Eli Emery stands amid shelves of cannabis products at Elevate ADK in Saranac Lake. This shop is set to be the Tri-Lakes’ first licensed recreational cannabis dispensary on Friday, following an exclusive exemption from a state Supreme Court judge. (News photo — Aaron Marbone)

SARANAC LAKE — Elevate ADK is set to become the Tri-Lakes region’s first licensed recreational cannabis dispensary when it opens on Friday, Oct. 13, after getting approval from state Supreme Court Judge Kevin Bryant.

Eli Emery, the general manager of the storefront in the Saranac Lake Plaza on Lake Flower Avenue, said he’s excited to get the business started after a lawsuit held up licensing statewide this summer.

While most of the more than 400 dispensary licenses issued by the state are still held up by this court case, Elevate ADK is one of just five allowed to open up since the holdup began, because it was so far ahead in the licensing process.

Emery got a permit approved by the village development board in June and got an inspection from the state Office of Cannabis Management on Aug. 3. He had been planning to open on Aug. 12 when, just a few days before, Bryant issued a temporary restraining order while overseeing a cannabis license-related lawsuit, blocking the state from issuing permits until the case is resolved.

Bryant has since chosen to grant exceptional permits to dispensaries which were ready to operate when he issued his injunction. Elevate ADK made that exclusive list and got its exemption on Friday, along with four other dispensaries.

This storefront at the far right of the Saranac Lake Plaza will be the home of the Elevate ADK recreational cannabis dispensary, which opens on Friday, Oct. 13. It was seen here on Wednesday, Oct. 11. (News photo — Andy Flynn)

Emery said he got an email from OCM last Friday with a PDF of the license he can show vendors and hang in the storefront.

He had anticipated Elevate ADK would be granted this exception, since the completion of all is paperwork and inspections put it at the “top” of the state’s “stack” of pending licenses. Still, he said “It’s a huge relief.”

“We’ve been so unsure of what’s going to happen next with the whole New York cannabis industry,” Emery said.

And he added that this license came not a moment too soon.

“We thought we were going to have to start making some hard decisions,” he said.

With the delays in licensing, prospective cannabis shops all over the state preparing to open have had to reconsider their business plans as revenues have been delayed. Emery said they were considering hiring a lawyer, but with this license, they are good to go.

Emery anticipates a busy grand opening. He said OCM is pretty strict about promotional offers from dispensaries, so they can’t give away free stuff or discounts. But he said there will be vendors to talk to about cannabis and plenty of excitement.

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State of cannabis in New York state

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There are currently only 28 licensed cannabis shops in the state, with seven more to potentially get green-lit through exemptions. But that’s only a fraction of the total 463 permits the OCM has awarded.

On Oct. 4, Gov. Kathy Hochul announced that universal applications for general business licensing to legally grow, process, distribute and sell cannabis was opening. This window will last until Dec. 4.

In a statement, her office estimates that licenses for cultivators, processors, distributors, microbusinesses and retail dispensaries under this expansion could be awarded in early 2024.

Hochul also said the state is looking to aggressively crack down on illegal sale of the plant by increasing fines and penalties, saying authorities have seized more than 8,500 pounds of illicit product with an estimated street value of more than $42 million.

Emery suspects that rest of the 400 applicants without licenses will not get exemptions and will need to reapply to get licenses through the general application process.

The litigation that sparked the delay is still in court, and Emery said it is likely to continue.

The case comes from four service-disabled military veterans who sued the OCM, saying it shouldn’t be giving priority to people with previous cannabis convictions over disabled vets. Emery said he feels this opened a “can of worms” for the state’s legal cannabis industry.

The veterans say the law passed in 2021 put all equity class groups on equal footing, but the OCM prioritized licenses for people with prior cannabis convictions.

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Elevate history

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Up until now, Elevate ADK has only existed as a cannabis delivery service. It has a temporary delivery license for this year, allowing the company to deliver cannabis by car to locations around the North Country — including Saranac Lake, Lake Placid, Tupper Lake, Paul Smiths, Rainbow Lake, Westport, Keene, Plattsburgh and Elizabethtown.

But Emery said it is not really a sustainable business for a rural area and this delivery service may be discontinued now that the storefront can open.

Elevate ADK was initially supposed to open in Plattsburgh. But the business was evicted from the plaza it was going to be in because the plaza owners were refinancing the land and the bank wouldn’t allow that with a cannabis business there.

When Emery was brought on to lead the project, he pushed to move it to Saranac Lake. Elevate ADK also got Saranac Lake village approval for on-site consumption in a dispensary, even though there’s not a license allowing that yet. Emery said they are waiting to see if New York allows on-site consumption in a dispensary, instead of needed a separate lounge. But he went ahead and got approval from the village, to avoid needing to return to the development board.

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Harrietstown cannabis?

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Elevate ADK is in the portion of Saranac Lake within the town of North Elba.

Yet the Harrietstown Town Council is now considering allowing retail cannabis businesses within its boundaries to get a slice of the tax revenue the businesses would generate. It plans to set a date for a public hearing on this topic at the Oct. 12 meeting.

After the town council opted out of allowing cannabis sales in late 2021, it is now reconsidering after more state regulations have been published.

The village of Saranac Lake remains opted in. Since the village is inside the town and houses the majority of the town’s commerce, cannabis sales are already allowed in a large portion of the town. Opting in now would allow the town to get a piece of that tax revenue and allow dispensaries to open in the parts of town outside the village boundaries.