New York Officials Considers Allowing Pizza Joints, other Restaurants OK to Sell Weed-Infused Foods

by Therin Miller | April 26, 2022

New York State is weighing whether to allow pizzerias and other eateries that sell fresh cannabis-infused grub, packaged pot edibles. There have been discussions about licensing such as pesto pot pizza or pepperoni with sweet weed sauce — but there's still no word from the regulators.

However, “the regulations regarding infused food products have not been released yet,” Ghitelman stressed.

Marijuana has been legal in New York for a year now, and the first licenses to sell weed will be issued this coming Fall with sales beginning at neighborhood stores by December 2022.

State Sen. Liz Krueger (D-Manhattan), a key architect in writing New York’s cannabis law said that she had never thought about the possibility of restaurants or pizza joints serving weed-infused pizzas until after the bill passed.

“Of course, cannabis with edibles is not a new concept,” Krueger said.

The restaurant industry is on the lookout for new opportunities to make their profits sky high. Some pizza makers are already linking up with marijuana suppliers and experimenting by mixing in cannabis oils. One THC speakeasy, Stoned Pizza located at East Village offers “gourmet cannabis-infused" pizzas!

But the idea isn't without complications. New York's law bars anyone under 21 from purchasing cannabis, so pot pizza could not be served to children and kids should not even be on sites where infused food is available for purchase, Krueger said.

Kruger also stated that the amount of cannabis in foods like pizza would have to be “labeled correctly so that one was having two slices of pizza equivalent to four doses of marijuana.”

With the new cannabis license laws, many restaurants will no longer be able to apply because they cannot have both liquor and food licenses. This will greatly reduce the number of eateries in comparison, making it easier to regulate them all together under one roof or separately depending upon what they serve most often.

“We’ve been advocating for on-license cannabis sales for restaurants and nightlife establishments. New York is the culinary capital of the world,” said Max Bookman, an attorney with the NYC Hospitality Alliance.

“But denying establishments from having both a liquor and cannabis license killed our buzz,” he said, adding, “we’re waiting to see the regulations.”