob Shea, one of the swingier editors at Westpark. The dialogue went something like this:

“Is that some kind of tropical fruit? It looks like a cactus.”

“It’s peyote.”

“Heard of it. Mind if I taste it?”

“Please do.”

He took a tiny bite, very tiny, and put the rest back in the basket. He gave me an odd look and went to his office across the hall. In half a minute I heard him spitting and making guttural noises.

He came back saying, “You mean you actually eat that stuff?”

“Every day.”

“You’re pulling my leg. I hope to God it doesn’t make me sick.”

To allay his anxiety I took a fair bite out of the big button that he’d nibbled. I chewed it well and carefully, up front between my front teeth, and swallowed it without coffee. Bob looked at me as if I’d gone mad.

He knows better now, of course, for since then he’s co-written a book called Illuminatus, which gives clearly recognizable evidence that he’s found a way into his own head.

Mescalito certainly smiled on Rosa and me, for all those 15 months. The end came when some professional prohibitionists in Washington, D.C., decided that peyote was Indian medicine, fit only for Indians, not for whites. The official decision was that it could be used only for religious ritual by bona fide members of the Native American Church.

Smith’s Cacti Ranch and other legitimate suppliers weren’t willing to bootleg the buttons, which cut down the supply to the vanishing point, so that was the end of our 15 months. From time to time some buttons would show up in New York, and they still do, very poor plants compared to what we were used to.

Those 15 months were one of our highest times, though not, I hasten to add, the very highest. That high came soon after, when we received our first little sugar cubes from a beautiful psychedelic artist in the East Village.

Read the full issue here.

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By Victor Bockris

1) At London’s Gatwick Airport, I went straight to the cafeteria, stationed myself at a deserted corner table, put an opium pellet on my tongue and washed it down with two cups of tepid tea, apparently a catalyst.

On a jammed Laker flight to New York, I managed to read three novels undisturbed by the monster pushing my seat forward, the two monsters in front pushing their seats backward and the Frenchman beside me growing his beard, because airplanes make me feel secure. Soon they’ll have bedrooms again, and since the greatest American fantasy is sky sex, one can almost guarantee the runaway success of airplane bedrooms. They’ll be quite expensive, but that’ll make you want to make more money so you can do it.

Opium facilitates that magic-carpet effect; it completely relaxes your body, and hence your mind, without blurring it. You could function quite efficiently as a lawyer, doctor or bank clerk on opium. At Kennedy, I relaxed during the grueling hour it took to struggle through passport control, and baggage claim, and Customs. The opium cut out any concern. I languidly smoked a cigarette, leaning up against a post, confident that my torn, battered bag, peppered with pellets from a Colt .45 air pistol, would arrive intact. While gazing at the friendly crowd, all undoubtedly as relieved as I was to be back in the USA, I reflected on my escape from London.

The British have always been as cold and insular as their landscape. The only reason they can rock is because they are so pissed off with their sodden little plot in the Atlantic. How small, gray, inauspicious and powerless it is. The blond English youth rattles the bars of his cage before being given the national tranquilizer. Everyone was reading newspapers about sex murders and child pornography. London may be the first deathtrap to go.

The population is splitting the city’s resources at the seams. My memory presents turgid crowds trudging down Oxford Street inhaling stale little cigarettes. After visiting England three times in the last six months, this reporter’s firm conclusion is that the English bite it. Throughout Europe there still exists a distaste for the American way of life, and the English, who distinguish themselves by nothing so much as their colds, have based their reactions to America on an ignorance developed through centuries of insularity. A typical example is their preconceptions about New York, most of which are erroneous.

The first and most important is that it’s very expensive. New York is not a necessarily expensive place to live, but it can be a very expensive place to visit if you have to stay at a hotel and eat in restaurants. The visitor is urged to pry an invitation out of a friend. Otherwise stay at the Chelsea Hotel on 23rd Street.

