New York officials had said that those who jumped the line to cash in on cannabis would not be rewarded over those who played by the rules.
A year after New York legalized marijuana for recreational use, a bright-green sign shaped like the plant’s leaf signaled the arrival of a dispensary called Budega on an industrial corner in Queens.
The sleek shop, where customers purchase memberships for points that can be redeemed for weed, is one of thousands of illegal dispensaries that the state vowed to shut down. Their owners would be banned from the legal cannabis market, officials said.
But instead, Budega was awarded a retail license last month — the first confirmed instance of an illicit shop receiving one of the permits. The situation exposes lapses in the vetting process, undercutting New York officials’ assurances that those who jumped the line to cash in on cannabis would not be rewarded over those who played by the rules.
“They said this would not happen,” said Alex Norman, a licensee involved in a trademark dispute over the use of the name Budega. He owns Budega NYC, a clothing and lifestyle brand whose name he intended to use for his own dispensary.
The Budega situation has