Rensselaer marijuana store opens in former bank building
RENSSELAER — The Capital Region’s second retail cannabis store opened Friday on the first floor of a former bank building where the vaults have been kept in their original condition and are being used to store inventory.
“We look forward to presenting our customers with a rigorously curated menu of the best lab tested New York cultivated and processed cannabis products the state has to offer,” said Joshua Mirsky, one of the owners of Stage One Dispensary at 810 Broadway. “Our highly trained staff of ‘bud tenders’ are ready to welcome, educate and provide product and education to every and anyone over the age of 21 interested in what we have to offer.”
Mirsky said they have done their best to preserve the former bank’s historical features while creating an “enjoyable 'normal' shopping experience” for customers.
Stage One is owned and operated by Nathaniel Innes, Galina German-Innes, Sugey Mirsky and Joshua Mirsky, who has run a recording studio in Albany for more than a decade.
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The first cannabis shops in the Bronx and on Long Island also are opening this week, increasing the number of retail marijuana stores to 19 across the state. Statis Cannabis Co. opened Thursday at 817 East Tremont Ave. in the Bronx and Strain Stars LLC is scheduled to open Saturday at 1815 Broadhollow Road in Farmingdale.
“With these new dispensaries opening in New York, we are providing safer product to New Yorkers, while furthering our ambitious goals for equity in New York’s cannabis laws,” Gov. Kathy Hochul said in a statement.
Exscape Inc. is another shop scheduled to open Saturday in Vestal, Broome County, at 1308 Vestal Parkway East.
State officials have been trying to expedite the opening of more stores as the rollout of the legalized marijuana market in New York has been plagued with delays. The Times Union reported last month that dozens of farmers who received conditional licenses to cultivate the first crops for New York’s retail marijuana market have been unable to sell thousands of pounds of product they grew last year because of the languishing rollout of the industry.
Hochul has yet to sign a bill that would allow New York’s more than 200 licensed growers — many of whom operate small farms — to temporarily sell their crops to tribal nations across the state. That proposal is more difficult because laws may prevent the sale of New York-grown marijuana outside of the state. The tribal nations are separate political entities and many are already have marijuana growing, processing and retail businesses within their boundaries that are not regulated by New York.
“After months of uncertainty surrounding New York’s adult-use cannabis market rollout, desperation is building amongst the state’s cannabis farmers,” Assemblywoman Donna A. Lupardo, a Broome County Democrat who chairs the Assembly’s Agriculture Committee, said after the bill was signed. “They have been stranded with 250,000 pounds of unsold cannabis products from the 2022 season. The current pace of new retail openings will not resolve this issue, and this product is losing value every day we wait.”
Source: Times Union
