NYC bodega owners rally for right to sell marijuana when its legalized

They want in on this budding industry.

New York City bodega owners rallied in The Bronx on Sunday morning to urge state politicians to allow them to sell marijuana in the city’s 15,000 stores when the green is ultimately legalized.

“Rather than drug peddling outside of these bodegas, we want to bring them inside,” said United Bodegas of America spokesman Fernando Mateo, who was joined by four other board members during the 11 a.m. press conference at Anthony’s Mini Market in Melrose.

“Allow us to become a wholesaler,” he continued, “in other words, let us cut out the middle man.”

Radames Rodriguez, president of United Bodegas of America, who owns two bodegas in the Bronx, recalled how he “used to say to the guys selling marijuana outside my business, ‘Hey, this is my business. You’re making more money than what I’m making over here.’”

“We have battled with people selling Marijuana for decades in front of our stores. We have seen thousands being arrested for selling Marijuana in front of our businesses,” Rodriguez said in a press release. “Bodega owners need increased revenue to survive, we have paid our dues.” [Read more at The New York Post]