Port Jervis opens first legal cannabis dispensary on Jersey Ave

Port Jervis gained its first legal cannabis dispensary on Jersey Avenue, adding a new retail stop that could pull customers from the city and from nearby communities with fewer legal options. DeMarino’s Dispensary, at 110 Jersey Ave., opened as a seven-day-a-week storefront, operating from 10 a.m. to 10 p.m. and giving the block a new source of foot traffic, sales tax activity and after-hours business.

The grand opening brought a ribbon-cutting on Feb. 17 and drew family members, friends, supporters and staff to the site. Owners John Marino and Jessica Perrego built the shop around a welcoming, educational and judgment-free customer experience, aiming to make both first-time and returning shoppers feel comfortable while learning about New York-grown cannabis products. The opening also carried a personal dimension: Shawn Kurtz, who is battling stage 4 cancer, was part of the celebration and was described by those close to the store as an inspiration through the long push to get the business open.

The shop’s opening matters because it sits inside New York’s regulated adult-use market, not outside it. State records list DeMarino’s, LLC at 110 Jersey Ave., Port Jervis, NY 12771 as a licensed retailer, and the New York State Office of Cannabis Management says regulated dispensaries must post a dispensary verification tool near the main entrance. The agency also says legal retailers are meant to offer safer, tested products and consumer education, part of a market built after the Cannabis Law passed in March 2021.

That law made social equity central to the rollout, with the state saying it is meant to repair harms from cannabis prohibition, especially in Black and Brown communities. The first legal retail sales in New York came from CAURD licensees, which the state describes as justice-involved operators. As of the current retailer listing, New York has 638 adult-use dispensaries statewide.

Port Jervis stands out in Orange County because most municipalities opted out when they were given the chance. Under state rules, towns, cities and villages can regulate the time, place and manner of dispensaries, but they cannot completely ban adult-use cannabis licenses. That has made every new legal storefront more significant in the county, where options remain limited. In January 2024, Orange County Cannabis Co. opened as the first adult-use cannabis dispensary in the Hudson Valley, underscoring how recently legal retail has been arriving in the region and how quickly Jersey Avenue has become part of that changing map.