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Recreational marijuana is finally on its way to Riverhead.
The first two recreational dispensaries in the Town of Riverhead are hoping to open this fall on Old Country Road in Riverhead and on Middle Country Road in Calverton.
Strain Stars, a dispensary in East Farmingdale, is looking to set up a second shop at 1871 Old Country Road, a vacant commercial building on the corner of Route 58 and Kroemer Avenue.
Beleaf, a dispensary chain with a store in Brooklyn, is setting up a shop in the Calverton Commons at 4462 Middle Country Road.
Both sites comply with Riverhead’s recreational cannabis zoning laws, according to letters from a town planner to the state obtained through Freedom of Information Law. Both buildings are currently undergoing renovations.
Yuvraj Singh, owner of Strain Stars, said that the dispensary will be a “one stop shop” for cannabis in eastern Suffolk County and hopes to be open before Thanksgiving. At 14,400 square feet, the dispensary in Riverhead will be the largest pot store in New York, he said.
“We’re going to be doing delivery out there as well, just like we are in Farmingdale,” Singh said. “Delivery is going to be pretty big over there,” he said, given that the landscape is more rural. “And it’s gonna be free same day delivery, just like we offer here.”
The original Strain Stars in East Farmingdale was the first recreational dispensary to open on Long Island. Towns and villages receive 3% of the 13% state sales tax for dispensaries in their jurisdictions; Babylon Town has so far collected more than $1.8 million from cannabis sales from Strain Stars, which opened in July 2023, and another dispensary, according to Newsday.
Michael Reda, owner of Beleaf, said he hopes to open the Calverton location by the end of next month.
“We’re going to have every single product offering available,” he said, “from flowers, to vaporizers, to edibles, the tinctures, to concentrates, anything topical, anything possibly made — all cultivated, tested in New York State, on the market.”
His Beleaf store in Brooklyn, which opened earlier this month, has been successful so far, he said.
Riverhead Town is one of four towns on Long Island that allows recreational dispensaries. After a bill to opt-out of marijuana sales failed in 2021, town officials created and passed restrictive zoning laws that left almost all commercial properties in town unable to host dispensaries — delaying the potential for any shops to open within the town.
The Town Board relaxed those laws slightly earlier this year, but those in the cannabis industry said the amendment would not be enough to bring businesses into town. One business looking to be licensed asked the State Office of Cannabis Management for an opinion on whether the town’s zoning is “unreasonably impracticable” and in violation of the 2021 law that legalized recreational marijuana in New York.
In addition to compliance with zoning rules, dispensaries must abide by security and odor management requirements under town law. Marijuana can only be sold to people 21 and older.
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“}]] Riverhead Town’s first recreational marijuana dispensaries hope to open this fall. Strain Stars will open on the corner of Route 58 and Kroemer Avenue, while Beleaf is setting up shop in the Calverton… Read More