Get ready for a “green” tidal wave. New Yorkers will have higher quality weed and more places to buy from this year, according to experts.
When the first recreational cannabis shop opened for business in New York City two years ago, it shook up a decades-long tradition of hush-hush transactions. Thousands of New Yorkers emerged from their underground, then-illegal means of getting their weed to an out-in-the-open, state-approved method to get their high.
It was historic. We saw NYC’s first-ever licensed recreational cannabis dispensary open at Housing Works Cannabis Co., Brooklyn’s first woman-owned dispensary take root, as well as other, more creative and luxurious crop up (i.e. a travel-themed shop that comedian Amy Sedaris budtendered at and another with a Dior-clad staff).
Since then, the city’s and state’s cannabis markets have blossomed—with just 16 licensed dispensary shops in NYC in 2023 to over 200 currently, and from 40 across the state in 2023 to 325 as of March 2025.
On the flip side, the state cracked down on businesses that were selling without a license over the last year, shuttering 450 unlicensed shops, according to the state’s online directory.
Now that we’re two years out and we’ve been getting our licensed rec-weed for awhile now, we’re wondering what’s next for the industry here in New York. Apparently, it’s looking good.
“After years of challenges to the rollout of New York’s legal cannabis market, 2024 was a significant improvement with 200-plus new stores coming online, significantly accelerated sales, and strong optimism on the continued growth of the state’s program,” Ben Burstein, Senior Corp. Development Manager at LeafLink, tells Time Out New York. “2025 is well set up to be another strong year with accelerating license issuance, active dispensary growth, and unit volumes across the state.”
We spoke to several cannabis experts from across the industry, including business owners to cannabis lawyers, to find out. Here’s what they said.
New York’s weed and retail offerings will get even better
With more time comes more and better options. Josh Wilson, the general manager ofCulture House, a licensed dispensary in Herald Square, says that product quality is steadily improving thanks to New York’s progress in catching up to the standards set by other states who have their own cannabis markets.
“However, much of this evolution hinges on the supply chain,” he says. “While some of the larger producers are forecasting a significant product shortage, this prediction does not fully align with the current trends of market saturation and price reductions.”
Lauren Rudick, a cannabis lawyer and the Managing Principal at Rudick Law Group, expects cherished legacy brands and local craft cannabis to hit the market, makingNew York cannabis culture even more prominent. “Dispensary offerings will become increasingly varied, like high-end restaurants, each one worth its own visit for whatever circumstance,” she says.
With new product offerings and marketing campaigns, cannabis will appeal to a broader audience and spur an uptick in users, she explains.
Cannabis events and nightlife will become more of a thing
Rudick also suggests that soon on-site consumption regulations will be finalized, which means venues and hospitality ventures could “embrace cannabis alongside alcohol in traditional events and nightlife.” It’s likely there will be events that focus on the consumption of weed, for instance, smoke and paint nights or smoking lounges.
Pre-roll sales will continue to be top-billing
According to Burstein at LeafLink, the number of pre-rolls sold has grown from about 850,000 individual products in January to over 4.8 million in February 2025. He said that LeafLink’s platform data shows that packaged flower is the most popular product at around 35% of total sales, followed by vapes at about 27%, pre-rolls at around $20%, and edibles at 13% or so.
“New York’s pre-roll sales are particularly strong compared to other markets—national average pre-roll share is 10% versus 20% in New York,” he says.
New York will remain the fastest growing cannabis market in the U.S.
Already in 2024, New York had the largest sales growth of any market, with monthly retail sales growing from about $30 million in January to an over $100 million monthly run rate today,” Burstein adds. “New York is now a billion dollar a year cannabis market, ranking as the 10th-largest by February sales and likely to continue climbing the ranks through year-end as new stores come online.”
He says they’re expecting 2025 sales to come in at $1.8 billion ($150 million monthly average) driven by new store openings. 2025 retail sales would be up 108% from $865 million in 2024. With 800-plus retail licenses sitting in the queue to become active, they expect more than 250 stores to be approved to start sales by the end of the year.
But there will be challenges
Rudick predicts the State’s Office of Cannabis Management will start prioritizing licensing over enforcement, unlike last year when hundreds of shops were shut down. She says that’ll mean more competition among small and diversely held business owners.
“While this will benefit consumers through lower prices, it is likely to create significant challenges for storefronts and cultivators alike,” Josh Wilson at Culture House added.
Wilson added that new regulatory bodies, such as the Trade Practices Bureau—which holds people and businesses “accountable for undermining New York’s public interest goals” in regulating the market—along with the anticipated launch of Biotrack, which literally tracks cannabis seed to sale, will bring another layer of complexity to the industry.
“These changes will likely serve as a filtering mechanism, distinguishing those committed to long-term business sustainability from those seeking only short-term gains,” he says. “Ultimately, the impact of Biotrack and the TPB is expected to create a major industry shakeup. As a result, we may see some of today’s most recognized brands struggle to adapt, leading to notable exits from the market by the end of the year.”
Rudick adds that there will also be a need to continue advocating for the progress that’s been made now that there are “new stigmas associated with some confusing signals from the top, as we see some sensible cannabis regulation and liberalization walked back.” Examples Rudick gives are vehicle searches, unconstitutional searches of illicit stores and any criminal measures, including what’s being proposed in New Jersey (criminalizing customer transactions along with the illicit stores that serve them), which always impacts NY). “The advocacy never ends,” she says.
Two others offered some thoughts on what they see happening in 2025, in addition to what they’d like to see. Over at Housing Works Cannabis Co., retail director Sasha Nutgent says she expects and hopes to see a shift in the regulations surrounding cannabis marketing, robust loyalty programs for customers of rec-use dispensaries and more funding for small business owners seeking entry into the industry.
CEO and Co-Founder Vince C Ning of Nabis, the licensed cannabis wholesaling platform, says that 2024 showed that success is reached by building resilient and flexible operations. “Going into 2025—especially under a new presidential administration—business owners, operators and regulators need to stay nimble, anticipate regulatory shifts and be able to adapt swiftly to market fluctuations.”
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