BROOKINGS — There’s a new medical cannabis provider in Brookings, and it’s a name people might recognize if they’ve been to Sioux Falls: Flower Shop Dispensary.

Located in the old Midway building at 1004 Sixth St., the dispensary works with around 50 in-state cannabis cultivators and carries over 200 different products, general manager James Buryanek told the Brookings Register in an interview.

“We’re just looking to provide the Brookings and surrounding area with the best available product in the state,” he said. “Also, the most wide variety of product to meet every single one of their medical needs because that is what is most important for us — our customers, and being able to give them all the different help and products that they need.”

Flower Shop Dispensary, which originated in Sioux Falls and opened its doors in Brookings earlier in July, carries items such as flowers, pre-rolls, edibles, vaporizers, concentrates, accessories and more. And it certainly has the space to do so, with the Brookings location filling 3,600 square feet — the biggest store in South Dakota, according to Buryanek.

“Products that are most popular with our patients would be the three big categories: It’s going to be your flower — you know, your marijuana/cannabis, which is smoking, whether it’s by pipe or by pre-roll,” he noted. “The other options are going to be your edibles and your vapes. Those are a lot of people’s favorites as well just because, being in a newer (medical marijuana) state, people do like to keep the discreetness and discretion because flower can be a little bit more stinky and smelly.”

Buryanek continued, “The vapes are very nice and discreet. They can still … help you with all of the different pain benefits and stuff that you might be dealing with.”

Regarding edibles, he said they work differently and are slower to affect their user. Why? Well, it all has do with your digestive tract: While vaping and smoking go straight into a person’s bloodstream via the lungs, edibles have to go through the digestive tract, which slows the impact they have on the consumer — it’s usually about 30 to 45 minutes later than when the effects of smoking or vaping would manifest.

“When it comes to edibles, they take a little bit more time … and they last a little bit longer,” Buryanek pointed out.

If he sounds like an expert, well, that’s because he has the experience to back it up. After all, Buryanek has more or less worked his way up to general manager over the course of several years after starting at the ground level as a bud tender. He’s something of a local, too, hailing from Westfield, Iowa — a small town near Sioux City, Iowa, where he lived on a farm with cows, pigs and, you guessed it, chores.

After graduating from high school, Buryanek went on to earn two college degrees — one in accounting from Western Iowa Tech Community College in Sioux City, and the second in sports management from Bellevue (Neb.) University. He worked in both fields for a several years, then moved to Florida for a time and, after the COVID-19 pandemic struck, returned to be closer to his home stomping grounds — and where he became involved in the medical cannabis field.

So what drove the Flower Shop Dispensary, which is owned by Peter Dikun of Dell Rapids, to expand into Brookings — and possibly, down the line, into Aberdeen and Mitchell — from its familiar haunts in Sioux Falls? One word: customers.

“We just want to be able to expand across the state of South Dakota — (including) Brookings … just so that we are able to provide all our great variety of products (and) our great customer service and all of our knowledge that we have about the products to our patients to be able to help them out as best we can,” Buryanek said.

He said that, besides pain management, medical cannabis can help people with issues such as post-traumatic stress disorder and anxiety.

“We’re always looking to put our patients first and do what is best by them,” Buryanek said.

All that said, though, would-be customers should know that they cannot simply waltz into the Flower Shop Dispensary and buy what they need. Buryanek said they’ll need a state-issued medical cannabis card, which costs $75, in addition to the cost of a recommendation from a doctor, which typically requires an office visit.

Once a customer has that in their possession, it’s easy-peasy to contact the dispensary via phone at 605-692-4401, online at flowershopdispensary.com or, well, walk right into store in Brookings. It’s open seven days a week from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m.

“We’re just super-excited to be here in Brookings,” Buryanek said. “Everyone that I have talked to here in Brookings … has been super welcoming. Honestly, just amazing people to deal with. I really, really love the town so far.”

— Contact Mondell Keck at mkeck@brookingsregister.com.