The second is that it’s terribly dangerous. New York is not particularly dangerous if you know where you are and pay attention to your surroundings. There are more than enough people walking around stoned and drunk to keep the muggers working overtime.

The point about where you stay in New York is that the people of the area tend to have quite an effect on your life. Most of the action in Manhattan happens at night (the best new paper in town is called Night and is just pictures of people dancing by the famous photographer of girls’ legs Anton Perich), and this is why you have to think about where you’re going to hang out. For example, if you live up at 103rd and Broadway, you have to contend with the sex and drug markets up there at 3 A.M.; and living on the Lower East Side is like living in India. On the other hand, if you stay in the West Village or on the Upper East Side, it’s quite safe to move around as long as you aren’t too crazy. All the people I know who’ve been attacked were either too drunk or stoned or careless to be out on the streets alone. But why go anywhere alone anyway, unless you’re going to kill someone?

2) Here is a brief account of the natures of the people dwelling in the major residential sections:

The Upper West Side is noisy and dirty. Fat hairy people fall over in corners, sucking on paper bags, talking to themselves, coughing, spitting and dying. A friend recently moved to the Upper West Side. I said, “No, Linda, don’t go. You are in no condition to go up there.” But she went. Now she calls me up: “How could you ever let me come and live up here! Mandy’s already been assaulted five times! We’re moving. And it’s all your fault, because I had to move up here to get away from you in the first place.”

However, it can’t be all that bad, because a lot of famous people live up there, particularly in the Dakota, where John Lennon has a 17-room apartment.

The Upper East Side is where all the wealthiest people have their pieds-à-terre, from Jackie O. through Halston to Truman and Andy and Mick, and it’s easy to see why, because they have a lot of very nice accoutrements. The streets are clean, the area is heavily patrolled, the shops and buildings are exquisite. It feels like being up on a hill.

There are lots of places to go in the area, and all the best hotels are nearby. This is definitely the place, but since it’s so expensive a majority of the population is over 50, creating a slightly daffy atmosphere.

Greenwich Village. There is an East and a West Village. The West Village, where your reporter has one of numerous apartments at his disposal, must have the highest ratio of homosexuals in the world. This is basically gaydom. The battle over censorship has been won and so forth. It’s a very pleasant, completely peaceful area. I have never witnessed, heard of, or felt, any threat of violence. There are many attractive restaurants and stores. Everyone walks around hand in hand.

The East Village is inhabited by punks of all ages. They have always maintained that the East Village, also known as the Lower East Side, is the hip place to be, but a series of drug deaths, rapes and robberies in the late ’50s and early ’70s drove many tenants away. Now, however, with the emergence of punk on the rock scene, a lot of activity has been generated on the Lower East Side. Many people live down there, including Joey (“It sucks!”) Ramone, William Burroughs (who says he finds the people talking to themselves and dying in the street a useful contrast to his somewhat idyllic place in Colorado), Allen Ginsberg and Richard Hell, who wrote “Blank Generation” in a kitchen overlooking the BoWery.

Soho/Boho/Nolio. The so-called “Soho” area has become famous over the last five years as a kind of extension of the Greenwich Village all-artists-have-to-Iive-in-the-same-place-so-there-can-be-a-scene mentality. Soho is basically a series of warehouses turned into loft spaces in which people live and work. Central Soho is a pleasant and expensive place. It broadens out in myriad directions, being so far downtown that it can’t be interrupted until Wall Street, and some lower Soho locations are quite dangerous. The streets are empty, poorly lit and hardly patrolled. Some maniacs live down there, and they come out at night.

Generally speaking, if you see someone lying on the street bleeding or not bleeding, vomiting or not vomiting, if you see someone staggering down the street on their last legs with eyes closed, if you see someone holding a heated debate with themselves while head banging, don’t do anything. These are leftovers from Ramones hits. They won’t hurt you if you don’t approach them.

