Business

Weed sales soar on sidewalks, in storefronts

By Abraham Dume

As Jonathan Perez, 28, sees it, his sales of cannabis gummies, cookies, cereal and other sweet treats and of pre-rolled marijuana joints, selling for $10 each, is a community service. 

“We’ve saved lives … Ever since we’ve come here there’s been more peace and harmony in this park,” said Perez, offering his opinion while seated in a folding chair in Washington Square Park. Next to him was a fold-out table covered with his products.

Since state law legalized recreational use of marijuana by those aged 21, public possession of no more than three ounces of recreational marijuana; medicinal marijuana and hemp. Quartz, the business news site, has forecasted annual growth of 14% in legal cannabis sales in the United States, exceeding $57 billion yearly by 2030.

Perez, whose other job is as a building maintenance manager, serves those who find it too expensive to shop at cannabis dispensaries operating as retail stores or in hospitals. 

He said he hopes to someday earn a good living selling cannabis and being his own boss. He has noticed that other cannabis dealers have a fancier set-up than his and are earning way more money. “There should be equality between all businesses,” Perez said. “They should all get the same treatment as big business and be appreciated just as much.”

Perez wouldn’t disclose how much his cannabis business earns. 

Other sidewalk and parkside cannabis dealers also were tight-lipped about certain aspects of their business, and skeptical that this The Spectrum reporter was a legitimate journalist.

“Are you a cop? What’s a badge number?” That’s what one man asked.

A different man, working in a dispensary at East Fifth Street and St. Mark’s Place, said he had no marijuana in the store, even though a glass case with pre-rolled blunts was in plain sight.

In a dispensary on Second Avenue and St. Marks, a man who said he was the owner’s son, said that his father, like Perez, sees himself as performing a necessary service. His father chose that location in Lower Manhattan, hoping to attract a wide range of clientele. Residents of that part of the East Village mainly are white, but a diversity of people pass through the neighborhood.

”From young to old, everybody wants weed,” he said. “We want our customers to feel like they are in a trusted environment.” 

A man who identified himself as an employee of a different dispensary on St. Mark’s gave a different view of the business. His boss, he argues, is just a businessman solely striving to make money.  

“There’s a lack of transparency between what the product exactly is and I don’t want to sell anything that I don’t know about to the customers … It’s more about the sale and less about the customer” the employee said.