DNAINFO: QUEENS’ ONLY MEDICAL MARIJUANA SITE SEEKS TO OVERTURN ‘STIGMA’ OF USE
ELMHURST — The borough’s first medical marijuana facility opened Friday inside a bright and airy former clothing shop on Queens Boulevard — but don’t expect to find any pot cookies, flavored pot, or “trendy” pot brands.
Vireo Health, at 89-55 Queens Blvd., will be different than other pot dispensaries around the nation in a bid to shed any “stigma” associated with cannabis use, CEO Ari Hoffnung said.
“There will be no joints here, there will be no pot brownies, we have no products with names that some regard as offensive, like AK 47,” he said at the opening ceremony Friday.
“Instead we have pharmaceutical-grade medical cannabis, dispensed not by ‘budtenders,’ who have little to no training, but dispensed by New York State licensed pharmacists who have years of training in pharmaceuticals and supplementary training in cannabis.”