3) The best places to go are parties. The fastest blood is connected by a never-ending flow of business parties, and everyone is always on the lookout for new people. Get invited to as many as you can. This could be difficult, but not impossible, if you don’t know any people. It probably isn’t hard to crash that big loft party downtown tonight. At most big parties the host only knows 25 percent of the guests, so you can always say, “1 came with Joan … DeMcnille. Barbara Braden?” A little cocaine will take care of any problem if the host should attempt to eject you. But really one of the best things about New York is everybody always wants to meet somebody new.

Suddenly, you’re staying with me overnight, as a houseguest, in my apartment in the West Village. There are two bedrooms. I let you have one of them to do whatever you want in because they’re far away from each other and there’s a separate bathroom.

You are extremely lucky. Tonight I have an invitation to go to Richard Avedon’s party at the Metropolitan Museum. The invitation, like all good invitations, admits two. It says black tie, so you have to get dressed up. You don’t have anything to wear?

Quick, run down to Manic Panic, that store on St. Marks Place that sells all those punk clothes. Punks always look like jewels, so if you get something there, you’ll be okay. You could go to Trash and Vaudeville or Revenge; they all have lots of stuff for not so much money. That’s on the Lower East Side, and since it’s a picturesque and sunny day, you can walk.

4) Me: So you went and got a great outfit for $25, and what else happened?

You: I forget.

Me: You ran into William Burroughs on the street, didn’t you?

You: That’s right.

Me: And he was with a guy who you know from Kansas who’s his secretary now, that big Negro.

You: He is not a Negro, he’s a Swede.

Me: I thought he was from Kansas.

You: That’s where all the Swedes went.

Me: Why aren’t the stars in the sky tonight?

You: Because they’re all on the ground.

Me: Well, we got in at… what time was it?

You: I forget. I didnt look. Were you drunk again?

Me: No, not really.

You: Then why were you running down the street being chased by that girl in the black dress with the…

Me: No, I was just running away from her, because she started to say mean things about someone I like and I didn’t want to hear it. I couldn’t stand it. Did you enjoy the party? Who did you see there?

You: Oh, Linda McCartney. Um… Buck Henry.

Me: Buck Henry! Who was he with?

You: He’s been hanging around with Al Goldstein over at Death magazine.

Me: How come?

You: Search me.

Me: I don’t want to. So who else did you see?

You: Er… Carole Bouquet.

Me: Who’s she?

You: She was in that Buñuel film, That Obscure Object of Desire.

Me: How do you pronounce it?

You: I don’t know. She was also in that movie with Richard Hell about being a punk rock star, and then he’s her guru or something and they move to the Upper East Side.

Me: I thought he married Suki Love.

You: That was Ulli Lommel, the German guy who made the film. He married Suki Love, and they’re making a film right now called Cocaine Cowboys, starring Jack Palance and Tom Sullivan. It was a great party, I really liked it.

Me: What was great about it? Say something. Just talk about it, tell everybody.

You: Well, I liked it because it was the sort of beginning of the New York season, and a lot of people—I think 5,000 people—came, or something, and you had to wait 25 minutes just to get in, which was sort of great, because everyone was in evening clothes and rich and stuff like that, but they still had to stand outside, just like any jerk. Like us.

Me: Yeah, like us. We didn’t mind.

You: It was fun because all those people were so upset.

Me: Did Linda McCartney have to wait outside?

You: No, because she went to the dinner with Richard Avedon before the party.

Me: Was Andy there?

You: No, he went to see A Wedding instead.

Me: He went to see A Wedding! Who was he with?

You: Just a couple of beautiful girls, and they lost their limousine. But anyway, I also liked the party because you could stroll around the halls of the museum drinking and keep bumping into somebody. I noticed that A and B are back together.

Me: Again. I know. I couldn’t believe it, I couldn’t believe it. And what was… he has a mustache now and she’s got a scar.

