New York City Is Shut Down, But Its Black-Market Weed Is Booming

“There’s a morgue with refrigerated trucks down the street from me,” says one West Village customer. “If I could live in my bong right now, I’d do it”

“There’s a morgue with refrigerated trucks down the street from me,” says one West Village customer. “If I could live in my bong right now, I’d do it”

For the second year in a row, New York has abandoned legalizing marijuana — but that’s not stopping New Yorkers from smoking a lot of weed. A 2019 study found that 1.3 million New Yorkers reported using cannabis in the previous year, and consumption has spiked during the coronavirus pandemic. For many living in the center of the pandemic, cannabis is essential. “If I could live in my bong right now, I’d do it,” says Caroline, a daily weed smoker who lives in the West Village. “There’s a morgue with refrigerated trucks down the street from me. Weed is keeping me sane.”

According to black-market cannabis vendors we spoke with, business during COVID-19 is brisk. Transactions are conducted in masks and gloves, or through a mailbox exchange: customers leave an envelope of cash, trusting their delivery service to drop off product. One dealer we’ll call Larry, who spoke to Rolling Stone on the condition of anonymity, says that he’s doing good business because his NYC clients are accustomed to paying a premium for high-end weed delivered to their door.

Larry operates out of the Bronx, but he started growing pot in the 1990s in a loft above a pizzeria in downtown Manhattan, using the pizza-oven exhaust to hide the smell of his flowering plants. At that time, he says, he could get up to $6,000 for a pound of an in-demand strain like Strawberry Cough. Now, the black market is flooded with good, cheap cannabis coming from states with legal weed, and pot prices have plunged to less than $2,000 a pound. Despite market saturation, the going rate for a quarter ounce hasn’t changed during COVID-19: $100.