Angelo Katkis standing next to the Flower Power Dispensers logo. Photos courtesy of Flower Power.
By Gus Saltonstall
The Upper West Side is getting its first legal cannabis shop three years after marijuana was legalized in New York.
Flower Power Dispensers will open during the last week of March or first week of April at 22 West 66th Street, between Central Park West and Columbus Avenue.
The marijuana shop will be run by Angelo Kitkas – a native of Astoria, Queens, a longtime cannabis connoisseur who works professionally as an electrician, and who spent seven months in prison for marijuana-related offenses in 2004.
Kitkas applied to the state for a conditional Adult-Use Retail Dispensary license in 2022. The license gave New Yorkers who personally were convicted under prior cannabis laws or had a loved-one that was and owned their own profitable businesses, the first chance at being able to sell marijuana legally.
“It feels incredible,” Kitkas told West Side Rag when asked about his journey to open a legal pot shop. “I’ve been talking about this since the 1990s, saying that ‘once it becomes legal, we’re going to open up a shop,’ and I’m happy to get the opportunity and