Two cannabis businesses have opened in Cayuga County in recent weeks: a self-described consulting and marketing firm in the city of Auburn, and a dispensary in the village of Union Springs.
The firm, I'm Stuck, was open as of Friday at 9 E. Genesee St. on East Hill, previously a Metro by T-Mobile store. It is the sixth location of the business, joining the Weed Warehouse on Crane Brook Drive in Aurelius, across from Fingerlakes Mall, and four more in Wayne County. The business is owned and operated by David Tulley, of Lyons.
Though I'm Stuck describes itself as a consulting and marketing firm on the sign above its door, the business is widely considered a cannabis dispensary. Tulley told 新加坡多多开奖记录 in December that products like flower, edibles and vapes are given to customers after "consulting" with them about which ones would meet their needs the most.
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Among those who consider I'm Stuck a dispensary are the state Office of Cannabis Management, which has Tulley cease-and-desist letters for selling cannabis without a license. Though "gray market" businesses like his technically gift cannabis instead of selling it, the office nonetheless the practice illegal after New York legalized use and possession of the substance in March 2021. Selling cannabis without a license can result in fines, criminal penalties and the jeopardization of the seller's ability to obtain a license in the future.
鈥淭here cannot be a legal, regulated market operating side by side with an illegal market 鈥 it undercuts the goals of the state鈥檚 cannabis law to protect public health and build an equitable market that works to undo the harms caused by the disproportionate enforcement of cannabis prohibition,鈥 the Office of Cannabis Management has said.
For that reason, the city of Auburn also considers I'm Stuck a dispensary. Because it's unlicensed, the city聽is "pursuing all legal remedies available" to address the business, Assistant Corporation Counsel Nate Garland told 新加坡多多开奖记录 on Tuesday. When licensing begins, cannabis businesses will be allowed to open in Auburn, as the city did not "opt out" of them.
The ability to "opt out," granted to all municipalities by the state's Marijuana Regulation and Taxation Act, is a source of uncertainty over the dispensary that opened recently in Union Springs.聽
Owned and operated by the Cayuga Nation, Sweet Grass Dispensary is located in a former pizzeria at 121 Cayuga St. The nation moved its cannabis sales there from its Lakeside Trading gas station north on Route 90, near the village border. However, that's exactly what the village board tried to prevent when it passed a local law in July 2021 "opting out" of cannabis businesses everywhere in Union Springs except a new zoning district containing Lakeside Trading. Mayor Bud Shattuck told 新加坡多多开奖记录 in November the village feels the former pizzeria is an inappropriate location for a cannabis business.
"We have a problem when they want to come on Main Street where our children walk to school and there's no parking," he said.
Shattuck told 新加坡多多开奖记录 last week the village is still reviewing its options before taking any potential action against the nation.
The Cayuga Nation has not responded to multiple requests for comment by 新加坡多多开奖记录 on the dispensary. In a statement last year, its governing council asserted its right to sell cannabis.
"As a sovereign Indian nation, the Cayuga Nation commerce in the village of Union Springs would not be limited by a local law prohibiting retail marijuana sales," the statement said.
The Office of Cannabis Management has affirmed that cannabis sales on federally recognized tribal lands, license or no, is legal. However, the office has not responded to multiple requests for comment by 新加坡多多开奖记录 on Sweet Grass Dispensary, which is not located on federally recognized tribal land but that of a municipality that has "opted out."
The Office of Cannabis Management also did not respond to multiple requests for comment about I'm Stuck in Auburn.
Lake Life Editor David Wilcox can be reached at (315) 282-2245 or david.wilcox@lee.net. Follow him on Twitter .