After more than a month of delays, Ayr Wellness, Indiana’s first medical marijuana dispensary, will open at 10 a.m. Saturday at the former Rent-A-Center store at 2244 Oakland Ave.
White Township supervisors received a building permit application in March to customize the former Rent-A-Center for cannabis retail, according to township manager Chris Anderson.
The dispensary was initially targeted to open June 1, but its opening was delayed due to the company’s expansion into adult-use dispensaries in New Jersey as well as strict review standards by Pennsylvania’s Department of Health, according Matt Truppo, Ayr Wellness’ director of retail for Pennsylvania.
“I think it’s the nature of the business,” Truppo said, explaining why the dispensary didn’t open in June. “We work in a partnership with the DOH to ensure everything is up to state standards prior to us opening. We passed the DOH’s inspection Tuesday with flying colors. The timing of our projects also (contributed). We were just in New Jersey flipping dispensaries from medical to adult-use with a primary focus on medical.”
The closest other dispensaries to Indiana are located in Johnstown, roughly 30 miles away. Truppo said that opening the first cannabis dispensary in Indiana County is a significant milestone for Ayr Wellness, which has eight other affiliated dispensaries in the commonwealth.
“(Ayr Wellness) is focused on Indiana because of the underserved population,” Truppo said. “When interacting with patients here, everyone always stressed having to drive so far to the nearest dispensary. … That was the main complaint by each of the patients so far.”
Ayr Wellness store manager Nate Baker, an Indiana native, said opening shop in Indiana will help thousands of local patients receive the treatment they need.
“I believe there is a large patient population in Indiana … about 4,000 people,” Baker said. “Getting access to life-changing medicine is important, and I’m proud to be part of a company that puts patients first.”
The dispensary will serve card-holding medical marijuana patients registered with Pennsylvania’s medical marijuana program. Despite Indiana’s college population, Truppo said year-round community members would be the dispensary’s primary beneficiaries.
The 2,500-square-foot retail space will offer flower, vaporizers, concentrates, ingestibles, tinctures and topicals through a variety of national and local brands, including Seven Hills, Revel, Origyn, and Kynd, the dispensary’s very own line of cannabis.
Ayr launched its premium flower brand Kynd in the commonwealth on Thursday, with strains including “Fried Cream,” “Watermelon Gelato #36,” “Kush Cream,” “The Glove” and “Motor Breath.” Kynd products will be available in all nine of Ayr’s Pennsylvania locations.
Truppo said that Kynd products are sorted by tiers, with the “Kynd Gold” tier offering the brand’s most potent and select strains. Kynd Gold will be available only in Ayr dispensaries, according to Truppo.
“Basically, (Kynd Gold) is artisanal,” Truppo said. “It’s just a higher quality cannabis that was meticulously cultivated.”
The dispensary’s Indiana location currently has a team of 15 individuals and has job openings for five more dispensary technicians, according to Truppo. Ayr’s hours of operation are Monday to Saturday, 10 a.m. to 9 p.m., and Sunday from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m.
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