Founder and owner Dave Tubens, left, cuts the ribbon for Planet Nugg, alongside Babylon Town Supervisor Rich Schaeffer.
Michael Malaszczyk/Long Island Press
It’s one thing for cannabis to be legal – it’s another for it to be safe and accessible.
That’s why Dave Tubens, founder and owner of Planet Nugg, pursued his business dream of opening a retail cannabis dispensary in East Farmingdale. Planet Nugg held its grand opening on Sept. 6, to an enthusiastic crowd that included Town of Babylon Supervisor Rich Schaeffer.
“Besides being a great business, I saw as a great opportunity to help the community,” Tubens told the Press at the grand opening. “I’m a parent first, first and foremost, I’m a homeowner in the town of Babylon, and I’m also a business owner. So I feel like, although having a dispensary is a great thing to have, I feel social responsibility. Fentanyl, an illegal drug, has really affected Long Island. And if we could just save one life, I believe that this, all this, is well worth it. My mission was to also create the biggest, most beautiful, you know, interactive cannabis dispensary on Long Island. And also we wanted to create that. We wanted to give her that stigma of cannabis is just for it to come in and get high. We’re helping people with anxiety, sleep disorders, pain management, cancer treatment. There’s a lot more to it than you think.”
Schaeffer expressed support for the new business and agreement with Rubens about the importance of safe cannabis.
“The state did the legalization and then said, towns and municipalities come up with a plan,” Schaeffer said. “We’re usually good about figuring how to do things whenever challenges are thrown at us, and that’s what we did here.”
The scheduled grand opening of the 5.000-square-foot pot shop comes five months after Planet Nugg was originally planning to open in April.
Helping to launch the new business was Rob Franzese – better known on the Internet as Peter Griffin, for doing a live action impression of Family Guy’s main character.
“It’s the largest dispensary on Long Island now, officially, and the third legal dispensary to open here,” he told the Press. “Peter’s been a stoner for years. I mean, we’ve done all kinds of things under the sun, on Family Guy, and it’s definitely on brand.”
Planet Nugg will be located at 2043 Wellwood Ave., Farmingdale. For more information visit planetnugg.com
– With Timothy Bolger
