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

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).

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