Long line of customers greets Western New York’s first licensed marijuana dispensary

O.J. Barker bought a House of Sacci ball cap, Empire cannabis gummies, Pound Town pre-rolled joints and cannabis flower on Tuesday.

That purchase made history.

The Buffalo resident was the first person to buy recreational marijuana from a state-licensed dispensary in Western New York.

“This is going to take me right where I need to go,” he told the cashier with a laugh.

Barker was the first, but he wasn’t the last – far from it.

By the time Dank officially opened with a ribbon-cutting ceremony at 501 Main St., dozens of customers had already lined up all the way down the block. They chatted, laughed and, yes, some smoked marijuana while they waited.

For many of those waiting in line, Dank was the first place in Buffalo where they could safely and conveniently buy cannabis products.

Just over a dozen state-licensed recreational cannabis dispensaries have opened, but none of them have been in Western New York until Tuesday afternoon.

“You know what you’re getting,” Justin Seitz, an employee at Bison Botanics, said waiting outside of Dank. “It’s safer, and honestly, it’s more convenient … to go somewhere that’s closer to home rather than, back in the day, a parking lot.”

Aaron Van Camp, the owner of Dank, had originally planned to open Buffalo’s first legal dispensary with a “chill” soft launch, but word spread too quickly for that.

He has been hard at work to get the doors open since he was awarded his conditional license April 3.

“We just didn’t realize that it was going to turn into this,” Van Camp said. “This is the largest soft opening I think anyone’s ever going to have.”

But he didn’t seem fazed by the change of plans. Dressed in a T-shirt and gray sweatpants, Van Camp posed for photos with friends and family, shook hands with elected officials and chatted with dozens of customers waiting in line. He said he was simply “relieved” that the day of Dank’s…