New York State is issuing a limited number of cannabis dispensary licenses, focusing on historically marginalized communities and applicants with a past impacted by marijuana laws, and the latest dispensary opens at 4:20pm Thursday on the Ithaca Commons.
William Jane Dispensary, opening in the former home of Trader K’s, is owned by William Durham, a Binghamton businessman in the construction industry, who applied for a dispensary license without knowing for sure where he’d be allowed to open a store. He received one of three licenses awarded in the Southern Tier region “on the strength of having operated successful businesses in the past and having a prior conviction for marijuana possession,” he told NewsChannel 34 last month.
Owner William Durham speaks at the William Jane Dispensary. 14850 Photos by Mark H. Anbinder.
As a public dispensary, one of the state’s first, the shop can sell to anyone of legal age to buy and possess recreational marijuana. No medical cannabis license is needed, a staff member told 14850 Today, just a New York driver license or other valid proof