Cousins Levent and Denis Ozkurt, from left, host a grand opening of their legal cannabis dispensary Hush on Thursday, Dec. 14, 2023.
Photo Erin Edwards
After months of delays caused by a statewide battle in the court system, a legal recreational cannabis dispensary finally opened its doors in Allerton.
Hush, the Bronx’s newest cannabis player at 2460 Williamsbridge Road in Allerton, hosted a grand opening on Dec. 14 that was anything but quiet and low-key, as its name implies.
“Thank (you) everybody for support us from day one,” Denis Ozkurt, who co-owns Hush with his cousin Levent Ozkurt, said at the grand opening. “It’s a big day for us and a big step forward.”
The opening comes about four months after initially planned.
A statewide injunction that got hung up in the courts left the cousins in limbo after they passed their compliance inspection “with flying colors” in early August. The case was filed in Albany Supreme Court on Aug. 2 by a group of service-disabled veterans against the state Cannabis Control Board (CCB) and Office of Cannabis Management (OCM) — the plaintiffs arguing that the licensing rollout violated the state Marijuana Regulation and Taxation Act (MRTA).
At first presiding Judge Kevin Bryant prohibited the state from continuing to allow dispensaries to open while the case was open, then granted exemption to 23 of the dispensaries who had already met licensing requirements — including Hush — this summer. But less than a week later, Bryant reversed his decision again, putting Hush back into a state of uncertainty about when their doors would open.
The Bronx Times reached out to the Albany Supreme Court system for comment and is awaiting response.
“Finally out of the injunction and we are just ready to serve the community now,” Denis Ozkurt said. “Serve it legal and safe.”
A borough that has been disproportionately impacted by cannabis regulation, the Bronx has lagged behind other…
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