While a lawsuit holds up the state cannabis dispensary licensing process, Emery’s new storefront in the Saranac Lake plaza on Lake Flower Avenue has no bud in it.

Elevate ADK, which currently exists as a cannabis delivery service, is set to be Saranac Lake’s first recreational cannabis dispensary. Emery, the general manager, 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, a state Supreme Court judge issued a temporary restraining order while overseeing a cannabis license-related lawsuit, blocking the state from issuing permits until the case is resolved.

The case is scheduled to return to court on Sept. 15, and the judge may choose to grant exceptional permits to dispensaries which were ready to operate when he issued his injunction.

If that happens, Emery said Elevate ADK could open very soon.

Eli Emery stands amid shelves of cannabis products at Elevate ADK in Saranac Lake. (Enterprise photo — Aaron Marbone)

His phone has been ringing off the hook, with people looking for work there and asking if the storefront is open yet. He’s telling them all to wait.

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What’s the holdup?

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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. Judge Kevin Bryant, who is overseeing the case, issued an injunction, pausing the rollout of licenses.

Eli Emery stands amid shelves of cannabis products at Elevate ADK in Saranac Lake. (Enterprise photo — Aaron Marbone)

The state has appealed that injunction and Bryant is potentially granting exceptions if these businesses show they were ready to open before the injunction passed. Emery is hoping to get immunity from the restraining order since Elevate ADK was inspected prior to the court injunction. Emery thinks Elevate ADK is one of the only dispensaries in the state that meets the judge’s criteria for opening. A document OCM attorneys filed with the court on Wednesday lists 12 dispensaries which meet the judge’s standards for exemption. Elevate ADK is one of those.

Emery said he thinks these veterans probably didn’t realize the “can of worms” they were opening. 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.

Emery feels if these veterans had waited until October for general licensing to start, they could have applied, and they would have almost been guaranteed licenses since veterans are an equity class in the state’s Marihuana Regulation and Taxation Act.

He said the lawsuit has opened the whole cannabis legalization structure to potential changes from the court.

“What could happen is this judge wakes up on the wrong side of the bed and he says ‘All these regulations are unconstitutional. Scrap the whole thing.’ Every dispensary that’s currently opening, including us, their license would be stripped. The entire New York cannabis market would shut down.”

He’s been anxious with this hanging over their head. It’s not likely to happen, but it’s a possibility. People tell him that would never happen.

“I’m like, ‘Well you’ve clearly never been on the receiving end of a judge and had to feel that uncertainty,'” Emery said.

The judge could also push general licensing to next year instead of October, which would slow down the entire market.

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Big business and the legacy market

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In the spring, multistate operators who have medical cannabis licenses with the state sued, trying to gain faster access to the recreational market. Last month, a group of these corporations joined the veterans’ lawsuit. Emery speaks with disdain for these big companies.

Cannabis has long been a hobby and passion of his. He said he had been in what’s called the “legacy market” — the sale of cannabis before the state legalized it. He got interested in the plant as a teenager. He dove deep into the research, devoured books about it and learned about how the plant grows — not just how to smoke it. His interest in cannabis led him into what has been his career for years.

“Then I got into organic vegetable farming, because that’s legal,” Emery said.

He worked farmers markets around this region for years — in Saranac Lake, Lake Placid, Keene Valley and Elizabethtown. He said the cannabis market is similar to the organic vegetables market and there’s a fair amount of “overlap” between the two.

Emery is passionate about what he sees as the right way to grow cannabis — not wasting nutrients, not using pesticides and not using unsustainable resources in the growing and processing. He said they are trying to bring these standards to whose products they sell. He said they’ve taken a stand to not work with multi-state operators and are working with all New York state farmers.

He said big business sends profits out of state and he wants to give New York state brands a chance to thrive. The effort to make weed legalization benefit small businesses and support people who were already in the legacy market is coming from the ground-up, he said, led by small businesses themselves.

Big companies have shareholders and boards to be responsible to. They’re here to make money, he said, and some don’t care about supporting local growers.

The legacy market was more about passion to Emery. They sold cannabis when it was illegal and now that they can transition into the legal market, they can continue bringing the same products they were always selling.

“All these people who are in these big multi-million or -billion dollar companies, they weren’t there providing cannabis for anybody 10 years ago,” Emery said. “They only got into it when it was legally allowed for them to make money on it.

“If you’re of the mindset that the cannabis laws we had were wrong and should have never been there, then you would want to support the people who have been putting their heart and souls and all their effort into it — and risking their freedom — to bring people this product because they knew it helped people,” he added. “Those are the people we want to support. Not the guy who just has a business portfolio and cannabis happens to be one of the business he’s invested in.”

Emery said medical systems like in states out west were much better and more equitable for farmers and users. New York’s legalization seems to be more about money and investment to him. Total legalization is great because it provides access for everyone, but it has also brought what he sees as “profit-driven court battles.”

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Dank delivery

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Elevate ADK has a temporary delivery license for this year, allowing them 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. This has allowed the business get to market earlier and start meeting customers and vendors, but Emery said not a sustainable business.

“It’s been a mixed-bag,” Emery said. “Delivery in the Adirondacks is quite an undertaking.”

They get delivery requests to some pretty remote areas and sometimes a route only has a few deliveries on it. This puts on lots of time and miles on the car. They initially did deliveries as far north as Malone and as far south as Glens Falls, but have since reeled it in as these were too far and did not have enough volume.

He thinks when the storefront opens Elevate ADK will stop doing deliveries.

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Plans for growth

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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, knowing the market here well and avoiding competing with an existing medical cannabis dispensary in Plattsburgh. There are a number of owners of the business.

Elevate ADK got 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.

If Elevate ADK gets approval in the future for a consumption lounge, Emery said the business may expand into vacant space next door, which has been empty for years. He envisions an education space there, where people can learn about cannabis from farmers themselves.

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Public support

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When Emery went before the village development board in June, several members of the public spoke in support of the business and sounded excited to have a dispensary close to home.

“I have seen first-hand the positive effects that cannabis has had on relieving pain and insomnia for my family and friends with cancer and chronic pain,” Gail Brill wrote in her letter of support.

Joyce Henklein, who is 95, described herself an “an enthusiastic user of cannabis for sleep and arthritic pain.” She said she had been wary of drug use, but compared the medications she sees ads for on television, with their long, “scary” lists of side effects with the effects of cannabis, which she’s never had a bad reaction to.

“I feel that many folks my age do not realize how helpful and safe cannabis is,” she wrote.

Liz Pope, a village resident, asked about the potential for mixed messaging for the youth in the community, given that there are frequently community fundraisers in front of the Coakley Hardware store at the other end of the plaza. Development board Chair Allie Pelletieri pointed out there are other adult-use businesses nearby, including a liquor store and a brewery.

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