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Morning Spew

If You’re the Governor, You Should Buy Some Weed

"Retail politics" means buying something, even if you're at a weed store!

9:31 AM EST on February 23, 2023

Flatiron Building on a rainy day.

(Serge Pelletier / Unsplash)

On Wednesday, Governor Kathy Hochul visited Just Breathe, the newest legal cannabis shop in Binghamton, New York.

This is, quite literally, retail politics. You get out there, buy an ice cream cone or two, maybe a greasy paper sack of burgers, and show the people that you are participating in some good old fashioned American Commerce. It shows that you still believe that it's important to walk into a brick-and-mortar store, converse with the owner and the workers, and buy something to help ensure the continued existence of this miracle of ingenuity and hard work—the small business!

Buying something at a legal cannabis shop in New York is especially important right now, at a time when the state's legal market is just getting its footing, and still facing serious competition from grey-market retailers and legacy dealers. Just Breathe did everything it was supposed to do: It put up with all the government's bullshit to get a license. The system works! But now people need to buy legal weed.

"Making any purchases today?" a reporter asked Hochul at an event before the visit, lofting a fat softball into the air for the skilled politician to strike and send out of the ballpark into the parking lot.

"Not today, I've got other purchases to make," replied the person ultimately in charge of the embattled legal cannabis market in New York state. "I'm gonna drop by because I want them to be successful."

If you want them to be successful: Buy something! The governor could have picked up some rolling papers, or a grinder, or a sweatshirt, a tote—something! And if she's willing to raise a glass of the stuff that kills 140,000 Americans each year, surely she can pretend to hit a vape pen of Southern Tier Stunner (patent pending).

Don't hit these links too hard:

  • "Godzilla," the alligator pulled from Prospect Park Lake over the weekend, is severely emaciated because she apparently swallowed a bathtub stopper.
  • The mayor is getting into Wim Hof breathing exercises and cold plunges and will probably move to Los Angeles within six months.
  • House Democrats are planning on pouring a shitload of money into New York's congressional races to flip those seats and gain a majority but...a lack of cash was not the problem in 2022.
  • Speaking of that problem: the New York State Democratic Party.
  • The City is sitting on fat stacks right now but something something recession something something rainy day.
  • The FDNY wants to jack up the cost of your next ambulance ride by nearly 50 percent.
  • NYCHA residents are waiting more than a year to move into new apartments.
  • Our friends at the IBO calculated the costs and benefits of having free bus service in New York City.

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