Jordan Allyn photos
Tending bud at Nautilus Botanicals ...
... owned by Luis Vega (center), celebrating a "dream come true" eight years after cannabis arrest.
Behind shelves of pipes by Bridgeport glass blower Mary Melts and across from a wall of paintings by Westville’s Shady Dankin, budtenders at Nautilus Botanicals invited the public to the grand opening of the city’s third legal pot shop.
The hybrid medical and adult-use recreational cannabis dispensary, located at 63 Amity Rd., hosted that party on Saturday.
It marked the third dispensary to open in New Haven since Connecticut legalized recreational cannabis in 2021. The city’s first such dispensary, Whalley Avenue’s Affinity Health & Wellness, opened in January 2023; its second, Long Wharf’s INSA, opened in May 2024.
Stepping into Nautilus on Saturday felt like entering a fluorescent-lit dance club. Customers took selfies in front of a white branded photo backdrop before showing their IDs. Those 21 and up could open the true entrance and inhale the atmosphere. Half the room resembled a flea market, the other half a pharmacy. Friendly chatter hummed as patrons traveled between the OneHitOneDa microdoser booth and the drugstore checkout.
Nautilus sells cannabis flower, pre-rolled joints, vaporizers, edibles, grinders, pipes, and rolling equipment. Customers can also buy CBD products for both themselves and their pets.
“Eight years ago, I was raided and arrested less than two miles from here, and now I’m actually able to sell legal cannabis,” said Nautilus owner Luis Vega. “Today is kind of a dream come true.”
After serving time behind bars for his cannabis-related convictions, Vega said he struggled to find a stable source of income, and that employers like McDonald’s rejected his job applications because of his criminal history.
Now that he sits behind the hiring desk, he’s making a concerted effort to hire formerly incarcerated employees, by partnering with organizations like Next Level Empowerment and New Haven Reentry Roundtable.
There are 15 employees in total at the Nautilus dispensary. Vega said that half of those employees have been “justice impacted.”
The opening of Vega’s cannabis dispensary on Saturday comes as the Board of Alders has capped the number of recreational cannabis dispensaries allowed in New Haven at five. Vega, who started his dispensary business with financial backing from private equity firm Merida Capital Holdings, won City Plan Commission permission to open his new dispensary back in January 2023.
Vega’s push to hire formerly incarcerated workers for his dispensary also comes after Gov. Ned Lamont signed a “Clean Slate” law in 2023 that automatically cleared thousands of low-level cannabis convictions from criminal records of residents across the state.
Vega’s friends flocked to the Amity Road dispensary on Saturday to celebrate the business’s launch. “I’ve been along this journey for a long time,” said Joe LaChance. He and Vega co-host the radio show Cannabis Corner on WNHH FM radio. They interview legislators, business owners, growers, and activists to share “the voice of the cannabis industry,” according to LaChance. This March marks the show’s seven-year anniversary.
Other members of Connecticut’s cannabis industry also joined the festivities. “Where else would we be when he opened his doors?” said cannabis geneticist Lou Pino, who met Vega through activist organizing. Pino works with caregivers and founded the event company Gene Traders to educate cultivators on the cannabis strains that work best for specific health conditions.
Joseph Accettullo, co-founder of Highbazaar and CT CannaWarriors, also showed up to Saturday’s opening to support Vega and Nautilus Botanicals. “I live with a passion for life and helping others that I never had until I really entrenched myself within the cannabis ethos and community,” said Accettullo.
That commitment to community echoes in Nautilus’ walls. Each month new artwork from New Haven residents will display in the shop. The current exhibit features paintings by Westville-based artist Shady Dankin. Vega encourages artists interested in sharing and selling their artwork at the store to reach out to him.
In addition to supporting the community and Vega, Duncan Markovich came to endorse the small business’s patient-oriented spirit. He said that since legalization, the current landscape has prioritized big corporate money above the well-being of individuals. This, according to Markovich, leads to lower quality products and less accessibility for small business owners. “Patients over profits. The plant is a healing concept which is greater than any one of us or any one brand,” said Markovich.
Markovich, Accettullo, and Pino are all politically involved and are urging state legislatures to pass Proposed House Bill No. 5429: An Act Concerning Caregivers, Qualifying Patients And The Palliative Use Of Cannabis, which would allow medical cannabis caregivers to enter the cultivation market more easily on a small scale. “I think the state just needs to really start to listen to its community and other professionals that are in it for the right reasons,” said Accettullo.
Vega’s friends and supporters lamented on Saturday the limitations that Nautilus faces under the state’s current cannabis retail regulations. Bans on billboard and TV advertisements impede marketing potential, they said. “I just feel like it’s more stigma and more draconian laws,” said Accettullo. But then again, he remembered that word-of-mouth publicity can be a successful strategy for consumer growth in the face of advertising constraints. “Cannabis is a lot of times built around communities, so if it’s good cannabis, there’s usually no real reason to have to advertise.”
Pino added, “It’s all grassroots pretty much.”
Shady Dankin's art on the walls.
Joseph Accettullo, Duncan Markovich, and Lou Pino at Saturday's opening.
Joe LaChance and Vega: WNHH co-hosts, canna-buds.