As if you couldn't already buy marijuana in Union Square, one of five dispensaries in New York State will open on 14th Street, between 2nd and 3rd Avenues, this coming January.

The dust (read: ash) settled back in July when the New York Department of Health chose to award the appropriate licenses to five of the 43 applicants. 

Columbia Care will be running the 14th Street dispensary, and the other license winners include Bloomfield Industries, Empire State Health Solutions, Etain, and Pharmacannis.

NBC reports that said licensure permits "one manufacturing facility and four dispensaries, all of which must be based in New York State."

So we're about to be (even more) flush with bud in our fair Empire State, and that's a very good thing for a few reasons. 

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First, people with debilitating illnesses will have access to an effective medicinal alternative, one that is often preferred to pharmaceuticals. 

And since the decriminalization of up to 25 grams of marijuana, users are-- or at least should be-- less paranoid about getting arrested. But since many of those users qualify for medicinal marijuana, the threat might go up in smoke for a lot of people very soon.

Honestly, what we're wondering is just how much this new medicine will cost. 

If it's anything like the rest of the shops around the Union Square area, Empire State bud is going to be pricey.

But if other states are a measuring stick for this potential issue, we might see our beloved and hard-working bicycle couriers provide the private, in-home care so many New Yorkers know and mainly adore.

But change isn't a bad thing, amirite? 

And who know, maybe in time, the rather limited number of dispensaries will... uh... bud into greater numbers and affordability for all New Yorkers. Ya feels? 

Check out 5 Surprisingly Wonderful Things That’d Happen If Weed Was Legalized in NYC.