You: Well, scars are nice sometimes. It depends where they are. But anyway, did anyone have any drugs?

Me: Only C. C always has drugs.

You: So did you take some?

Me: Yes, and then D grabbed me and dragged me behind the door where they keep the brooms, and I thought, “God, this is so great, this is so great, sex in a broom closet at the Metropolitan Museum during a party for Richard Avedon!”

5) The United Nations is located on First Avenue between 42nd and 46th streets. I went there in a taxi. The U.N. is very nice because when you get there suddenly you are in a big international atmosphere, and there’s even a lawn. It is good to smoke a joint on the way over in the back of the cab with a breeze blowing in off the river as you go up First Avenue passing a heliport at 34th Street. You’re beginning to see the streets in the daytime, with all their charming mystery, weirdness and variety.

The U.N. is free. For nothing you can go and feel important listening seriously to the speeches by the mad representatives of various countries. It is all nonsense, but it is very tasteful. They were discussing South Africa when I dropped in and taking hours to tell the detailed bio of Steve Biko. One thing I noticed was that although the men looked nothing more than ordinary, most of the women were very attractive. It’s great to go there, because all the speeches are in foreign languages and you have to have an earplug so you can get a translation. If I was the translator, I know I would break in and say, “This sucks… ”

For $2 you can take a one-hour tour of the U.N. I don’t know about this bit. I was going to do it, but suddenly a woman screamed out, “The next tour will be in French only!” and I had to split. I couldn’t wait for a bunch of despicable frogs to walk around while I cooled my heels. I had places to go, things to do, people to see. This is New York! You can’t suddenly have a bunch of frogs rushing in, taking your time in Manhattan. Just tell them you haven’t got that much time. They’ll respect you and treat you better. It’s like when you take a phone call, a lot of the time they answer it with a record, the premise being that you will sit idly by listening until they’re ready to talk to you. Hang up and tell them in no uncertain terms that whenever you hear machines you always hang up.

There’s also a really good dining room called the Delegates’ Dining Room where you can go and pretend you’re delegates, or trick your new girl friend, or something.

I didn’t know what to do next, so I went and had lunch at this restaurant called Mortimer’s on 75th and Lexington with Catherine Guinness, who works in magazines here, and she told me that more of the really elegant fashion mags were coming to Manhattan from Europe with a lot of money, because they really believe that people want to be more elegant, as Diane Von Furstenberg and Halston have proved. And then I went to the Stock Exchange, about which I apparently wrote: “One of the best things is the New York Stock Exchange, 20 Broad Street, way downtown. It’s pretty hard to figure out what’s going on here, but everyone is running around making or losing money, basically. The relative informality of the whole operation is a little unsettling. It looks like a vast betting shop, and 25 1/2 million Americans own stock. The most striking thing about my visit was how bad the women in the area looked. I think all that counting gets to them.

6) There’s no point in going to all the great in places in New York before you meet some people, some New Yorkers being New Yorkers around their local watering holes. You could go to CBGB if you like rock ’n’ roll. There’s always a lot of people there, and you can talk to them, pretty much. I mean, they’re nice people and you can be very straightforward and say, “I come from X and I just got here and where should I go?” If you choose the wrong person and he’s catatonic, don’t get put off, just ask the next person. If you go to CBGB, be sure to take a cab and to get into a cab as soon as you leave, because it is on the Bowery and sometimes the people down there get quite irate late at night and rush up to hit you or piss on you, an unnerving experience and not funny when it happens when there’s no one else around, no cops and so forth. But basically CBGB is a lot of fun, and lots of kids are standing around outside banging their heads against the wall.

If you think you can get in, go to Studio 54. There is a lot of ambivalent feeling about Studio 54, but as anthropologist Peter Beard says, “You’ve got to think of it as an animals’ watering hole—it’s the number-one water hole in the universe. There’s the anthropology corner, where you find the greeting behavior, displacement behavior; the bisexual bathroom hallway; the subterranean hardcore; and the theater balcony.” For other meeting places, look in the newspapers. About all the Village Voice and the Soho Weekly News are good for is their listings. Papers worth buying for information are Interview, Punk and Night.

