City of Auburn keeping close eye on new downtown cannabis business

The sign advertises I’m Stuck, which calls itself a cannabis consulting and marketing firm, at 9 E. Genesee St. It would be the second Cayuga County location for the business after opening the Weed Warehouse on Crane Brook Drive in Aurelius, across from Fingerlakes Mall, earlier this year. I’m Stuck also has locations in the Wayne County towns of Macedon, Ontario, Lyons, Newark and Williamson.

Despite calling itself a marketing firm on its signage, however, I’m Stuck calls itself something else on its website: a dispensary. Cannabis flower, edibles and other products are listed there with prices as well.

That would make I’m Stuck part of what has come to be known as New York state’s “gray market” for cannabis. While the state legalized the substance with its Marijuana Regulation and Taxation Act in March 2021, its Office of Cannabis Management only just began licensing dispensaries last month. Due to a lawsuit, no dispensaries were licensed in the central New York region that includes Auburn.

Still, businesses like I’m Stuck have begun selling cannabis without a license for a variety of reasons, such as impatience with the state’s market rollout, concern others will begin selling before them, and general relaxation toward the substance now that it’s legal to possess and use. The office has decried these sellers of untested cannabis, saying the gray market “undercuts the goals of the state’s Cannabis Law to protect public health and build an equitable market.” To that end, the office has sent cease-and-desist letters to many of them, including I’m Stuck’s locations in Lyons and Newark.

The city of Auburn will look to communicate with the office about taking similar action against the business’s new downtown location, Assistant Corporation Counsel Nate Garland told The Citizen. 

Since first learning about the sign, Garland said, the city has been “looking at every available legal option.” Those options begin with the sign itself: I’m Stuck did not obtain a permit for it, so the city is trying to contact the business and the property owner about removing it. Previously the site of a Metro by T-Mobile store, the property and neighboring 11 E. Genesee St. were purchased from Grillo Companies in October for $333,000 by Capflow Capital LLC, according to Cayuga County records. The LLC’s address, 303 S. Seward Ave., is one of several local properties owned by Steven Tardibone.

Because the business has yet to open, Garland said, the sign is the only issue the city can currently act on. But if I’m Stuck does indeed try to open an unlicensed cannabis dispensary in downtown Auburn, the state Marijuana Regulation and Taxation Act gives the city legal standing to take further action against both the business and the property owner, namely litigation for injunctive relief.

“It’s not something that we’re going to let pass without a significant amount of scrutiny,” Garland said. “It will be the subject of litigation if that same business model is attempted in the city of Auburn.”

The city has been receiving feedback from the public about I’m Stuck since its sign was posted, Garland said. He noted that the city’s imminently expiring moratorium against smoke shops would not apply to a dispensary, as it doesn’t sell tobacco. He also noted that since Auburn did not “opt out” of dispensaries, the state law preempts the city from more direct forms of action against them. 

For that reason, Garland wishes the state would respond more strongly to gray market businesses like I’m Stuck, though he acknowledged that setting up New York’s $4 billion legal cannabis market is “an extremely heavy lift.” In the meantime, he said the city of Auburn will do what it can to “protect citizens from entities that are breaking the law” by selling unlicensed and untaxed cannabis.

I’m Stuck did not respond to a request for comment sent through its website by The Citizen.