INWOOD, Manhattan (PIX11) — A two-and-a-half-year process of certifications, documentation, site approvals and meeting other requirements resulted in an event that was as lighthearted as the name of the business at the heart of the occasion.
Happy Munkey Cannabis boutique opened on Monday afternoon as the first legal cannabis shop in Upper Manhattan above the George Washington Bridge. Its odyssey from concept to reality underscores how daunting the process to open legally can be, and is also a reminder of how illegal shops remain a challenge to the legitimate ones.
The ribbon cutting on Monday afternoon was the end of a journey that’s lasted far longer than the three years in which cannabis has been legal in New York State.
Happy Munkey’s co-founders, Vladimir Bautista and Ramon Reyes, said that the opening of their custom-designed boutique is validation for all they’ve endured. They’d sold marijuana on Uptown streets in the 2000s and 2010s, and now that it’s legal, they said that their long-standing entrepreneurship is paying off.