Strain Stars cannabis dispensary opens in East Farmingdale

Long Island's first recreational marijuana dispensary opened Saturday in East Farmingdale, with a crowd snaking around the corner sometimes waiting more than an hour to get cannabis products. 

More than two years after New York legalized recreational marijuana, the owners of Strain Stars opened the brick-and-mortar dispensary with an afternoon ribbon-cutting. 

“We’re really finally catching up,” said William Young, 27, of Amityville, as he waited in line. “It’s been long overdue.”

Young said he had let his medical marijuana license lapse, so it’s "cool" that he can obtain marijuana from a storefront. He predicted that he would be a regular customer at the business.

The event marked roughly the 20th opening of a state-sanctioned cannabis dispensary in New York, which legalized recreational marijuana in 2021. A Bronx dispensary called Statis Cannabis Co. opened Thursday. Last week, another one called Greenery opened upstate, outside Binghamton.

In East Farmingdale on Saturday, music played as dozens of people waited in a line that wrapped around the business, winding into the store’s vestibule area, and then inside the brightly lit store featuring purple, black and white colors. Behind the counter, employees checked out customers 21 and older who bought items such as vape cartridges and drinks infused with cannabis. 

Displays showcased products ranging from cannabis-infused golden raspberry gummies to chocolate bars to packs of prerolled joints. 

David Calderon, 22, of Westbury, was examining, and sniffing, a container holding OG Kush marijuana.

Before the store opened, Calderon said, he bought marijuana from the street. Now, he said, the store has “the real deal.”

“I’ve been waiting for this moment for a while,” he said.

Nearly 40 businesses have received temporary or "conditional" state licenses to open recreational pot shops on Long Island. To qualify for a conditional retail license, an applicant has to have owned a profitable business for at least two years and either have a marijuana conviction or have a relative with such a history.

Not too long ago, Kamaldeep Singh, 29, was arrested for consuming or possessing marijuana. Now, he’s the chief operating officer at Strain Stars.

Singh owns the store with relatives Yuvraj Singh, 24, Jasmine Kaur, 26, all of Hicksville, and family friend Tushar Mallick, 32, of East Meadow.

The family owns several gas stations on Long Island, as well as in Brooklyn and Queens. Relatives, Kamaldeep Singh said, helped with seed money for the business.

On Saturday, he was taking in the scene at the 3,500-square-foot storefront on Route 110, south of Gazza Boulevard.

“Nobody wants to go through that,” he said, reflecting on his experience with the law. “They should have never done that in the first place. But, now we got rewarded for it. So, I can’t complain.”

With Denise M. Bonilla

By Tiffany Cusaac-Smith

tiffany.cusaac-smith@newsday.com@T_Cusaac

Education: Howard University 

Tiffany Cusaac-Smith came to Newsday in 2023 after being a race and history reporter at USA TODAY, where she wrote enterprise and spot articles examining how the past shapes the present. Previously, she worked as the race and justice reporter at the USA TODAY Network of New York, covering issues such as criminal justice reform, housing, environmental justice, health care and politics. At The Journal News/lohud.com in Westchester County, she covered Yonkers, the state's third-largest city. She also worked at The Associated Press in Atlanta.

Honors and Awards: Criminal justice reporting fellowship with the National Press Foundation;  New York News Publishers Association award for distinguished investigative reporting;  Contributed reporting for Best of Gannett honor; Member of Table Stakes, a program funded by the Knight-Lenfest Local News Transformation Fund and managed by the American Press Institute to transform local news.