Going out at night in New York, use cabs. If you can afford to do it, rent a limousine for one night’s entertainment, because it’s worth seeing Manhattan from that perspective. Also the limousine drivers can be very friendly. They’ll smoke a joint and take you up to Harlem in the middle of winter to look at the hundreds of junkies shuffling on the corners, and past the Apollo theater, or crawl around Hudson Street gay-barhopping, or cruise the streets for pickups. Just like in the movies.

After a while, New York becomes a movie set. Did we already use that quote? But it’s so good we can use it again. Why aren’t the stars in the sky? Because they’re on the streets. I mean, it’s amazing how many talented and wonderful people are wandering around, and you see them all the time. I bumped into Lou Reed only yesterday. He was looking for a new apartment. “Victor, meet the Moose,” he said. I turned around and there was this guy seven feet tall and broad with it.

Everybody thinks that New Yorkers think New York is the center of the world, and they’re always saying how New York thinks it’s such a big cheese. But that’s really not true. New Yorkers know that America is a great expansive country, fascinating, completely different all over, and they want to see Santa Fe and Minneapolis, Tampa, Fort Worth. No one in New York ever says anything bad about America or tries to put down Arizona. But, boy, you just wait till you get out to Colorado or San Francisco, and even the hotel clerk and the bellboy are congratulating you. “You made it out. You got away from Death City!” “That town of gangsters!” “Boy are you lucky!” And they shake your hand and insist you stay a while. Personally, I can never wait to get back to Manhattan.

You don’t get a good look at Manhattan when you fly in on a jet, because the airport is in Queens. Meanwhile, the secret of Manhattan is to see it from the air, because Manhattan is a city that grows upward. So, the first thing to do in Manhattan is get higher than the city.

Flying is an elegant sport, and you could benefit from doing it more, anyway. The first thing to do in Manhattan is jump in a cab and tell the driver, “The heliport at 34th Street and East River Drive.” Anytime between 9:30 A.M. and 4:30 P.M. a four-seater helicopter will take you up. It is a good eye-opener. You see big blue swimming poois and big green tennis courts on top of high-rise apartment buildings. You note the very different looks of the different sections of Manhattan: an incredible array of architectural forms in the variety of buildings on the Upper East Side; the bombed-out look of the Lower East Side. You fly directly past the tops of skyscrapers. As the chopper cuts across the East River to touch down on the island’s edge, the buildings rapidly move up at you and develop into their frames just like in famous pictures. You see the whole island through a kaleidoscope as the planes of the buildings tilt. It’s a quite different view, and the seven minute ride is more than a bargain for $9 (minimum of two people).

There is also a boat (the Circle Line at 43rd Street and 12th Avenue) that goes around the whole island while a loudspeaker tells what you’re passing. It takes two and one-half hours and costs $6. I slept through the first half of the trip, but there were two good parts: when you go around the top of the island, it’s pretty fucked up; and, when you sail past the Upper West Side, the line of apartment buildings along the edge of the island looks like the forbidding wall of a giant medieval fortress. Manhattan is a fortress. As you walk along the streets you will feel as if you are “inside” the city. It even has a moat.

As soon as you get off the boat, head east toward 34th Street until you come to the Empire State Building, which is at Fifth Avenue. Take an elevator to the 86th floor ($1.70) and go out on the observation deck, where visibility runs up to 25 miles on a clear day. The observation deck faces north, south, west and east. Take a good look in all four directions and you will get a pretty firm hold on the layout, which will be useful when you think you’re lost.

7) Another lens to look at New York through is provided by the lobbies, bars, restaurants and—if you can make it—rooms of our most elegant hotels. Start at the Carlyle, tea between four and four-thirty in the afternoon. This is where the Kennedys stay. Warren Beatty has a home on the top floor so he can be three blocks away from Diane Keaton. You can’t stay there together unless you’re married.

