East 86th Street’s First Unlicensed Weed Shop Robbed at Gunpoint Days After Opening

It didn’t take long for one of the Upper East Side’s newest and most visible unlicensed weed shops to be robbed at gunpoint. Best Budz, whose logo is sure to get them a cease-and-desist order from Best Buy, had been open to customers less than a week, when a pair of criminals walked in packing heat and walked out with bags full of loot.

Police say the two suspects went into Best Budz, located at 221 East 86th Street, between Second and Third Avenues, just after 10:00 pm on Friday night — one of the thieves immediately brandishing a gun and announcing a stick-up robbery to store staff.

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At that point, investigators say one of the suspects jumped over the counter and began grabbing all the store’s weed products and stuffing them in to multiple bags — then both men took off eastbound on East 86th Street toward the Second Avenue.

NYPD officers and detectives were spotted inside the store Saturday afternoon, apparently taking statements from staff and collecting surveillance video from the cameras both inside and outside of Best Budz, which sits diagonally across the street from Fairway Market.

According to police, the crooks didn’t take any money from Best Budz during Friday night’s robbery — instead focusing only on the cannabis products. 

Upper East Site also witnessed employees removing and counting the money from the cash register on Saturday afternoon, left behind by the armed and dangerous robbers.

That’s likely because whatever cash was in the register was just a fraction of the value of possibly hundreds of marijuana concentrate vape cartridges — which retail for around $50 each — when they’re fenced to other smoke shops around the city, even the thieves are reselling them at a steep discount. 

Not to mention that Best Budz is not a cash-only business.

Prior to Saturday’s gunpoint robbery, Upper East Site had already been inside Best Budz, where employees assured us the products were real THC and not formerly grey market delta-8 or delta-9 THC, which is derived from hemp rather than cannabis.

Best Budz’s staff was more than happy to charge a THC vape cartridge to a credit card last week, which is something prohibited under New York State’s legalization, because credit card transactions and the banking system are overseen by the federal government — which still considers marijuana highly illegal.

Through a public records search, we did learn that that 86th Street Convenience Corp., the business whose name is listed on the credit card receipt from Best Budz along with an incorrect phone number, was incorporated in the State of New of New York on March 14th, 2023, just a week and a half before the store’s grand opening, which employees said was on Sunday, March 23rd.

The unlicensed dispensary rapidly set up shop on the busy Upper East Side commercial corridor, which already had a brush with unsanctioned marijuana sales more than a year ago, when a bright green weed van sold its cannabis products — including vapes, flower and edibles — in front of Old Navy at the corner of East 86th Street and Lexington Avenue.

Back then, the NYPD seized Uncle Budd’s UES weed van and eventually pushed the company into East Harlem, before it abandoned this part of the east side altogether. Since then, an estimated 1,400 unlicensed dispensaries, smoke shops and weed bodegas have proliferated New York City, including the Upper East Side — where in some cases there are two on the same block.

There are no licensed cannabis dispensaries on the Upper East Side, so these unlicensed weed shops have become an attractive target to gun-toting criminals, with Upper East Site reporting on nearly half a dozen robbed within the last six months.

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Last September, police say the suspects walked into Convenience of Lexington smoke shop at 1436 Lexington Avenue, between East 93rd and 94th Streets, and left with $350 from the cash register after robbing the store at gunpoint. 

Three-and-a-half weeks later, Pre-Roll World Cannabis, located at 1726 Second Avenue, between East 89th and 90th Streets, was robbed at gunpoint two days after its grand opening.

Valley Vibez Smoke Shop, located at 119 East 96th Street, between Lexington and Park Avenues, was then robbed at gunpoint on February 10th, when five men made off with of $7,000 in products. 

A different smoke shop was then robbed on February 13th, also by five men who ransacked the store during a strong-arm robbery.

At this point there’s been no description of the suspects involved in Friday night’s robbery provided by police, who say their investigation is ongoing.

If you witnessed the robbery or have any information that could help investigators, you’re asked to call the NYPD’s Crime Stoppers Hotline at 1-800-577-8477.