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You can’t buy legal marijuana at the 2023 New York State Fair, and you can’t smoke or vape it anywhere on the fairgrounds itself.
But it turns out you will be able to buy legal THC cannabis, including flower, edibles, tinctures, vapes, topicals, and drinks, at a location convenient to the fairgrounds during the run of this year’s fair.
The former Pope’s Grove Golf Course, at 695 State Fair Blvd. less than half a mile west of the fairgrounds, will be turned into Flynnstoned Ranch, operated by the owner of Flynnstoned Cannabis Co. in Syracuse’s Armory Square.
It will be open from 10 a.m. to 10 p.m. on each of the days of the 2023 fair, owner Mike Flynn said. The fair runs from Wednesday, Aug. 23 to Labor Day, Sept. 4.
Flynnstoned Ranch’s retail marijuana sales will take place inside a 7,200-square-foot building on the 50-acre former golf course. Each day will also feature food vendors and other merchandise sales. There may be some special events.
There is plenty of parking and there will also be shuttle buses operating between the fairgrounds and the cannabis outlet.
“We have 50 acres of green grass, and that’s where you’ll be able to get anything we carry,” Flynn said. Products will include the Ayrloom THC beverages made in LaFayette by the family that owns Beak & Skiff Apple Orchards. “We’re looking forward to a crazy time.”
This year, fair officials have limited the smoking of all tobacco or cannabis to designated areas located outside of of the fairgrounds. The fair also declined to allow sales of THC marijuana products at the fair itself, although several vendors will sell CBD and other hemp-cannabis items.
Flynn opened Flynnstoned in Armory Square, in June. It is the Syracuse area’s first (and so far only) licensed marijuana dispensary. Last fall, Flynn bought the former Pope’s Grove golf course, which had closed in 2021, with a plan to turn it into a restaurant/brewery operation.
Now Flynn is changing those plans, eventually hoping to operate the site as a marijuana “superstore” using his existing cannabis license. Details of that proposal are still being worked out.
In the meantime, the temporary market during the fair will get things rolling.
The retail sales during the fair will fall under a recently enacted program authorized by the state Office of Cannabis Management called the Cannabis Growers Showcase. They are designed to provide outlets for the state’s legal growers and processors to sell their products while legal dispensaries get underway.
The legal dispensary roll out has been beset by delays, most recently through a temporary court injunction prohibiting the opening of new shops. There are currently just 23 dispensaries operating across New York state.
“We have products to sell, and this (the growers showcase), gives a perfect opportunity to sell them,” Flynn said.
Don Cazentre writes for NYup.com, syracuse.com and The Post-Standard. Reach him at dcazentre@nyup.com, or follow him at NYup.com, on Twitter or Facebook.
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