The Pierre and the Sherry-Netherland, situated next to each other between 59th and 61st Streets, are the two major hotels for the major celebrities. Their majestic towers rise like sentinels of elegance over Central park, and as you look up at them from the avenue, you know that on any given day Mick Jagger, Francis Ford Coppola, David Bowie or Max Von Sydow may be gazing down upon you.

Go to the Sherry-Netherland for an evening cocktail and make use of their telephone-at-the-table service to call somebody up and impress them by having them call you back. Try and sit in the lobby of the Pierre for as long as you can some mid-week afternoon, just to see who’s floating through. The rich look different because they keep different hours and can afford invisible makeup. If you look like you’re waiting for someone seriously (carrying a tape recorder, for example), no one will bother you.

Across the street from the Pierre you will see the Plaza, which you may remember, as you stand gazing at it, used to be the home of Eloise, a very sophisticated girl who lived there on her own and liked it very much. Unfortunately, Eloise has long flown the coop, and the Plaza has recently been computerized. And word has come out that even the music of the violinist in the Palm Court Lounge has been bowdlerized. Go instead to the St. Regis, hidden in the shadows of 55th Street just off Fifth Avenue. This is where Salvador Dali lives in the winter. And I met Sissy Spacek there once. She was standing in a green velvet lounge wearing a green velvet dress…

Manhattan is 12 1/2 miles long and 2 1/2 miles wide at its widest point, covering an area of 23 square miles. It has what a clerk at the census bureau described as “an incredible population density of 66,923 people per square mile.” A square mile—consider stuffing 66,923 people in it. 1,416,700 people live in Manhattan, but the population is gradually decreasing. The per capita income is $6,307. An interesting figure. The island is connected by 19 bridges, four tunnels and 11 subway lines to the mainland.

Read the full issue here.

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A New York state senator wrote a letter to the state’s Office of Cannabis Management, urging leadership to engage in “aggressive action” on unlicensed cannabis retailers after witnessing them in his own neighborhood.

State Senator Brad Hoylman-Sigal, chair of the Senate Judiciary Committee, and representing New York’s 47th State Senate District on Manhattan’s West Side, is tired of unlicensed cannabis stores and dispensaries popping up across town.

Hoylman-Sigal wrote a public letter on July 17, addressed to Office of Cannabis Management Executive Director Christopher Alexander and Tremaine Wright, chair of the Cannabis Control Board, urging action immediately.

“In the 2023 budget, the New York State Legislature granted additional authority to the Office of Cannabis Management (OCM) and the Department of Taxation and Finance (DTF) to address unlicensed cannabis stores,” Hoylman-Sigal wrote. “This includes conducting inspections, imposing civil penalties, and seeking injunctions to shut down stores. I am grateful to see OCM and DTF begin to take action. Given the serious issues caused by these stores, I urge OCM and DTF to continue to act quickly and aggressively to shut down these unlicensed stores.”

Hoylman-Sigal addressed the severity of the issue, including stores dotting Manhattan. 

“The scale of these unlicensed stores is staggering, with over 100 stores identified in Hell’s Kitchen alone. As I have expressed previously, these stores are deceptive to consumers, hazardous to public health, cheating on their taxes, undermining the State’s equity-based and legal cannabis rollout, and have little incentive to inspect IDs to ensure they are not selling to minors. Additionally, because these stores are unregulated and have little oversight, they pose a danger to employees and neighbors.”

Hoylman-Sigal went a step further to name dispensaries that are either unlicensed or have received complaints.

“I am enclosing a list of stores which have been reported to us by constituents as well as a list of unlicensed stores in Hell’s Kitchen compiled by the Hell’s Kitchen Neighborhood Coalition. I urge OCM to act expeditiously to shut down these stores.”  

