I recently visited the city to check out the vibrant gray market. One of my first stops was Granny Za’s Weed Marijuana Dispensary on the Lower East Side. Inside was a small, brightly-painted showroom with several clerks behind glass cases with examples of product.
Before I picked up my preroll, I asked the clerk if their flower was grown locally. He said “I can’t actually tell you where it comes from.”
A moment later he told me, “All of our stuff is grown and fully tested in California.”
A purchase went like this: Customers paid up front, then we were directed to a counter in the back of the room to get your purchase. In my case, it was a pre-roll claiming to contain 46% THC. The preroll’s label indicated that it came from Michigan, but the label either had incomplete or inaccurate information preventing it from being verified, according to an official from Michigan’s Cannabis Regulatory Agency.
Regardless of where the flower actually comes from, there is a significant trend in claiming California’s street cred for quality cannabis. Pre-packaged eighths of flower and edibles bearing California’s cannabis triangle icon are abundant, whether in a low-key consumption lounge, glorified bodega, or a smoke shop with CBD, glass pieces – and weed behind the counter if you ask for it.