OPT IN OR OPT OUT OF CANNABIS DISPENSARY PERMISSIONS

Hello fellow residents, All towns, city and villages in NY must decide to “opt out” of the New York State law allowing cannabis dispensaries in their city or town, by Dec. 31, if they are going to do it at all. The dispensaries are legal in New York State as of Jan. 1. Opting out” would give our village time to enact local laws concerning zoning, location of stores, types of buildings, or even requirements that a dispensary owner go to the planning board for approval. Not opting out would allow “wide open” establishment of cannabis dispensaries in the village as soon as January 1, 2022, in keeping with the new New York State law allowing marijuana to be sold. It’s not if we “opt out” it means there will be no dispensaries in our town forever,. It just means we will have time to study the situation further, enact laws controlling them, and their locations, just as we do with other businesses. Our local laws, the way they are now, don’t even address cannabis dispensaries since they weren’t even legal before…we just haven’t been given much information from the state on this, and we’re expected to just decide, and enact a law opting in” or “opting out” within the next month, and that’s not that easy. But if we “opt out” we have time to make a plan for them; if we “opt in” by doing nothing further, then the dispensary could open any place in our village, and it would be too late to do any kind of local regulation concerning building requirements, location, etc.” Voters interested in commenting on what action their village board should take should, either attend a public hearing or put the comments in writing to the village board before they vote. The public hearing will be in mid announced. I will post the date and it will be in the Daily Star.