The owner of Brookhaven Town’s first legal cannabis dispensary is refusing to close after being told the shop violates the rules of the East Setauket corporate park where it is located.

Dr. Surinder Sandhu said Monday his recreational marijuana shop, Strong Strains, has “no reason to be closed,” despite a cease-and-desist letter he received last week from a lawyer representing the property manager for the Stony Brook Technology Park.

The two-page letter from Patchogue lawyer Brian Egan said Strong Strains violates the park’s rules, which bar “activities which violate federal laws.” Recreational marijuana sales are prohibited under federal law but allowed with a license under New York state law.

Egan represents the Stony Brook Technology Association and Ronkonkoma-based Tritec Real Estate, which jointly manage the corporate park. The park includes 28 buildings housing dozens of research, medical and technology companies on a sprawling 103-acre campus off State Route 347 near the Stony Brook University campus.

Sandhu, a retired physician, said he had no plans to shutter the business. The dispensary received a state operating license earlier this month after obtaining Brookhaven Town permits, state and town officials have said.

“We went through all the proper channels,” Sandhu said, adding the letter was “a total surprise to me.”

“We have done nothing illegal or anything like that,” Sandhu said.

The letter was sent on June 9, the day Strong Strains opened.  

It is Brookhaven’s only legal recreational pot shop, joining seven other legal recreational marijuana stores in the towns of Babylon, Riverhead and Southampton.

Brookhaven restricts pot shops to industrial areas such as corporate parks. Some applicants have complained that the maze of zoning rules on Long Island makes it difficult to open stores.

Rob Kent, a lawyer for Tritec, said the company learned about Strong Strains only as it was set to open last week. Tritec manages the corporate park and arranges for services such as road management, lawn care and drainage, he said. 

“I don’t know if he [Sandhu] properly notified everybody of what he was planning to do,” Kent said Friday in a phone interview. “I think he skipped a step, and he if he wants to correct it, he has a course of action.”

Sandhu said he notified the property managers about the business as he sought a zoning variance from the Brookhaven Town Board of Zoning Appeals.

“They can say whatever they want, but they had the time and they didn’t say anything,” he said.

Federal laws prohibiting marijuana sales supersede state laws such as New York’s that allow them, said Paul P. Josephson, a partner at Marlton, New Jersey, law firm Duane Morris LLP, which specializes in cannabis law.

But Congress in recent years has declined to fund federal enforcement, allowing state-licensed stores to operate, he added.

“Generally, landlords retain the right to prohibit cannabis businesses specifically, or indirectly as a violation of federal law, in their leases,” Josephson said in an email. “But other factors like the specific terms of the lease and the parties’ conduct — for example, if the property manager knew of the tenant’s applications but took no action to object — may dictate another result.”

Hugo Rivas, spokesman for the Long Island Cannabis Coalition, a trade group, said other Long Island pot shops have not faced similar conflicts between state and federal law.

“It has not been an issue for anyone else yet that we know of,” he said in a text message, adding the trade organization believes “everyone should be in compliance with state law and regulations.”

Carl MacGowan is a Long Island native who covers Brookhaven Town after having previously covered Smithtown, Suffolk County courts and numerous spot news and feature stories over his 20-plus year career at Newsday.