Ayr Wellness opens Miami’s first medical cannabis dispensary

Ayr Wellness has opened the first medical cannabis dispensary in Miami nearly 10 years after Florida voters legalized MMJ sales.

“It’s pretty exciting. This has been a five-plus-year process since we started planning this particular dispensary,” Rob Vanisko, Ayr’s vice president of public engagement, told Miami New Times.

“From lease signing to all the approvals to the appeals to actually be able to get this open has been quite the process.”

Ayr Wellness is a marijuana multistate operator that’s headquartered in Miami.

After voters approved a constitutional amendment in 2016 to legalize medical marijuana, Miami’s city attorney said the state’s second-largest municipality couldn’t issue permits for dispensaries because the federal Controlled Substances Act overrides Florida law.

Real estate investor and Los Angeles entrepreneur Romie Chaudhari sued the city in 2021 after Miami’s zoning director blocked two of his companies from opening MMJ dispensaries.

The zoning director later appealed a federal judge’s ruling and a decision by the city’s planning and zoning appeals board to allow Chaudhari to open an MMJ business, according to Miami New Times.

In May 2022, Chaudhari received permission to open a dispensary, paving the way for other companies to apply for permits in the city.

However, Chaudhari has yet to open an MMJ business at the downtown location he had chosen, according to the South Florida Business Journal.

Then, in February 2024, Miami officials issued a certificate of use to Ayr Wellness for a proposed Midtown location.

Ayr plans to target “underserved” medical marijuana patients at the Midtown location, according to Vanisko.

“It’s a shopping district, there’s foot traffic, there’s a growing neighborhood of people that live there, and it’s a convenient place for people who are driving into Miami,” Vanisko told the Business Journal.