NEW YORK — It’s easy to miss the cannabis beverages that line the refrigerated sections of grocery stores, bodegas, and delis throughout New York City. The rainbow-like array of cans — bearing names such as Oasis, Cann, Milonga, Cycling Frog, Tempter’s, Gigli, and Mighty Kind — often look indistinguishable from iced tea, probiotic sodas, and other wellness-coded “functional beverages” that share their shelf space.
In font sizes that range from prominent to squint-worthy, the cans’ labels note that they contain THC, the psychoactive compound found in cannabis. But most of the 10 stores visited on a recent scouting trip through South Brooklyn, some within a couple blocks of schools, displayed no signs indicating that these were intoxicating beverages, nor did they ask for identification when the drinks were brought to the register.
According to New York state law, none of these drinks should be available in regular retail stores. Regulations adopted in 2023 limit them to no more than 1 milligram of THC per serving. Yet beverages with up to 100 times that much were being sold — in a gourmet deli on a tony Brooklyn Heights street lined with an Instagram-famous bakery and pilates studios; at a large grocery store across from an entrance to Prospect Park. Most doses were in the 5- to 10-mg range, a standard dose for casual marijuana users, though high-potency brands with 50, 60, and even 100 mg of THC — intense amounts likely to overwhelm all but heavy users — were also easy to find.
