Nov. 16, 2023 By Gabriele Holtermann Good Grades, the first woman-owned retail cannabis dispensary in Queens, reopened to the public in Jamaica on Nov. 15 after undergoing an extensive $1 million renovation. The first legal retail dispensary in Queens, co-owned by Extasy James and her cousin, Michael James, opened as a temporary “pop-up” in March…
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Nov. 10, 2023 By Anthony Medina Queens Community Board 5 (CB 5) officially voted to oppose all three applications for legal adult-use cannabis dispensaries during its meeting at Christ the King High School in Middle Village, on Wednesday, Nov. 8. As a follow-up to the Community Board 5 Liquor License and Cannabis Committee meeting held last week, board members heard again from the public regarding the proposed sites for the state’s conditional adult-use retail dispensary applicants and moved to vote on the matter once and for all. Once the Liquor License and Cannabis Committee report was shared with the board,…
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Oct. 19, 2023 By Czarinna Andres and Anthony Medina Queens elected officials have united to formally express their concerns over proposed adult-use retail dispensary license applications for storefronts in Glendale and Maspeth, citing the potential risks posed by their proximity to educational institutions. In a letter written on Monday, Oct. 16, addressed to the New… Read more »
Oct. 18, 2023 By Camille Botello Community Board 11 is scheduled to deliberate on a new cannabis player in the East Bronx at its Economic Development Committee meeting tonight. Freshly Baked NYC — a legal conditional adult-use retail dispensary (CAURD) license holder with a Queens delivery location but without a current physical storefront — has applied to set up shop at 2152-2154 White Plains Road in the Pelham Parkway section of the Bronx. According to the committee agenda, CB11 members will deliberate on the dispensary’s application at Wednesday night’s hybrid meeting. David Nicponski, the CEO and co-founder of Freshly Baked…
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Oct. 18, 2023 By Iryna Shkurhan As the state is rolling out legal adult-use cannabis with an emphasis on social equity, community boards have been left with a novel responsibility of approving the dispensary applications that are rolling in. At this month’s monthly meeting that congregates the chairs of all 14 community boards in Queens, a frustration with the state’s lack of support in adopting the new responsibility dominated the meeting. All who spoke up at the Oct. 16 meeting in Kew Gardens expressed a need for more structure to deal with the various challenges that are already coming up…
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By John Schilling Ozone Park resident Jeremy Rivera sat at home back in April, nervously awaiting an email that could change his life as he knew it. A three-time convicted felon on various drug charges who reinvented himself as the head of a construction company post-incarceration, Rivera sought a new beginning for himself once… Read more »
Aug. 18, 2023 By Anthony Medina
A second Conditional Adult-Use Retail Dispensary (CAURD) application within the Community Board 5 district plans to set up shop on 57-01 Myrtle Ave. in Ridgewood sometime in November, according to the owners of the cannabis dispensary.
Jul. 24, 2023 By John Schilling When 29-year-old Jeremy Rivera stood before a judge in Queens County Court on Aug. 8, 2016, he was sentenced to two years in Gouverneur Correctional Facility in Upstate New York for a non-violent crime: possession of a controlled substance in the third degree. Prior to his arrest, Rivera was…
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June 30, 2023 By Michael Dorgan There’s more than one way to roll a joint! The operators of the borough’s first legal cannabis dispensary say they have decided to put a tool used in the war on drugs to better use. Extasy James and her cousin, Michael James, Jr., who own Good Grades on Jamaica… Read more »
May. 16, 2023 By Carlotta Mohamed
Southeast Queens residents filled the auditorium at P.S. 270 in Rosedale on Thursday, May 11, for a town hall discussion with local electeds and NYPD officials on how to protect their neighborhoods from the harmful effects of illegal smoke shops.