New York Takes Action on the Proliferation of Unlicensed Cannabis Shops

New York Gov. Kathy Hochul is also ramping up efforts to tackle the illegal dispensary situation.

New York State Office of Cannabis Management and Department of Taxation and Finance began inspections of unlicensed shops in early June under a new law signed by Gov. Hochul a month prior in May.

The new law signed by the Governor in May is part of the State’s Fiscal Year 2024 Budget. The beefed up penalties include fines of up to $20,000 per day, used to discourage illegal activity.

“Under new powers that I fought for in this year’s State budget, we can now conduct enforcement against businesses illegally selling cannabis, and I’m proud to report that in just the first three weeks of our efforts, we’ve seized nearly $11 million worth of illicit products off the streets,” Governor Hochul said. “These unlicensed businesses violate our laws, put public health at risk, and undermine the legal cannabis market, and with the powerful new tools in our toolbelt we’re sending a clear and strong message: if you sell illegal cannabis in New York, you will be caught and you will be stopped.”

The New York City Council is also stepping in. At a meeting of the New York City Council last January, officials pledged increased enforcement against unlicensed cannabis retailers and said that the state legislature is drafting new legislation to give law enforcement additional powers to shut down illicit pot shops. For the time being, unlicensed stores are easy to find in the state.

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Cannabis retail locations are rolling out in the largest city in the U.S. while unlicensed locations thrive despite numerous efforts to shut them down. New York City opened its third legal, adult-use cannabis store on Feb. 13 in Lower Manhattan.

The latest legal store to open is called Union Square Travel Agency: A Cannabis Store, and will be located on East 13th Street, between Broadway and University Place. The store will sell products including smokable flower, edibles, concentrates, and vapes, according to its website. 

“We’re building a cannabis industry here in New York State that is equitable and delivers new resources to nonprofits that bring supportive services to our communities,” Governor Hochul said in a statement. “This is the latest milestone in our efforts to grow the industry, while creating jobs and opportunity for those who, historically, have been disproportionately targeted for cannabis infractions.”

It’s the third legal cannabis store after the nonprofit Housing Works opened one on East 8th Street and Broadway and Smacked LLC, a store that opened on Bleecker Street last month. The new store leadership celebrated its opening during the governor’s announcement.

“We are incredibly grateful to everyone who has contributed to the opening of the Union Square Travel Agency: A Cannabis Store. From our amazing partners at The Doe Fund who had the courage and innovation to embrace this opportunity; to the OCM, New York State and New York City in paving the way for this new industry and their ongoing commitment in ensuring this legal industry will be a success; our amazing team members who have worked day and night to get us to this point; and our friends & family who have supported us in this endeavor from the beginning,” said CEO of Union Square Travel Agency: A Cannabis Store, Paul Yau. “We thank you all.”

The opening of the store is part of New York State’s Seeding Opportunity Initiative and helps advance the state’s goals of equity in cannabis licensing.

First to Receive Retail Licenses in New York

Union Square Travel Agency is also the third Conditional Adult-Use Retail Dispensary (CAURD) location. The CAURD license is a “central pillar” of the New York State Seeding Opportunity Initiative. Under that Initiative, New York’s first legal adult-use retail dispensaries will be operated by people most impacted by the War on Drugs, or non-profit organizations whose services include support for the formerly incarcerated. 

In order to be eligible for a CAURD license, applicants must either have a cannabis conviction themselves, or be the close family relative of someone who does, and own or have owned a business that had a net profit for at least two years. 

Nonprofits are eligible for CAURD licenses if they meet a number of conditions as well.

These dispensaries are making legal adult-use sales with cannabis products grown by New York Farmers.

“The opening of this third dispensary in Manhattan marks the latest milestone in the growth of New York State’s Cannabis Industry. These new locations will provide an opportunity for local businesses to continue to grow and build a vibrant market while capitalizing on the growing demand for safe, tested, quality cannabis products. The possibilities for our nascent market are endless.”

