420 is coming early to New Mexico this year.
Beginning Friday, legal sales of marijuana for recreational use starts across the state.
A year after Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham signed the Cannabis Regulation Act into law, local businesses are gearing up for what is expected to be a busy few days or weeks.
Everest Cannabis Co. has seven dispensaries in Albuquerque, including one in Paradise Hills that serves the people of Northwest Albuquerque.
Assistant manager Aiden Cano, who works at the location on Unser and McMahon, said he is expecting some long lines and big sales Friday.
“We really just trained up our associates and really prepared for everything,” Cano said. “You know, the breakdown of it all and as far as products go, we did double up our inventory because we’re expecting a lot of people to show up in the next few days.”
The Paradise Hills location offers more than 100 products, including vape, edibles, pre-rolls, extract, topicals and even CBD drinks.
Cano, who has worked at Everest for a little over a year, said the store hired several people in anticipation of the demand that will begin on April 1.
He also expects demand will limit services the store offers, mainly the location will not be offering its delivery or curbside pickup options in the immediate future.
“Inside the dispensary, we are gonna be very busy,” Cano said. “We may not have enough people to run outside in and out. But normally we do curbside, we do in-store pickup, which will be running tomorrow. And then we do a delivery service as well. But yeah, for the first day or so I believe that just the curbside and the delivery will be suspended given the demand. Even with our hiring that we did, we are still on a humongous overload.”
The Paradise Hills location of Everest is open from 9 a.m. to 8 p.m. Monday through Saturday and 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. on Sunday.
