Dino Scott has been buying and smoking weed for nearly half a century. But the $49 he paid Wednesday for an eighth ounce of a strain called King’s Chalice was historic.
Scott’s purchase was the first sale by a legal marijuana dispensary in Rochester, marking the end of a long road for cannabis to enter the market in the Finger Lakes region.
“Here it is,” said Scott, 60, holding his open jar of weed. “It smells good.”
The dispensary, Herbal IQ-Rochester, across from the East Avenue Wegmans, is perhaps best described as a temporary pop-up. It is what is known as a “growers showcase,” where customers can buy directly from cultivators and processers. It is expected to remain open through the rest of the year. Two other showcases opened in the region on Tuesday, in Batavia and Newark.
Herbal IQ-Rochester is a workaround to the myriad legal hurdles that have kept licensed dispensaries from opening. The latest barrier was a court injunction this month that halted the issuing of new licenses. It stemmed from a lawsuit in which four disabled veterans argued that the state’s policy of giving licensing priority to people previously convicted of a cannabis offense is unconstitutional.
Growers showcases, which were approved by the state in July, allow showcases to operate through an approved dispensary’s license. In Rochester, that shop is Erie County’s Herbal IQ. The showcase features an array of gummies, flower, vaporizers, and THC-infused beverages from farms including Hudson Valley’s 2J’s, Skaneateles’s Tap Root, and Geneva’s A Walk in the Pines, and Rochester-based processor NOWAVE.
“It’s been a long couple weeks getting everything together and being able to do this showcase for the community,” said Jason Barnum, co-owner of A Walk in the Pines.
The team at A Walk in the Pines is facing a challenge that has become commonplace among New York cultivators: they’ve been licensed to farm cannabis but have too few avenues to move their product.
Mike Dulen, co-owner of the farm, said it’s a relief to finally be able to put their wares on the open market.
“It’s just cool to see consumers finally come into a legal, pop-up showcase right now and be able to try the products that we put so much blood, sweat, and tears into,” Dulen said.
Prices at the shop are $40 to $50 for an eighth-ounce of flower, $34 for a 100 milligram THC pack of gummies, $73 for a one-gram vape pen, and $79 to $102 for a gram of concentrate.
While the opening of the shop marks a step forward for the cannabis industry in Rochester, there is still a road ahead. The showcase will close at the end of the year per New York state law. Whether the legal challenges to opening a permanent dispensary will be resolved by then is unclear.
But for customers like Scott, the shop’s opening was a moment he never thought he’d see in his lifetime. Jar in hand, he left the store smiling
“I’m going to go get high,” he said.
