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New Cannabis Retailer Offers Drive-Thru Convenience Seven Days A Week At Former Commerce Bank Location
Rockland County residents Greg and Milka Pereira are opening 202 Cannabis Company this week, the county’s second legal, state-licensed, retail cannabis dispensary.
The opening reception will take place May 7th at 2:30 at 202 Cannabis Company at 81 West Ramapo Road in Garnerville in the Town of Haverstraw, in a former bank building.
Haverstraw is the only town out of Rockland’s five that chose to allow cannabis retailing when towns and villages in late 2021 were asked to make the decision to either “opt out,” which would have made dispensaries illegal, or do nothing, which was the same as allowing them. In contrast, Clarkstown Stony Point, Orangetown and Ramapo opted out, precluding legal dispensaries within unincorporated town limits. The Villages of Nyack, Piermont and Haverstraw jumped on the bandwagon, allowing cannabis retailing.
In the Town of Haverstraw, retail dispensaries and paraphernalia shops are zoned to operate “as-of-right” in the C-Commercial Zones, which largely hug West Ramapo Road and a stretch of Thiells-Mt. Ivy Road near the Pomona border. Industrial businesses, on-site consumption lounges, retailers and paraphernalia shops also are as-of-right uses in the Town’s PIO-Planned Industrial Office zone, which includes Cambridge Plaza and a small section off Quaker Road across from the Hudson Valley Humane Society.
Since 2008, the Pereiras operated Urban Outreach, which trains and assists individuals to secure state certification for home-based daycare centers which are regulated by the Department of Health and the Offices of Childcare and Family Services. Urban Outreach also offers NYS DMV certified impaired driver programs (IDPs), NYS court approved alcohol education programs (AEPs), and Mother Against Drunk Driving victim impact panels (VIPs).
“Opening this dispensary is a dream come true, but it’s more than just about selling safer, high quality cannabis,” said Gregory Pereira, Co-Owner & COO of 202 Cannabis Company. “As someone who works closely with those struggling with drug addiction, I know how powerful cannabis can be in helping individuals, especially veterans quit addictive pain killers, quit heroin, quit fentanyl, and get their lives back. It means so much to me to be able to give back, to be able to create good jobs, and to help others get their lives back on track,”
He added, “This dispensary is the start of something huge, and I am so excited for customers from across Rockland County and the whole Hudson Valley to enjoy what we have to offer.”
The location for 202 Cannabis Company was approved by the Town of Haverstraw through a series of land-use hearings in 2024. Applicants, under the name Blaze 420 originally sought late night hours with Saturday operations running until midnight, and Thursdays and Fridays until 11:00pm. The late night hours have been scaled back until 10 pm, with the drive-thru only open until 8 pm, seven days a week.
No consumption will be allowed onsite at the dispensary. 202 Cannabis Co. will have internal and external security cameras monitoring the site 24 hours a day, secure vault storage, dual entry doors with unarmed security, and frosted windows and doors preventing visual access of cannabis products from the outside of the building. To enter the dispensary, customers have to be 21 or older and show valid identification. No self-service is allowed, and no cannabis inventory will be kept in the retail area — cannabis only changes hands when an order is ready to be filled — like in a drugstore.
Treehouse Cannabis on Route 59 in Nyack was the first dispensary to open in the county in 2024. Owner Seth Marks transformed a former car showroom he owns into a dispensary but started sales with home delivery.
The Village of Haverstraw has approved a new dispensary at 35 Route 9W, slated to open later this year. A second dispensary, which has its state license, is planning on purchasing a garage at 147 Route 9W, to open its operation, pending land-use approvals. The Village only allows dispensaries in its HB zone along Route 9W — effectively barring them in the central business district.
Towns and villages hosting cannabis dispensaries share directly in the sales tax generated by retail cannabis sales. Sales tax on cannabis in New York is 9 percent. Four percent goes to the County, which passes on 75 percent of the sales tax revenue to the town or village hosting the dispensary.
In 2024, the Village of Nyack netted $136,367 in tax revenue from sales from April through December at Treehouse Cannabis.
The Nyack Village Board has been holding hearings on modifications to the Village code to set local proximity restrictions on adult-use cannabis dispensaries in the Village limits.
The New York State Office of Cannabis Management (OCM) regulations prevent dispensaries from opening within 2,000 feet of another dispensary in municipalities with fewer than 20,000 residents. Proposals at the state level may reduce that proximity limitation to 1,000 feet. Also, OCM has the ability and a track record of issuing waivers for adult-use dispensaries, allowing a new dispensary to open within another dispensary’s proximity protected area.
The proposal being considered by the Village trustees would establish a rule similar to the state rule as – 2,000 foot dispensary-to-dispensary proximity restrictions, so that if OCM’s rulemaking changed or narrowed the restriction, the Village code would still enforce a 2,000 foot limitation.
In the Mid-Hudson Region, 50 operating dispensaries have so far contributed nearly $4 million in regional adult-use tax revenue.
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