JETTY Extracts, a California-based cannabis company, is expanding its Shelter Project to New York, with Happy Days Dispensary in Farmingdale being one of two dispensaries to be a partner in providing those with cancer with free cannabis.
Enrollment for the project is open until the end of June. Applicants must be vetted by JETTY. The company said that those who are approved will receive cannabis tailored to their individual needs.
The Shelter Project was founded in 2014 by JETTY to provide free cannabis products to disadvantaged cancer patients.
Happy Days is the only Long Island dispensary to be supplying this service. Buffalo Dreams in Buffalo, where Nate Furgeson, the CEO and co-founder of JETTY, is from, is the other New York dispensary to partner with the cannabis company.
“Running a medical dispensary, I saw firsthand the relief it provided cancer patients and those with chronic illness,” Furgeson said in a statement.
Paul Lepore opened the Happy Days Dispensary on Route 109 in Farmingdale at the end of 2023, and he said he wanted to help the community understand the positives and negatives of cannabis.
“I was convinced by friends and family members to open a store instead of being in a lab somewhere because I could really help to educate individuals in the community, especially on Long Island, the good, the bad and the ugly about cannabis, and create a positive impact across Long Island,” he said.
Lepore said one of the main objectives of the dispensary is to give to those in need.
“I live by the standard that we all have an inherent duty to leave this world in a better condition than the way that we entered it,” he said. “We always look for initiatives that really help to support our community, not just through cannabis and education, but also through philanthropic initiatives.”
This isn’t the first time Happy Days has partnered with an organization to provide for others.
The dispensary raised nearly $120,000 through Gift of Life International to provide over 100 children with heart surgery. It has also fundraised nearly $40,000 for the Carolyn Baldwin Breast Cancer Research Fund in the past.
The Shelter Project will have another window for people to apply for free cannabis from Nov. 1 to Dec. 31.
