"I'm I Bud You, motherfucker. I'm the cannabis in New York." That’s Mario Ramos, co-founder of ConBud Yankee Stadium and the man behind I Bud You, telling his story like only a Uptown-born Marine-turned-cannabis-kingpin could. His voice, equal parts pride and grit, is the product of decades spent navigating the underground and emerging into the spotlight of New York’s legal cannabis world.
Ramos didn’t just fall into cannabis. He lived it, hustled it, survived it—and now he's building with it. "Before I was making $30,000 a day in the morning... another 30 in the afternoon, and at nighttime another 30. So you talk about 90,000 a day, right?” he recalls. “And then you go legal, and the compliance kills the cash flow. But it’s amazing because they used to call me a drug dealer, now I’m an Adult-Use dispensary business owner.
His early life was split between the Bronx and the Lower East Side, where he opened a graffiti supply shop on Allen Street in 1996 while still active in the military. "My sign just said hip hop outside. And I made it. It was the five elements of hip hop." That shop became a hub for LES youth—including one Coss Marte, Mario’s now partner, the founder and CEO of ConBud and ConBody. “Coss was one of the many young men running around the LES, they would always pass by my store...it was a community staple in the neighborhood. I would tell their mothers like, “Hey, I'm going to charge you guys for babysitting because they would be hanging around my store all day. It was their second home.”
That was the 90s. Fast forward to 2024, and the two are back in business—but this time it’s licensed. ConBud Yankee Stadium, where Ramos is now a partner, sits in a spot pulsing with energy and memory. "Me growing up there and graduating from All Hollows only one block away, I already knew the neighborhood real good. During my time at All Hollows High School I worked at the stadium. I smoked weed for the first time there, bought my first chain there.
The location has soul. And the clientele? A mix as wild as the Bronx itself. “The diversity in the neighborhood is what New York City is iconic for. Everyone from native New Yorkers, Australians, Japanese, you never know who’s going to come into the dispensary.”
Ramos and his team knows who’s coming and what they want: “They want the experience, their shopping for a wide variety of products that the newly legal market has to offer, and they appreciate the knowledge our staff delivers on the products and the effects they’ll feel more than anything”
Despite years in the shadows of the traditional market—dealing, growing, and transporting—Ramos was able to fly under the radar until 2017. “That’s the first time in my life. I had only got caught once before for a $20 bag. After that first cannabis charge I left to California for six years to master how to grow... I was like, I'm not going back to New York until it's legal. That’s when I Bud You was born”
It wasn’t until Governor Phil Murphy of NJ made a campaign promise to legalize cannabis in his first 100 days in office that Ramos decided to make the move back east. “I was consulting a grow that had hopes of being first in line for a license. That’s when we got hit. Detectives rolled in and ultimately took 6 years of my life because I was charged with conspiracy to operate a CDS facility.”
When he came back, it was Marte—who extended the olive branch. “He invited me to an intimate meeting with the Governor’s office, we hadn’t seen each other in a long time but he didn’t miss a beat. We started talking and nine months later we opened ConBuds third location.”
Now, Ramos is curating a menu with the same intensity he once reserved for hand-to-hand pound sales. “If I say, this cannabis is fire, its fire. I’m not playing games with the selection we’re curating. I’m with the farmer because my store is the bridge between the farmer and the customer. Not just anybody gets in.”
ConBud Yankee Stadium isn’t just another dispensary—it’s a cultural checkpoint. It’s where legacy meets legitimacy, graffiti legends become legal operators, and the street’s favorite plug becomes a proud owner. As Ramos puts it: “I'm cannabis in New York. Straight up.”
