Beleaf cannabis dispensary opens in Medford after yearlong delay

More than a year after obtaining a state license, Beleaf has opened its first cannabis dispensary in the Town of Brookhaven.

"It feels great [to be open] but it's also a little frustrating because quite a few stores have been able to get open prior to us," said Joseph Martin, one of Beleaf's three co-owners. The Medford store opened Friday.

The store at 262 Middle Island Rd. in Medford is the company's second dispensary on Long Island. Beleaf opened a store on Middle Country Road in Calverton in 2024. There are now four cannabis retail shops in Brookhaven, according to a state list.

Co-owners of the dispensary attributed the Medford shop's delay to the town's drawn-out permitting process. But a town official said the owners took time to apply for a key permit.

The Medford store's opening comes as Long Island's cannabis industry is growing, despite ongoing zoning disputes over where dispensaries can open and an often difficult approval process. Roughly 18 cannabis stores are open on Long Island as part of the state's billion-dollar market, according to state data. 

Beleaf employs 65 staff among its three stores, including a dispensary in Brooklyn. The Medford store employs around 15 to 20 people, Martin said.

New York’s Cannabis Control Board approved a retail cannabis license for the Medford store in October 2024, Newsday reported.

At the time, co-owners Martin, Michael Reda, and Keith Titmus hoped to open the store in early 2025.

Martin and Reda blamed the delays on the Town of Brookhaven, which they say hampered the process by requiring additional work, including upgrading the building's drainage, which forced them to redo the parking lot. Martin estimated the parking lot cost $250,000 out of a total of $750,000 in renovations to the building and site.

Town of Brookhaven Supervisor Dan Panico pushed back, saying that the process went quickly, and that Beleaf delayed in applying for a building permit until October 2025.

“A lot of the time it’s really incumbent on the applicant and the representatives to get everything that’s necessary," Panico said.

Garrett L. Gray, an attorney at Weber Law Group representing Beleaf before the town, said Beleaf got its site approved by the town planning board in June of 2025 and applied for a building permit in October that year. 

New York legalized recreational marijuana in 2021, and four towns — Brookhaven, Babylon, Southampton and Riverhead — opted into the state’s legal retail sales program. Just last month, Brookhaven, Riverhead and Southampton filed a lawsuit against state marijuana regulators to get control over where retailers can open, Newsday reported.

The suit came after state regulators found that Riverhead and Southampton’s cannabis rules were “unreasonably impracticable” and blocked under state law. Several licensees in those two towns were prevented from opening due to strict rules that require retailers to open a certain distance away from schools and other areas.