High Peaks Canna Prioritizes Local Sourcing
Located just a short walk from Broadway in Saratoga, High Peaks Canna, a cannabis dispensary, opened their doors this past August. It was the City of Saratoga’s first licensed cannabis shop, and business has quickly blossomed in just a few short months. The dispensary was started by local business owners Christine and Roger Sharp. For over a decade, the Sharp’s have owned an event production business, High Peaks Event Production, focusing mostly on live music, performances, and other events. Their newest retail venture, High Peaks Canna, serves up cannabis products to experienced users and “canna-curious” customers alike.
Christine Sharp explained, “All walks of life come through our doors. Attitudes about cannabis have really changed and that makes us very happy.” Inside the shop, the products on offer range from edibles, drinkables, flower, concentrates, and more. When one enters the shop, they are greeted by “budtenders” who help curate any order to taste, all with the click of a few buttons on their electronic tablets. They even have a delivery service.
Ways to consume cannabis and the culture around it has bifurcated in recent years following widespread legalization. There are the old ways to buy and consume cannabis and then there are the new. This is reflected in High Peaks’ inventory. They blend new technology like temperature-controlled smokeless devices and RFID readers – placed on jars so that when a customer picks up a product of interest, a display informs that customer exactly what they are holding in their hand and where it was grown. But they also have items as simple as hemp paper, matches, and handcrafted wooden pipes made from recycled material. “We’d like to think we have products for everyone here,” continued Christine, “Our budtenders are very helpful people and get particularly excited when someone is new to consuming cannabis. We are all happy to share as much information as we can about a plant we are all really passionate about.”
Importantly, the Sharps do things a little differently than most dispensaries when it comes to their sourcing. They pride themselves on supporting local farmers. Lined on the shelves are displays of locally-grown small batch cannabis products. Some of the vendors include Juniper Hill, a woman-owned family-run farm, Flowerhouse, a New York grower, and Hudson Cannabis, a second generation farm now owned by two sisters – Melany and Freya Dobson based out of Hudson, NY. All inspired by organic farming practices and farm-to-table movements, High Peaks Canna works directly with their growers to not only ensure quality, but also to support local farming families. “We really try to stay away from the larger, multi-state growing operations,” said Christine “some of the best cannabis products are grown right here in our backyard and we really want to support those people – and they help support us.”
Using their event production background, the Sharps have some really cool plans moving forward. “We want to do cool things for the community,” Christine explained, “We want to utilize the High Rock Park (a 2 minute walk from the shop) as a place to gather and put on events. We are thinking about yoga in the park or even movie nights, we already have the screen!”
When asked about the process of opening a dispensary in New York, and particularly in Saratoga, Christine acknowledged there were some challenges. “Everything was straightforward for the most part, just paperwork – lots of paperwork. But the hardest part was finding a location” she shared. The Sharp’s were in between a few different locations within the city and were going back and forth with their real estate team for some time. Eventually, they landed at 137 Maple Avenue in Saratoga – where the Towne Law Firm was previously. For the Sharp’s the new location was a home run. “It’s pretty much in between both exits of the Northway (Exit 14 and 15 of I87) and a short walk from Broadway. We were thrilled when we closed here,” said Christine.
Expansion though, will be difficult. Currently, New York State has limited the number of storefronts that can be held under the same licensee to one, so opening another shop, at the moment, is not feasible. “We’ve heard of people getting around this by setting things up through members of their family or something like that, but at the moment we are happy and want to make High Peaks the best shop we can.” To stay up to date about upcoming events, read their blogs or to learn more about High Peaks and their products, visit: www.highpeakscanna.com – or better yet, stop in and pay them a visit.