BLASDELL, N.Y. (WKBW) — Ashley Brown and John Duncan are the owners of 716 Cannabis in Blasdell and they are left comforting one another after police say someone stole over $389,000 worth of products.
Duncan said the burglary happened a month ago.
“We walked into the dispensary having no lights, and no power and noticed that the contents of the vault had been cleared out. It was 90 percent of our entire inventory that was burglarized,” he said. “We would consider this an extremely secure place and to find it the way we found it that morning. It hurts. It hurts for sure.”
The dispensary opened in January. CEO Ashley Brown established herself as the first Black woman to own a dispensary in Western New York.
“We’re the first minority-owned business in Blasdell, and this is the first thing that happened so yeah none of this has been easy,” she said.
The owners told 7 News reporter Yoselin Person that they couldn't say too much about the break-in since it’s under investigation. But they said what happened to their business is impacting their suppliers.
“It belonged to the farmers, the processors, all those people that had their own horror stories getting to the point where they finally got to give their products,” Brown said.
And the workers are also impacted.
“And let’s not forget about the employees right who have kids, wives, and roofs to keep over their heads," Duncan said.
These owners may have to start over.
“We don’t think we will be able to stay here," Duncan said.
That’s why there’s a GoFundMe that has been set up.
“It’s to help with everything that we just set up and now we kind of have to pivot in a completely different direction,” Duncan said. “Instead of focusing on how to for your business and help the community we’d have to play a little defense here.”
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