KENMORE N.Y. (WIVB) – Business is blooming for one local company now that adult-use cannabis licenses have been approved in Western New York.

It’s been a busy week for the folks at Bison Botanics. The company makes cannabis products with CBD, hemp and THC and they are now able to sell even more their those products at dispensaries.

“It’s pretty cool. It’s a combination of a lot of hard work,” said Bison Botanics retail manager David Sanna. “It’s a big deal for us to be able to achieve the goals we set out to five years ago when the business opened. It’s a really great feeling.”

Bison Botanics is one step closer to selling THC infused cannabis products in Western New York.
The company currently makes and sells CBD and hemp products at their location in Kenmore.
They also make products with THC, like edibles.

“The simplest way I can explain it, is hemp will not get you high. THC cannabis will get you high,” Sanna said.

The company can’t sell the THC products, those have to be sold at an adult-use cannabis dispensary.

“We have three licenses, a hemp retail license so we can sell products with hemp in it. A hemp manufacturing license, so we can make the products you see on the shelves, and we also have our adult-use conditional processors license, which allows us to manufacture THC products like gummies, cartridges and things like that,” Sanna said.

The only adult-use cannabis dispensaries open right now are located in New York City. Bison Botanics supplies products to three dispensaries downstate. They’re hoping they will soon be supplying products to stores closer to home.

“It’s more of a combination of everything we’ve worked for to further get our name out there basically and that’s really cool,” Sanna said.

Three people here in WNY received their license to sell adult-use cannabis, but are still searching for locations. One of the business owners, Aaron Van Camp has expressed interest in opening a shop somewhere in the Elmwood Village.

“It’s a very welcoming business environment, it’s a welcoming community,” Elmwood Village Association President Therese Deutschlander said. “We want everyone to succeed. I’m happy to help anyway that I can. If he’s professional and legitimate and sounds like he is, I’m sure he did his research and realized he would do well opening in the Elmwood Village.”