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The Guardian - UK
The Guardian - UK
Politics
Edward Helmore

New York’s new drug problem: what to do with a billion dollar weed mountain?

Marijuana products on display at the Weed World store  in New York city.
Marijuana products on display at the Weed World store in New York city. Photograph: Kena Betancur/AFP/Getty Images

Let’s Be Blunt: No smoking in the plazas” is the message that has been placed around Times Square following newly liberalised cannabis laws that have turned New York, some say, into a pot-smoking free for all. The legislation has also set off an upstate cultivation boom that produced 300,000 pounds of weed, valued at three-quarters of a billion dollars, in its first harvest.

So far just a handful of state-licensed dispensaries have opened, a complement to hundreds of weed-selling vape stores, more traditional home delivery services and those calling out their wares in parks and street corners across the city.

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