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“Management and staff walked out,” read a sign posted Saturday on the door at Nativa Cannabis, a recreational cannabis dispensary on the Seneca Nation territory in Niagara Falls.
Nativa Cannabis, a Seneca Nation-licensed recreational cannabis dispensary in Niagara Falls, temporarily closed after workers quit their jobs and walked out over the weekend.
It is scheduled to reopen on a limited basis Wednesday.
Staff started leaving early last week and, by the weekend, the store was down to just a handful of workers.
“Closed until further notice. Management and staff walked out,” a paper sign in the door read Saturday. “For further details on a reopening plan, contact the company’s general manager, Gavin Mercado.”
But soon after, that manager had quit as well.
Then-General Manager Brittany Moore talks about operations at Nativa Cannabis, the new recreational cannabis dispensary on the Seneca Nation’s territory next to the Seneca Niagara Casino in Niagara Falls. Moore left Nativa in September.
Without enough people to staff the dispensary, it was closed Saturday, reopened Sunday, then closed again Monday and Tuesday.
“After making recent staffing adjustments, Nativa Cannabis is temporarily operating on a revised schedule. The dispensary will be open 11 a.m. to 8 p.m. Wednesday through Sunday this week. We thank our dedicated staff and customers for their cooperation as we continue to actively recruit and hire additional staff,” Nativa Cannabis said in a statement.
Nativa Cannabis is owned by the Seneca Nation of Indians. The 2,500-square-foot facility at 765 Niagara St. is at the corner of John B. Daly Boulevard and Niagara Street, next to the Seneca One Stop fuel station and convenience store.
Though there are a slew of cannabis dispensaries operating on tribal lands, Nativa is the first Nation-sanctioned business selling pot for recreational purposes on the Nation’s sovereign Niagara territory. Indigenous dispensaries, because they are on sovereign territory, aren’t subject to state licensing requirements.
Retail cannabis sales have been happening on the reservations since shortly after New York legalized cannabis in 2021.
Thousands of unlicensed cannabis stores have proliferated throughout New York, while only about 90 state-licensed dispensaries have opened, a handful of them in Western New York.
The state has been criticized for its slow rollout, which was halted twice by lawsuits filed against the state’s conditional licensing program. That program gave preference to applicants who had a significant business presence in New York and had a cannabis-related conviction in the state, or a close family member who had a cannabis-related conviction.
Store openings were twice halted by injunctions, which were lifted when the state Office of Cannabis Management granted licenses to the parties, who sued saying they had been improperly left out of the program.
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“Management and staff walked out,” read a sign posted Saturday on the door at Nativa Cannabis, a recreational cannabis dispensary on the Seneca Nation territory in Niagara Falls.
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Nativa Cannabis tribal dispensary closes temporarily after workers quit – Buffalo News
