She\u2019s the Tzar of New York cannabis.<\/p>\n
This isn\u2019t the first time Jennifer Tzar has been covered by The Post.<\/p>\n
A decade ago, the \u201chigh\u201d fashion photographer<\/a> was nabbed in Soho for marijuana possession and sent to notorious Rikers Island.<\/p>\n It was, as The Post crowed, \u201crotten \u2018pot\u2019 luck.\u201d<\/a> <\/p>\n A New York Post page from Aug. 6, 2011, outlined Jennifer Tzar\u2019s \u201crotten \u2018pot\u2019 luck\u201d after a fire ripped through her apartment building \u2014 and exposed her large stash. New York Post<\/p>\n Tzar poses in her Soho dispensary. Emmy Park for NY Post<\/p>\n Now, in a wild twist of fate, the well-known former stylist, music video director and fotog is \u201cback in the neighborhood,\u201d she cheekily told The Post \u2014 as the founder of New York\u2019s first majority woman-owned, licensed cannabis dispensary<\/a>, Dagmar.<\/p>\n \u201cI guess it\u2019s my nature to always see how I can turn lemons into lemonade \u2026 But this was definitely an extraordinary turn of events,\u201d said Tzar, 58. \u201cThe worst thing that ever happened to me turned into the best thing.\u201d<\/p>\n It was a picture of her 2011 arrest that changed her life. It shows her perp-walked down Thompson Street after a late-night inferno engulfed her Soho apartment \u2014 with a nearly 11-pound heap of \u201chigh quality\u201d marijuana stashed inside, worth an estimated $80,000.<\/p>\n Tzar revealed that \u201cpeople still talk about\u201d her headline-making arrest.<\/p>\n \u2018Really, really needed money\u2019<\/p>\n Tzar is taken from the Thompson Street scene by the police in 2011. William Farrington<\/p>\n In the early 2000s, she photographed legends like David Bowie, Ozzy Osbourne, Bruce Springsteen and Snoop Dogg, plus shot campaigns for major brands, including Levi\u2019s and Lanc\u00f4me.<\/p>\n Her photos were printed in major media outlets like Rolling Stone, Spin and Billboard.<\/p>\n Splitting time between Soho and Mendocino County, California, where she owned a 20-acre property with her boyfriend, she started racking up bills when they broke up and amid an illness her adult daughter was facing.<\/p>\n Singer Mary J. Blige posed for Tzar\u2019s lens in 2006. Contour by Getty Images<\/p>\n Among photographer Tzar\u2019s many celebrity subjects was Ozzy Osbourne. Courtesy Jennifer Tzar<\/p>\n She also photographed \u201cOutlander\u201d star Caitriona Balfe. Courtesy of Jennifer Tzar<\/p>\n \u201cI had all these expenses, and I really, really needed money,\u201d Tzar told The Post. That\u2019s when her weed work took off.<\/p>\n For three to four months, Tzar took in 40 pounds of marijuana from Mendocino neighbors who grew it, then sold it to NYC pals \u2014 bringing in about $40,000 cash a month.<\/p>\n \u201cI wasn\u2019t a big weed dealer \u2026 but I was counting piles and piles of money,\u201d she said. \u201cI got really into it.\u201d<\/p>\n The 2011 blaze exposed Tzar\u2019s secret business. Christopher Sadowski<\/p>\n Detectives are shown carrying bags of marijuana from the Thompson Street crime scene. William Farrington<\/p>\n But then her side hustle went up in a huge, literal blaze.<\/p>\n Up in smoke<\/p>\n On Aug. 5, 2011, Tzar \u2014 who was 44 at the time \u2014 woke up at 2:30 in the morning to discover that the Soho building she had called home for 21 years was on fire.<\/p>\n \u201cI opened my bedroom door and got wafted with major smoke. I knew I had minutes to get out of there, seconds even,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n \u201cI just grabbed two boxes with $100,000,\u201d she admitted, \u201cand I ran out of the apartment, barefoot, in my underwear, tank top and no phone.\u201d<\/p>\n Tzar\u2019s side hustle led to a remarkable life change \u2014 as owner of this Soho cannabis dispensary. Emmy Park for NY Post<\/p>\n \u201cI had all these expenses, and I really, really needed money,\u201d Tzar, shown outside of Dagmar, said of her decision to sell marijuana a decade ago. Emmy Park for NY Post<\/p>\n The Fire Department said<\/a> the dramatic three-alarm fire started in the basement and traveled to the sixth floor \u2014 Tzar was on the fifth.