Compared to states with perks such as dispensaries and legal carry limits, New York City’s weed market could be called the wild, wild east. You can cop on the corners of various neighborhoods, know a bodega owner who sells more than just Lays, or, as most millennials and folks with money in the city do – you can call an illegal delivery service. It won’t come cheap, and it might not show up on time, but your dealer will be reliable, professional, and come prepared with a backpack containing a limited version of your favorite Colorado pot shop’s greenery options.
In an unprecedented deep-dive into one such black market company, GQ writer Suketu Mehta embedded himself into the Green Angels, a high-class delivery service run by an ex-model who has turned California buds and New York City know-how into a multi-million dollar empire.
Honey, the 27-year old ringleader of the Green Angels (whose name, like everyone else in Mehta’s article, has been changed to protect her identity) grew up a Mormon in conservative Utah, but chose a life of crime after moving to NYC and figuring out there was more money in marijuana than modeling. Now, at the top of a 30-person organization, Honey lets her lieutenants handle the dispatch and delivery, while she handles the Cali connect and collects the cash.
According to Mehta, Honey and the Green Angels go through $300,000 in product every month, carrying a variety of flowers, concentrates, vapes, and edibles. After a customer is confirmed by a reliable reference, they can place an order by texting the Angels’ dispatch burner phone “Can we hang out?” Then, within an hour and a half and without any further contact, a 20-something model-type will show up to your door with case full of THC-laden goodies.
And while most NYC delivery services use fixed gear bikes and 24-year olds with beards – like the HBO show “High Maintenance” – the Green Angels take taxis and the subway. And while NYPD can legally search any person’s bag on NYC trains, that’s never been a problem for the Angels.
“The Green Angels, she tells me, are selling a fantasy of an attractive, well-educated, presentable young woman who wants to get you high—a slightly more risqué Avon lady. Not all of the Angels are working models, but they are all young and attractive. In eight years, they have never been busted by the cops. The explanation is simple: Good-looking girls don’t get searched.” Mehta writes.
The Green Angels deliver to NYU professors, trust fund kids, regular stoners and host of celebrities. Honey says that Rihanna gets her weed for free – “Her hope is that Rihanna will endorse the Green Angels’ products if legalization ever goes national.” Justin Bieber, however, has to pay full price for his high.
But after run-ins with California growers who sent weak buds across the country, and motherhood changing Honey’s outlook on life – the Queenpin is looking to a future where she can sell off her business and live happily ever after - without worrying about a delivery to Bed-Stuy being late.
You can read the rest of Honey and the Angels’ story over at GQ, and if you’re lucky enough, maybe you can get ahold of the Green Angels next time you’re in NYC.
