The first cannabis dispensary, RR Legacy, has opened its doors in Glens Falls. Owned by Renee Redding, Matthew Robinson, and Derrick Carr, the store did a soft launch on Nov. 21 and a grand opening ceremony on Nov. 27. The dispensary, located at 12 Hudson Ave, received its cannabis license on July 10 and will sell flowers, edibles, vapes, tinctures, concentrates, and more.
For Redding, who was incarcerated for selling marijuana, has lived in halfway houses and shelters, and suffered severe health issues, becoming a majority owner of this store is a big step.
“I’ve been through it all. I’ve been to prison twice. I’ve been arrested over 100 times for marijuana, cannabis…back when it was illegal. So to be here right now, I’m still in a state of shock,” Redding said.
Derrick Carr, Renee Redding, and Matthew Robinson, owners and executives of RR Legacy, the first cannabis dispensary to open in Glens Falls. Redding is the CEO of the company.
Robinson, the Chief Operations Officer of the business, who was also incarcerated for selling marijuana, feels that people who were targeted for selling, often from underdeveloped communities like his, he said, should be the ones getting licenses faster.
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“It’s awkward because it was illegal for so long. I mean, you jailed me for so long, and I was a bad person. I was a criminal, and I had a criminal record because of it, and now it’s like, ‘Oh, it’s okay.’”, he said. “Now, everybody’s doing so it’s a trend, and that’s where we sort of separate ourselves from others, is this isn’t a trend for us. This is a culture. This is our life.”
Robinson said that he has been selling cannabis since he was 12 and that this is his life. He owns another store along with Carr in Colonie.
“I love cannabis,” Robinson said. “Man, this is my thing. The one thing in life that I can say I’m exceptionally good at is smoking cannabis.”
A display at RR Legacy in Glens Falls.
Getting the store up and running has been a long process, Robinson said. They started working on it last November, and it took a full year for the permits and licenses to come through, and to complete the work of converting a pizza place into a dispensary.
“It’s all in-house. We really started with nothing,” Carr, the Chief Financial Officer of the operation, said.
As for the investment that they have put into the business, “It’s not really a number. You can’t count the hard work, the late nights. You can’t count all those things, man, but we know that we’ve given everything to get this thing up and running for the community here,” according to Carr.
A resident of Glens Falls, who was at the store for the opening said that she thinks that the education for cannabis is a good thing, “for the community to experience it before judging,” said Tina Winefordner.
“I feel that the health benefits need to be researched. I believe that they’re there, and the potential for growth is there,” Winefordener added.
The first week since the soft launch was a test for the business, Robinson said. They were focusing on getting people to come in and take a look at the store and make their presence known, rather than working on getting sales.
“But, as you can see today, it’s just been non-stop and busy, busy, busy,” Robinson said
Nayanika Guha is a staff writer. Contact her at: 518-742-3272; nguha@poststar.com.
