Marbletown has until the end of December to decide if cannabis shops and smoking lounges will be allowed in town next year.

“Right now, we’re looking for a yes or no answer,” said town board member Tim Hunt during a special meeting on November 18. “If we don’t opt out now, we can’t opt out ever.”

December 31 is the final date to make that decision and, aside from Hunt's presentation on the topic at a public board meeting around April, this was the first time a full meeting was dedicated to the decision. Supervisor Rich Parete, along with town board members Daisy Foote, Don LaFera and newly elected member Ken Davenport were all in attendance. They felt that a majority of towns would support, at least, allowing cannabis shops (also called dispensaries). The future of smoking lounges or bars is still up in the air.

In April, New York State joined 18 others in allowing recreational cannabis use for adults 21 years or older. Legally aged people can now carry up to three ounces of cannabis on their person at a time, or up to 24 grams of other marijuana-related items like CBD and THC oils, tinctures and lotions, to name a few. The days of dashing into the woods to light up are over, as folks can smoke the herb wherever tobacco smoking is permitted (excluding while driving).

If the town decides it wants either dispensaries or consumption lounges, they don’t have to do anything. In order to ban either, the town board would have to create a local law and provide a public hearing. It’s important to note that the two decisions are not a package deal, meaning the town could allow dispensaries but not lounges and vice versa. However, these are the only aspects of the cannabis legislation that the town has any say in.

Folks also must remember that time is of the essence. If the town does nothing, and the clock strikes midnight on December 31, there will be no going back. Both cannabis businesses will be allowed forever. After all, it would be unfair to make a business owner go through the costly and time-consuming process of obtaining a license, planning board hearings, and development only for their business to be banned a year or two later, Hunt explained. If the town chooses to opt out and not allow them, the decision can always be overturned if enough resident signatures are gathered for a petition to force the decision to a vote among residents. Interestingly enough, it doesn’t appear that the same action can be taken if the town decides to allow the aforementioned licenses, Hunt claimed.

“We don’t need it in Marbletown,” said resident Carol Wills Laurito. “Why don’t we opt out and see how this works in other towns?”

After all, New Paltz, Woodstock, and Kingston decided to allow both licenses, leaving people with plenty of options. These areas also have their own dedicated police departments, Laurito added, which would help those municipalities monitor the situation.

“People who drive home from work pass the liquor store and don’t go in if they don’t want to,” said Parete. “If we don’t allow [dispensaries] here, people are just going to go to other towns to get them.”

Additionally, the town could miss out on a boatload of tax revenue from cannabis sales. Three percent of the sales tax taken from each purchase goes directly back to the towns. At this time, it appears that there are no stipulations on how the money could be spent. One resident wanted to opt in so the money could be used to lower the tax levy of the town in the future (especially after this year’s nearly eight percent spike). However, another woman wanted to see that money spent on public resources like opioid and opiate (the synthetic version) addiction intervention programs, or to fund emergency services. While there’s no way to know how much money the town or state will get, Colorado has received over $1.6 billion in cannabis taxes and fees in the last six years, according to Forbes.

Other residents who straddled the fence on the issue were more worried about the impact stores would have on local youths. With numerous schools in the Rondout Valley Central School District, religious institutions and young SUNY Ulster students in the vicinity, folks worried if the presence of dispensaries and smoking bars would be a bad influence. Parete explained that dispensaries and smoking bars were not allowed to be within 500 feet of a school and within 200 feet of a house of worship. This means it would be very unlikely for the old Applestone Meat Co. building, on the historic Main Street of Stone Ridge, for example, to be turned into a dispensary.

Hunt, who has dedicated his career to substance abuse research, reminded folks that the same issue exists with alcohol and tobacco use in our country. Those two drugs have a much higher death toll than cannabis, he added, despite their legal status. Over 95,000 people die from excessive alcohol use and more than 480,000 die from cigarette smoking (including those who inhale secondhand smoke), according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control (CDC).

In 2016, four million people were diagnosed with “marijuana use disorder,” “when recurrent use of marijuana causes clinically significant impairment, including health problems, persistent or increasing use, and failure to meet major responsibilities at work, school, or home,” according to the CDÇ. However, in 2019, there were 14.5 million people in the U.S. diagnosed with “alcohol use disorder,” a life-threatening condition, according to the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism, and 34 million Americans smoke cancer-causing cigarettes, according to the CDC.

Hunt then explained that the town board members will have the right to make further regulations of its own, as long as they are reasonable. For example, they can choose which times dispensaries and smoking bars are allowed to open and close. With zoning laws, they can dictate the design, size, and signage for the buildings to avoid flashing, neon advertisements you might find in New York City. Overall, the town can choose what zoning districts these businesses can operate in, which will effectively limit the number of such businesses that can develop in Marbletown. It’s also going to be difficult for anyone to find enough room for parking and store space on Main Street in Stone Ridge to create a cannabis business, an area folks at the meeting were most concerned about.

“So much of the local business is tourist [oriented],” said one man. “I think this is a good way to bring more jobs and revenue into town. I think that most people’s objections are based on emotions.”

At this time it’s still unclear how the town will move forward or if the town will discuss it further at its two remaining town board meetings for 2021.