<\/p>\n She had a lifetime of memories and belongings inside her apartment, but it was the near 11 pounds of weed that meant the most to the police when she was later ushered back in to collect her effects.<\/p>\n \u201cI put my name on the list [to be escorted inside], and then about 30 minutes later, I hear the police call my name and I\u2019m, like, \u2018OK, this is it.\u2019 I walk over to them, they handcuff me, and they bring me a police car,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n She was charged with first-degree possession of marijuana \u2014 which carried a possible sentence ranging from no jail time to 5\u00bd years in prison, The Post previously reported \u2014 and given a Friday evening appearance before a judge. <\/p>\n Jennifer Tzar is pictured in handcuffs following her 2011 arrest. Gabriella Bass<\/p>\n Tzar before her sentencing. She pleaded guilty to first-degree marijuana possession. Steven Hirsch<\/p>\n She thought she was home free when her bail was set at $2,000, but by the time a friend arrived with the money, the court had closed for the weekend.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cAll of a sudden, they\u2019re putting me in a paddy wagon. I\u2019m, like, \u2018Where are you taking me?’\u201d she recalled.<\/p>\n She was sent to Rikers \u2014 widely considered one of the worst correctional facilities in the country<\/a>.<\/p>\n \u201cOnce you get into Rikers, it\u2019s really, really hard to get out. It\u2019s just like, you get lost and all your rights are just taken,\u201d she said of her thankfully brief four-day stay.<\/p>\n After her release, she lived in a Lower East Side hotel for a stint before packing up her burned-out apartment and moving to Williamsburg \u2014 as many other aspects of her life turned to ash around her.<\/p>\n \u201cEverything was a nightmare after that,\u201d Tzar said.<\/p>\n \u201cThe publicity crushed my photo career,\u201d she continued, noting that it was overshadowed by news of her arrest that replaced her years of work at the top of a Google search for her name.<\/p>\n \u2018A beeline for Soho\u2019<\/p>\n Tzar spilled to The Post about her turn of fate following her arrest. Emmy Park for NY Post<\/p>\n Realizing a felony rap wouldn\u2019t be an attribute on job applications, she sold her Mendocino home, took a $75,000 buyout from her Soho landlord and eventually moved to Hudson, New York, where she opened a bar. But it wasn\u2019t the life Tzar was used to living.<\/p>\n \u201cI was really bored up there,\u201d she admitted, eventually moving to Los Angeles and opening another drinking hole.<\/p>\n Then she heard from friends across the country, asking whether she knew that New York legalized recreational weed in 2021 and was giving the first 150 licenses to people with prior cannabis arrests<\/a> \u2014 prioritizing women, people with disabilities, people of color and others.<\/p>\n She qualified. <\/p>\n At first, she insisted that having a cannabis dispensary was the last thing she wanted to do. But as her friends continued to push her, she discovered that it seemed to be a good business move.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cI started looking into it, and I was like, \u2018Yeah, you can definitely make a lot of money,\u2019\u201d Tzar said. She realized she had a real vision for a shop and leaned on her visual skills and fashion background to do it right.<\/p>\n \u201cI wanted it to be beautiful, because I\u2019ve been in multiple dispensaries out in California, and they\u2019re just all so bro-ish or like AT&T stores,\u201d she said, adding that she wanted to appeal to her neighborhood \u2014 which she described as a sophisticated fashion, finance and celebrity crowd.<\/p>\n Despite all the twists that make it seem like fate or an act of revenge, Tzar said founding the history-making dispensary was simply a good financial decision.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cIt took a year and a half, but I finally got licensed and made a beeline for Soho,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n