A Bronx Joint employee makes on of the first sales during its opening on Thursday, March 14, 2024.
Photo Paul Frangipane
The borough’s third legal recreational cannabis dispensary opened in the South Bronx for business on Thursday.
Bronx Joint, located at 925 Hunts Point Ave., officially opened its doors at 10 a.m. on March 14. The shop, with its exposed brick and graffiti-style murals on the interior, showcased a variety of different cannabis products — including edibles, flower from upstate, and pre-rolls — for customers on opening day.
For owner Alex Ortecho, 39, his new dispensary, which has been in the works for about a year now, is about family and community.
“The people who work here are all family and friends, so we’re able to give our community opportunities,” he told the Bronx Times at his shop on Thursday.
He said the endeavor has brought his family closer together, some of them — like his siblings and cousins — who now work for him.
According to the state, Bronx Joint is supported by the New York Cannabis Social Equity Investment Fund — a statewide initiative implemented during the early days of the legal cannabis industry rollout that gives business priority to people who have been negatively impacted by the over-policing of cannabis.
Ortecho received a Conditional Adult-Use Retail Dispensary (CAURD) license — permits that are a part of the social equity fund — by the State Office of Cannabis Management.
Originally from Bedford Park, Ortecho said in the past he was arrested multiple times for marijuana possession, although he told the Bronx Times he never dealt and was never incarcerated or booked with large amounts.
When the state announced its social justice initiative, he said the CAURD license program gave him hope that he, too, could be a business person in the cannabis industry. His mother owns a liquor store, so he said there’s a business understanding in the family.
“We…
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