Upper East Side's First Legal Weed Shop Set To Open

UPPER EAST SIDE, NY — Law-abiding cannabis connoisseurs of the Upper East Side are finally getting a legal place to shop for pot starting next week.

The neighborhood's first legal cannabis store, The Herbal Care, will start trading greenbacks for green flower and other products on Jan. 4.

Located at 1412 Lexington Ave., The Herbal Care is owned by justice-involved applicant, Markel Bababekov, a New York City native who resides in Queens.

"Weed is my passion," Bababekov told Patch.

His shop will offer pot experts and newcomers alike a welcoming and thoughtful experience through a highly-educated staff, a huge array of products and potentcies — all of which Bababekov says he has tested himself alongside his brother, who is a partner at the shop — and an art gallery featuring local and global artists.

And all the product, Bababekov said, is exclusively from New York farmers, all of which he said he visited to handpick their wares.

The Herbal Care is also looking to host events and to really be a part of the community.

"You'll never be overwhelmed or lost in my store," Bababekov said. "My dispensary is very different than any dispensary so far in the city."

For years, Bababekov, who grew up in Flushing, have been trying to open a dispensary in multiple states, bringing in his prior experience in the legacy market, where he ran an underground processing operation in California, and business acumen he's developed over time running a pair of dry cleaning shops — including one on East 68th Street, a construction firm and a consulting business.

"Every time there was a new round of licenses — in California, Colorado, Vegas — I constantly applied and constantly got rejected," he said.

But one day he read an article about the program prioritizing justice-involved applicants for New York's cannabis market, known as the Conditional Adult Use Retail Dispensary program, and immediately called a lawyer to get the ball moving.

"I've been arrested four times for cannabis," Bababekov told Patch. Each time, he said, was for smoking or possession of around a gram of the green flower.

The last time — when an NYPD officer tapped on his window as he was rolling a single joint in his parked car — landed him in Rikers Island for nearly 20 days.

Once Bababekov got news he was finally granted a justice-involved New York license, he sold one of his two laundromats in Los Angeles and got to work.

"Best decision I've ever made in my life," he said, despite the hurdles.

"I've always wanted to be a dispensary owner. I have a passion from the marijuana plant itself, looking at it, smelling it, understanding it the process of how way grows, how it gets extracted — just everything about marijuana I'm very passionate about."

New York's cannabis dispensary roll-out has been a notoriously slow burn, filled with the stems and seeds of regulatory and legal challenges. Only 15 legal shops have opened in the city since the first dispensary, Housing Works Cannabis, first welcomed pot fans back in December 2022.

At least 1,400 illegal cannabis shops have opened in that void, according to officials, which have since become the target of robberies from those illicit stores themselves and of much-needed cannabis tax revenue.

Last week, state cannabis officials said they would be handing out at least 500 new licenses for dispensaries across the state.

Many argue that more legal options, like Bababekov's, will help not only bring in those promised tax dollars but also help drive out the nuisance illicit stores.

The Herbal Care, which is entirely self-funded by Bababekov and his brother, Abbas, will include a wide array of lab tested, New York grown cannabis products, including over 50 strains of traditional flower, pre-rolled joints, edible products, vaporizers and more specialized processed concentrate product, like hash and shatter, and even kosher weed.

But, Bababekov emphasised, his shop is not just for heavy-duty smokers looking for the top-shelf potency. The Herbal Care also offers lower potency products for people who aren't looking for an as-intense experience, as well as some CBD product, too.

"One of the first things I asked my employees during interviews is: 'if a person who's never tried this before comes in, what are you going to tell them?'" Bababekov said.

"I've invested a lot in educating and training my staff," he said of his roughly 25 workers. "No matter if you have never used cannabis before or if you are a longtime user, with us, you're going to really understand what you're buying."

It's not just product safety and education that Bababekov has invested in — two security guards will also be present at the shop during operating hours.

Bababekov said that he can't wait for people to visit the 3,000-square-foot store on Thursday, but he sounded almost more excited for the first event he has lined up with A.J. Sour Diesel (real name Joe Murray), the originator of one of the most popular cannabis strains — first grown in his New York City grow room — Sour Diesel.

"That's my favorite strain," Bababekov said. "I grew up in New York, I smoked Sour my whole life."

"But I'm a connoisseur," he said. "I like the heavier stuff."