{"id":3247,"date":"2021-12-23T22:57:00","date_gmt":"2021-12-23T22:57:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/CAIiEHbqg4YOmP4yPpAT-pEwCqAqGQgEKhAIACoHCAowkduFCzDUj4MDMIeRiAY"},"modified":"2021-12-23T22:57:00","modified_gmt":"2021-12-23T22:57:00","slug":"with-decision-deadline-looming-roughly-one-third-new-york-state-communities-have-opted-out-of-marijuana-dispensaries-cbs-new-york","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thcinct.com\/?p=3247","title":{"rendered":"With Decision Deadline Looming, Roughly One-Third New York State Communities Have Opted Out Of Marijuana Dispensaries – CBS New York"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/div>\n

LONG BEACH, N.Y. (CBSNewYork)<\/strong> \u2014 A deadline is looming across New York state.<\/p>\n

Municipalities have until Dec. 31 to decide if they will allow legalized adult-use recreational marijuana<\/a> dispensaries and on-site consumption lounges.<\/p>\n

READ MORE: <\/strong>Connecticut Becomes 19th State To Legalize Recreational Marijuana<\/a><\/p>\n

But as CBS2\u2019s Carolyn Gusoff reported Thursday, hundreds of villages, towns, and cities are opting out.<\/p>\n

Yet another Long Island town, Hempstead<\/a>, recently announced it will opt out of dispensaries, as the year-end deadline nears.<\/p>\n

As is Long Beach<\/a>, citing a lack of guidance from the state.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe state doesn\u2019t really know what they are doing, either. We all need to take a step back in order to move forward the right way,\u201d Long Beach councilwoman Elizabeth Treston said.<\/p>\n

A wait-and-see approach is being applauded by substance abuse groups.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe already have outrageous underage drinking rates and we didn\u2019t want Long Beach, at least at this point, to be the underage mecca for marijuana as well,\u201d said Judy Vining, executive director of the group Long Beach Aware.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf they want to get it, let them go to another town,\u201d one resident said.<\/p>\n

\u201cI have no personal problem with it. I\u2019d like to see it,\u201d another added.<\/p>\n

READ MORE: <\/strong>Amazon To Stop Testing Job Applicants For Marijuana, Says It Supports Federal Legalization<\/a><\/p>\n

It\u2019s a divisive issue, with more than one-third of New York municipalities opting out, including Long Island villages and towns Glen Cove, North Hempstead, Oyster Bay, Huntington, Islip, Shelter Island, East Hampton and Smithtown.<\/p>\n

Failure to opt out by year\u2019s end means communities are irreversibly opted in.<\/p>\n

Ones that have opted in include Babylon, Brookhaven, Riverhead and Southampton, whose supervisor, Jay Schneiderman, said it makes no sense to miss out on the 3% tax revenue neighboring communities will benefit from.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere are so many things that we can us the money for to improve our community. So to walk away from that just seemed like an irresponsible fiscal position, when you know it wasn\u2019t going to decrease the use in any way,\u201d Schneiderman said.<\/p>\n

Opting out is missing out on what advocates says is a highly regulated industry that is safer than alcohol and has union jobs.<\/p>\n

\u201cCannabis legalization is going to bring thousands of jobs and millions upon millions of dollars to the community. These are not the head shops of the 1960s,\u201d said John Durso, the president of the Long Island Federation of Labor.<\/p>\n

Riverhead\u2019s supervisor, Yvette Aguiar, criticized her town\u2019s passage.<\/p>\n

\u201cNo town in Suffolk County is prepared to address the location, the use and the enforcement of driving under the influence of a narcotic substance,\u201d Aguiar said.<\/p>\n

A municipality can reverse its opt-out decision with the a public referendum or simply a revote, if there is a change of heart about the safety of dispensaries and the lost revenue.<\/p>\n

MORE NEWS: <\/strong>‘Not In My Backyard’; New Jersey Communities Banning Marijuana Businesses, Pot Farms After Voters Overwhelmingly Supported Legalization<\/a><\/p>\n

To see which communities in New York state have opted in or out, please click here<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

LONG BEACH, N.Y. (CBSNewYork) \u2014 A deadline is looming across New York state. Municipalities have until Dec. 31 to decide if they will allow legalized adult-use recreational marijuana dispensaries and on-site consumption lounges. READ MORE: Connecticut Becomes 19th State To Legalize Recreational Marijuana But as CBS2\u2019s Carolyn Gusoff reported Thursday, hundreds of villages, towns, and cities are opting out. Yet another Long Island town, Hempstead, recently announced it will opt out of dispensaries, as the year-end deadline nears. As is Long Beach, citing a lack of guidance from the state. \u201cThe state doesn\u2019t really know what they are doing, either…. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":3248,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3247","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-featured"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/thcinct.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/12\/with-decision-deadline-looming-roughly-one-third-new-york-state-communities-have-opted-out-of-marijuana-dispensaries-cbs-new-york.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thcinct.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3247","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thcinct.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thcinct.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thcinct.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thcinct.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3247"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/thcinct.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3247\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thcinct.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/3248"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thcinct.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3247"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thcinct.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3247"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thcinct.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3247"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}