RHINEBECK, N.Y. – Residents will vote on Nov. 16 on whether to support a Village Board decision to opt out of a state law that would allow retail sales of cannabis and the opening of smoking lounges.
The vote will be from noon to 9 p.m. in Village Hall at 76 East Market St. Absentee ballots sent by mail must be returned by Nov. 9 or received by the village clerk by Nov. 15 if delivered in person.
Mayor Gary Bassett said the decision to conduct a vote comes after a unanimous Oct. 12 board vote to opt out.
“Every board member had a differing opinion for … opting out,” he said. “Some people are against, some people want to wait and hear more information, and some people just want to make sure that residents get a say in this.”
Bassett noted that under the recently adopted state law, the Village Board did not have to receive a petition for a permissive referendum.
Under New York’s marijuana legalization law, persons age 21 and older can now possess up to 3 ounces of cannabis or 24 grams of cannabis concentrates in the state, and they can smoke marijuana wherever it is permissible to smoke tobacco. Regulations for the sale of marijuana in New York still are being worked out.
Municipalities in New York have until the end of the year to opt out of allowing marijuana shops within their borders.
Village officials conducted a survey in September that had 64 percent of 763 responses support retail sales while 53 percent were opposed to smoking lounges.
However, Bassett said there wasn’t clear evidence that the survey responses came from village residents.
“One of the issues .. .was it was not authenticated to village residents or allowing only one vote,” he said.
Town Board members on Sept. 1 voted 4-1 to opt out of the state law, which would not have let the board call for its own permissive referendum. A public vote could only have been scheduled if a petition had been filed within 45 days.
For more local stories on this topic, visit https://www.dailyfreeman.com/tag/marijuana/