The New York Office of Cannabis Management (OCM) announced the final list of applicants who will be issued the first round of retail cannabis licenses in the state. Thirty-six applicants were announced on Nov. 20, 2022, chosen out of a pool of 903 applicants. All cannabis sold in New York is subject to a 13% sales tax.

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New York City officials announced this week that they would take new steps to address the city’s growing number of unlicensed cannabis retailers in a bid to bolster the rollout of the regulated market for recreational marijuana. At a press conference in Manhattan on Tuesday, New York City Mayor Eric Adams and Manhattan District Attorney Alvin L. Bragg, Jr. said they would also target the landlords of retailers selling weed without a license from the state.

New York’s mayor and leading prosecutor noted that the district attorney’s office had filed complaints against four unlicensed shops selling cannabis in Manhattan. The complaints allege that an NYPD officer had observed the shops selling cannabis to underage individuals and that the city is moving to shut down the shops for making illegal sales of cannabis and operating without a license.

“Legalizing cannabis was a major step forward for equity and justice — but we’re not going to take two steps back by letting illegal smoke shops take over this emerging market,” Adams said in a statement from the mayor’s office. “Today, we are proud to announce we are taking direct action against four unlicensed smoke shops in the Ninth Precinct, which will complement our efforts with District Attorney Bragg to hold these illegal businesses accountable. We are laser-focused on protecting the health and well-being of New Yorkers and ensuring this emerging industry delivers equity to those who deserve it the most.”

Last month, city leaders pledged to take action against the multitude of illicit marijuana retailers that have set up shop in New York City since the state legalized marijuana for adults last year. In December, New York City Mayor Eric Adams launched a pilot interagency task force to address the growing number of unlicensed retailers. The task force, which includes the Sheriff’s Office, the NYPD, the Department of Consumer and Worker Protection, and the Office of Cannabis Management, has identified at least 1,200 unlicensed marijuana shops in the city. An analysis by city council staff revealed 11 unlicensed shops selling cannabis within a 10-block radius of the city’s first licensed retailer.

Warnings Sent To 400 Smoke Shops

In addition to the four complaints against unlicensed shops, Adams and Bragg said that the district attorney’s office had sent letters to the more than 400 smoke shops in Manhattan, warning them that the city could initiate eviction proceedings for unlawful cannabis sales. The letter specifically informs commercial entities that the city is prepared to use its authority under New York real estate law “to require owners and landlords to commence eviction proceedings of commercial tenants who are engaged in illegal trade or business, and to take over such eviction proceedings if necessary.” The letter also noted that within five days of written notice that prosecutors would “take over such eviction.”

“For nearly two years, we’ve seen a proliferation of storefronts across Manhattan selling unlicensed, unregulated, and untaxed cannabis products. It’s time for the operation of unlicensed cannabis dispensaries to end,” said Bragg. “Just as we don’t allow endless unlicensed bars and liquor stores to open on every corner, we cannot allow that for cannabis. It’s not safe to sell products that aren’t properly inspected and regulated for dosage, purity, and contaminants. And it certainly isn’t fair to competing businesses.”

Mark Sims, the CEO of cannabis investment firm RIV Capital, said in an email that the proliferation of unlicensed businesses hurts both the newly licensed adult-use cannabis retailers and existing medical marijuana firms including Etain Health, a chain of New York medical marijuana dispensaries operated by RIV, and called for more action from the state.

“While we commend Mayor Adams’ actions to combat the illicit market—it’s a positive step forward—the problem of illicit smoke shops cannot be viewed or solved in isolation,” Sims wrote in an email. “With more than 1,200 illicit shops (which is double the number of Starbucks in New York) suspected to be trafficking in illicit cannabis products, products that have been shown to be unsafe for human health, a more holistic approach must be taken to successfully combat the steady flow of illicit market product.”

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