Village and Town of Ossining Poised to Allow Marijuana Dispensaries
By Rick Pezzullo and Samuel Rowland
The Village and Town of Ossining are poised to be on the short list of municipalities ready to allow marijuana dispensaries.
While officials in the village and town are leaning towards opting out of permitting on-site cannabis consumption licenses for lounges, they are not planning to take any official action on the dispensaries which means, by default, they will be opting-in to the retail component.
“We don’t necessarily want to be a guinea pig, but there may be benefits to being first,” Ossining Town Supervisor Dana Levenberg said Monday.
In late March, Governor Andrew Cuomo signed legislation legalizing adult-use cannabis. The bill established the Office of Cannabis Management to implement a comprehensive regulatory framework that covers medical, adult-use and cannabinoid hemp. The bill also expands New York State’s existing medical marijuana and cannabinoid hemp programs and provides licensing for marijuana producers, distributors, retailers, and others in the cannabis market.
Cities, towns, and villages may opt-out of allowing adult-use cannabis retail dispensaries or on-site consumption licenses by passing a local law by December 31. They cannot opt-out of adult-use legalization. Once a municipality opts in, it can’t turn back.
Tax collections from the adult-use cannabis program are projected to reach $350 million annually. In addition, Cuomo has said there is the potential for this new industry to create 30,000 to 60,000 new jobs across the state.
“It’s not something you can do overnight,” said Levenberg, noting it costs about $200,000 to apply for a license for a dispensary. “You have to be serious about it. We all know we have to be thoughtful about zoning (to restrict where dispensaries can be located).”
At its July 28 meeting, Ossining Village Mayor Rika Levin instructed Village Corporation Counsel Stuart Kahan to draft a proposal for a public hearing on a law only opting out of on-site cannabis consumption sites.
The Ossining Town Board will be taking a similar action this week, setting a public hearing for August 24 on opting out of lounges.
At the Village Board meeting, Trustee Omar Lopez argued at length for allowing on-site cannabis consumption licenses, citing the issue of people smoking on the street if people cannot smoke cannabis in parks and are getting complaints from their apartment.
“Anywhere that you can smoke tobacco, you can smoke cannabis,” Lopez said. “I’d like to be able to walk down the street without having someone smoking cannabis on the sidewalk.”
Lopez also claimed in a lengthy speech that Ossining needed to be “brave” and act as an example to other small municipalities, maintaining the discussion would go nowhere if every community decided to opt out and no one had a local example of what full implementation does for a community.
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