New York’s only woman-owned medical marijuana dispensary opened a new storefront in Midtown.

Etain started in 2015 after CEO Amy Peckham was a caretaker for her mother, who passed away from ALS. After seeing how much medical marijuana helped, Amy teamed up with her daughters, Hillary and Keeley, and decided to take the plunge into the industry.

“What [my mom] wanted to do was offer people a better quality of life with cleaner healthier products than pharmaceuticals. After seeing how end-of-life care is managed, we wanted to make a difference in people’s life,” said Hillary Peckham. “We entered the cannabis industry, opened in 2016, and a main focus of our business is to educate consumers and the general public that it can be used in a safe way that can improve quality of life and doesn’t have that stigma of just being a vice or drug for people to use but have medical benefit.”

After opening up for business, Etain has worked with the community to help educate New Yorkers about the cannabis program and employees are on hand to help prospective patients learn about how to join. Because Etain serves a medical community, the company has seen a variety of patients, many of which are older New Yorkers and senior citizens who are looking for holistic approaches to their ailments. Etain has pharmacists in their stores that help patients find the right dosage and will work with your doctors to make the cannabis program work for you.

“We also sell them in different strains and different variations of THC and CBD, which really helps to target what you are trying to treat as opposed to just getting high,” said Peckham. “Clients come in and are very worried about getting high and THC so we have higher CBD options so they can get the relief and not worry about the euphoria that comes with THC.”

Etain re-opened its New York City store in Midtown in the fall of 2020 after relocating from 39th street. Located at 242 E 58th Street, the new location underwent a transformation to create a welcoming environment for patients and non-patients alike, including a huge wall of greenery that brings a sense of serenity to the waiting area.

The new Midtown location is one of the company’s four brick-and-mortar locations. You can shop online through Etain’s website and schedule a delivery if you can’t make it to the store. Etain hopes to expand further into New York now that the state’s cannabis program is beginning to expand.

“We have four stores: in Manhattan, Yonkers, Kingston and Syracuse. With the expansion of the program, we’ll be able to open more stores in the next year or so,” said Peckham. “Our family is very New York-based and we want to serve New York as a state. We want to serve as much New York geography as possible, we’re just waiting on regulations to see where we are allowed to site before we make any final decisions.”

In its stores, Etain aims to foster a community that is inviting and educational. Currently, Etain sells medical marijuana and THC products to patients and has an assortment of CBD products that are available to adults not in the medical marijuana program.

“I think something that is a common misconception is in the program is that you can only purchase from these stores if you have a medical card, but what we’ve tried to do is have a lot of products that anyone can purchase,” said Peckham. “Anyone can learn about how to get into the medical program, and there are opportunities for people to engage with the store.”

For patients, Etain offers raw flower, vaporizers, edibles and tinctures that have a higher THC balance, and for non-patients, there is an assortment of accessories, clothing, CBD products, aromatherapy and books, most of which come from women-owned businesses and New York-based businesses.

Though Etain currently doesn’t sell marijuana for recreational use, they hope to expand into that market in the future.

“We’re still waiting on regulations to come out and sort of a pathway for how we get into the recreational program, but it is the intention that this would serve both sets of customers,” said Peckham.

Peckham knows that though the cannabis industry has come a long way in the seven years that Etain has been in business, it will take federal legalization for it to be more widely accepted and have studies done. But regardless, Etain is there to ease any concerns that those who are looking to dip their toes in the realm of treating your body and mind with medical marijuana.

“We do a lot of consultations whether or not you are a patient in the program. I would encourage [those interested in medical marijuana] to call and make an appointment and we can discuss the different options we sell here to see if that’s something that might work for them,” said Peckham.

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