Silver Therapeutics is opening its Orange location this morning, July 7, adding its second dispensary to Massachusetts’ Route 2 corridor along the northern border of the state. The company, which as of now is a standalone retailer in the Massachusetts marketplace, currently runs a dispensary in Williamstown.
“It was more of an expansion than a revamping,” CEO Josh Silver says, describing the work that has gone into this opening in Orange.
The Williamstown location opened April 2019. Since then, Silver Therapeutics has joined the rest of the cannabis industry in watching a vape cartridge panic and a global pandemic chance how the general public views the business: in good ways and uncertain ways. “It hasn’t been the smoothest year,” Silver says, “but I think we weathered it really well.”
Williamstown is home to Williams College, and the small town is located just up the road from MASS MoCA. Silver points to the 2019 Solid Sound Festival, hosted by MASS MoCA and headlined by Wilco, as a watershed weekend for the new retail business.
Earlier this year, though, the dispensary was shut down (like all adult-use Massachusetts cannabis businesses) in late March. Retail re-opened in late May, by which point Silver Therapeutics had suddenly pivoted to curbside pickup. It’s a work in progress, similar to most everything during the pandemic, but Silver says it’s simply the best way to continue to guarantee employee and customer safety.
During that time, as existing businesses adapted, the Massachusetts Cannabis Control Commission found an opportunity to work through even more license applications. The team at Silver Therapeutics worked to juggle both the on-site changes in Williamstown and the prospective opening of a new store in Orange—something that had been in the works for several years.
“Because we had the right team in place, we didn’t have a bandwidth problem,” Silver says.
In Orange, Silver Therapeutics is continuing its pre-order and curbside pickup plans first learned in Williamstown. (The shop will be open 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. daily.) At the new store, the cannabis retailer will work with local coffee roasting company Dean’s Beans to produce a Vanilla Affogato 100mg bar that includes white chocolate, caramel and espresso beans. Silver Therapeutics is also partnering with North Quabbin Citizen Advocacy, a nonprofit that builds relationships and support networks for local residents with mental disabilities.
Silver says it’s part of what his company has always set out to do: become a part of the local tapestry and work alongside the very community it’s eager to serve.
“There’s a lot of ‘dating’ that happens between us and the town before we get hitched,” Silver says. “We really feel like we can drive a lot of business into Orange. Nothing drives retail like cannabis—that’s a fact.”
