AMSTERDAM — Amsterdam Cannabis, the city’s first marijuana dispensary, will finally open its doors at 10 a.m. Saturday.
“We’re just excited to roll out,” Thomas Marcellino said this week.
Brothers Thomas and Anthony Marcellino planned to open their shop at 1549 Route 5S this summer and had already hired staff before dispensaries were barred from opening by lawsuits against state cannabis regulators regarding the state’s Conditional Adult-Use Retail Dispensaries (CAURD) licenses program.
“It was stressful,” Thomas Marcellino said. “We’ve got our life savings into this project and we’ve got people relying on us now.”
The Amsterdam natives each left jobs earlier this year to focus on the dispensary. Thomas Marcellino, a former MMA fighter, was coaching at a local gym. He is still involved in coaching and promoting Cage Wars. Anthony Marcellino worked for the Montgomery County Probation Department.
After the state’s Cannabis Control Board settled the lawsuits last week, Thomas and Anthony Marcellino were “ecstatic” to learn they could finally open their doors following months of uncertainty.
“It’s been very nerve wracking,” Anthony Marcellino said. “Honestly, you don’t really know what’s going to happen and we had so much invested in this operation. We would have bankrupted ourselves.”
The brothers have been working rapidly to