New Legal Weed Shop Is Coming To The Upper East Side: What To Know

UPPER EAST SIDE, NY — Upper East Siders, get ready to be ablaze with excitement as another legal dispensary plans to open in the neighborhood.

The Emerald Dispensary, currently located in Bushwick, is preparing to open a new legal cannabis shop on the Upper East Side, situated at the corner of East 81st Street and Lexington Avenue.

In a social media announcement, the team revealed their expansion plans but provided limited details, including no specific timeline for the opening. It appears that renovation work is part of their preparation.

The Emerald Dispensary is a social justice equity-owned company, led by Christina De Giovanni and her co-founder Ray Ramon Roman. According to De Giovanni, the Upper East Side location will also be managed by a new partner.

Three other legal weed shops have already opened for business this year on the Upper East Side: Bliss and Lex at 128 East 86th St., The Herbal Care in Carnegie Hill and Lenox Hill Cannabis Co. in Lenox Hill.

New York's cannabis dispensary roll-out has been a notably gradual process, marred by regulatory and legal hurdles.

Since the inaugural dispensary, Housing Works Cannabis, first welcomed pot fans back in December 2022, approximately 152 legal shops have sprouted across the whole state, with roughly 28 existing in Manhattan.

“We anticipate exponential growth for New York’s cannabis industry in 2024. In the last six weeks alone, we’ve more than doubled the amount of open dispensaries across the state, and in the next few months, we’ll more than double the total amount of licenses issued in the last two years," New York’s Cannabis Control Board Chair Tremaine Wright said earlier this year.