Smokers Rejoice At Cannabiz Kickoff

As Tony Negron stood in line to become New Haven’s first customer of fully legal recreational weed, the 40-year-old recalled sharing a first joint with his boys at 12 years old and then eating boxed mac n’ cheese.

How did he plan to celebrate his more grown-up purchase of adult-use marijuana on Tuesday? By taking his dispensary flower home and smoking it from the comfort of his jacuzzi on a paid day off from work.

Negron was one of roughly 50 people lined up outside of Affinity Health & Wellness on Whalley Avenue Tuesday morning to take part in the state’s first day of retail sales of adult-use recreational cannabis. Affinity is one of nine dispensaries across Connecticut that got the state’s go-ahead to serve recreational users this January.

Those lined up on Whalley Avenue Tuesday morning showed up in order to buy regulated cannabis and to ​“witness history,” as Negron put it. Doors officially opened at 10 a.m. Negron got in line at 7:30 a.m., anticipating that other customers would be camping out by the shop. 

“I was expecting this whole parking lot to be full!” he said with disbelief several hours later. City officials thought the same, as evidenced by the five police officers on scene to monitor traffic on site all day. But the line remained at a maximum of roughly 50 people throughout the morning, dwindling down to just four or five buyers who lingered outside the dispensary by noon.

Affinity Health & Wellness, an established medical marijuana retailer located at 1315 Whalley Ave., is the first and so far only dispensary to open its doors within New Haven after winning a permit to serve as a hybrid business back in November. That means the shop’s owner, Ray Pantalena, will continue to serve medical patients while also providing products to recreational consumers, alongside those eight other existing medical marijuana outlets from Meriden to Branford to Newington.

"We Get To Witness History!"

Plenty of those gathered outside of Affinity Tuesday were enthusiastic enough about New Haven’s first recreational cannabis dispensary opening its doors to wait hours in the cold for weed that most agreed was already easily accessible enough on the streets and at smoke shops around the region.

“We get to witness history in Connecticut!” exclaimed Negron, who lives in East Haven and who used to work at the Tommy K’s video rental store that once occupied the very same spot that Affinity is now based out of. ​“CT born and raised!”

“It’s good for the state and it’s great for the people who can’t be arrested anymore for weed,” Negron said of legalization. He added that, in his opinion, dispensaries are also helpful for cautious consumers who worry about picking up on the streets weed that is laced with fentanyl or other potentially dangerous substances.

“Just look at what happened at the New Haven Green,” he offered as an example, recalling the dozens of K2 poisonings that took place on the same day downtown in 2018.

“Dispensaries are a trusted source,” Negron reasoned. For that reason, he asked his employer — or ​“big boss” — to give him a paid day off to dispensary jump Tuesday. He said he received an immediate ​“yes,” plus a request for a bag of THC gummies.

At 10:30, Negron left without the $70 in cash with which he had arrived at the dispensary — and with an eighth of an ounce of cannabis flower and a smell-proof container of gelatinous edibles. 

The last time he went to a dispensary, he said, was on Oct. 1 in Salem, Mass. for a Halloween celebration. The inside of the Salem dispensary, he said, looked like a mirror image of New Haven’s — but ​“it’s different,” he asserted, ​“because this is home.”

"$100 For A Quarter? Un-Fucking Believable!"

Rick Woods, meanwhile, scoffed at the dispensary prices and product quality.

The North Haven native told the Independent about his experience growing weed in Maine for the past 40 years, using ​“rabbit and alligator shit” to fertilize his plants, some of which he grows in a lava rock-based hydroponic system, and combatting spider mites who invaded his harvest. He said his friends call the outcome ​“paralyzing pot.”

He said he was curious to examine what ​“kind of strains, hybrids, bunk weeds” were on the retailer’s menu… though he recognized that it was unlikely he would be able to extract answers to his questions from the retailers of those pre-produced products. 

“Legalization just means you get to manipulate the plant,” he complained. ​“They roll it, they turn it, they trim it, they get a pretty looking bud. But then you’re left with 7 grams of this shit with no THC in it. I’m here because I’m an idiot looking to buy weed just because it’s legal,” he said.

Then he mentioned that he was also at the dispensary to accompany his cousin. She declined to speak on record with the Independent — but said that her doctors recently discovered a series of small blue cell tumors throughout her body. She was diagnosed with stage 4 cancer. Smoking weed assists with the pain, she said.

Upon leaving the dispensary, Woods shook his head vehemently at his experience. “$100 bucks for a quarter — un-fucking believable!” he said. ​“In Maine, you’d get that for $50.”

Then he lit up a pre-roll in the car to calm down.

Not all the customers waiting in line Tuesday were locals.

"Weed Is Medicine"

Zoey Ross was visiting from Wisconsin with her partner when she happened to notice that Connecticut’s first dispensaries were opening that same day. 

She had traveled from the Midwest to accompany her partner on the way to an appointment at Yale New Haven Hospital while she retrieved treatment ​“for a rare disease that causes chronic pain.”

“Weed is medicine,” she stated. It’s also one of the safest substances with which to have a fun time, she added. 

The fact that recreational weed is allowed in Connecticut, she said, allowed her to go buy her partner a vape cartridge to help with pain relief in anticipation of the uncomfortable plane ride home.

“I’m waiting on Wisconsin now,” she said. 

Affinity owner Ray Pantalena smiled with pleasure at the longer than usual line in the middle of what he called an exceptionally busy morning.

“Everyone’s really excited, everything’s going smoothly,” he said. He said that the dispensary is currently requiring all recreational customers to place pre-orders before entering the store. On Tuesday, Affinity employees walked through the line with tablets and instructions to guide people through the ordering process.

“Thankfully it’s not raining or snowing today,” he said, before disappearing back behind the opaque windows of the dispensary.

State Rep: Worth Celebrating, But CT Is Late

In the ​“regulatory sense,” State Rep. Josh Elliott said, Connecticut’s choice to move slowly when it came to opening up dispensaries played a role in Tuesday’s slate of grand openings going ​“smoothly.”

He nevertheless lamented the fact that ​“it took such a long time to get over the finishing line.”

On Tuesday, the state legislator visited three dispensaries in Meriden, Branford and New Haven. He didn’t buy any weed for himself, sharing that he was already stocked up thanks to the recent delivery from a friend in New York. He promised to visit Affinity sometime in the future when the ​“mood arises.”

Elliott, whose first-term campaign platform nearly six years back revolved largely around cannabis legalization, celebrated the long-awaited arrival of dispensaries in Connecticut — and argued that the relatively short line of individuals waiting to take part in legal sales was proof that the state was late to the legalization party.

“The lore and glow of legalized cannabis no longer exists,” Elliott told the Independent. ​“Which in a sense is what I wanted from the beginning,” he said, highlighting the importance of destigmatizing cannabis consumption.

He said he couldn’t help but feel some disappointment in Connecticut’s tendency ​“to drag its feet” and follow other states on progressive policies rather than situating itself as a national leader.

Shorter lines due to missed enthusiasm means lost revenue that went to states like Massachusetts and Colorado, which led the way on legalization, he said. Those shorter lines also provide a possible lesson, according to Elliott, for the state to jump on future opportunities for reputational growth as a progressive leader.

While the cannabis legalization process was imperfect, Elliott said, he reflected that Tuesday’s ribbon cuttings reminded him of one of ​“the most satisfying parts of the job — getting to change the culture.”