The passage of the Marijuana Regulation and Taxation Act (MRTA) in March 2021 brought New York State into line with the other “legal” marijuana (cannabis) states like Colorado, California, Massachusetts, and Maine, paving the way for cannabis dispensaries locally.

With the MRTA, New York’s legislature left it up to the state municipalities to choose whether or not to let cannabis retail businesses open in their jurisdictions. The retail outlets could either be dispensaries that sell adult-use cannabis or “on-site consumption” centers, think cafes or pubs, as well. In our four local “Mid-Hudson” counties, that opened up political discussion on an issue that is a vibrant thread in America’s “culture wars.”

So where are our towns and villages on this pressing topic now that the “opt out deadline has officially passed?

In Ulster County it appears that most towns and villages have chosen to opt in to one degree or another. Retail dispensaries will be allowed in the City of Kingston; the towns of Hurley, Kingston, Gardiner, Lloyd, Marbletown, Denning, New Paltz, Olive, Rochester, Rosendale, Woodstock, Shandaken, and Ulster; and the villages of Ellenville, New Paltz, and Saugerties. However, some of those towns opted in for dispensaries, but opted out for “consumption” locations, such as the towns of Ulster, Gardiner and Kingston.

Towns that opted out included Saugerties, Wawarsing, Shawangunk, Plattekill, and Esopus.

The pattern in Sullivan County was a little more mixed. Towns that opted in for dispensaries included Liberty, Fallsburg, Thompson, Bethel, Mamakating, and Delaware. In addition, the Village of Wurtsboro opted in. The Village of Monticello had not made a decision despite earlier indications that it would opt out, meaning, by default, it has now opted in.

Those that have opted out include Neversink, Callicoon, Cochecton, Highland, Lumberland, and the Village of Bloomingburg.

In Orange County an interesting pattern developed. Most of the central part of the county opted out, like the Town of Crawford, but a few large towns on the periphery opted in for dispensaries, including the City of Newburgh and Port Jervis, but not for consumption locations.

Across the River Hudson in Dutchess County, the pattern was similar to Orange. Most municipalities opted out, while the cities of Poughkeepsie and Beacon opted in. The town and village boards of Red Hook voted to opt out of consumption locations, but to opt in for dispensaries. The towns of Pine Plains, Fishkill, and Poughkeepsie also voted to opt in on dispensaries. Indeed, only the City of Beacon decided to opt in on consumption sites.

Across New York, the numbers show a substantial minority of municipalities voting to opt out, 630 from having any shops or Dispensaries, 716 from Consumption Sites. There are 1,517 municipalities in New York.

New York Joins In

New York wasn’t the only state to end cannabis prohibition in recent years. Indeed, from July 1, 2020 to June 30, 2021, nine additional states legalized new programs for medical and recreational marijuana — the largest number of states to legalize marijuana during any comparable year to date. On November 3, 2020, election day, voters in diverse states on the political spectrum — Montana, Arizona and New Jersey — all supported full legalization of cannabis. South Dakota legalized both medical and adult-use cannabis at the same time with a pair of ballot measures. Around 145 million Americans live in these states.

Since the Marihuana Tax Act of 1937, cannabis has been an illegal drug at the federal level and it remains so. Even before then, in some states there were heavy penalties enacted for possession of small amounts. Fear of Mexican immigrants boosted anti-marijuana efforts. However, from the beginning, other voices countered this argument. The 1944 La Guardia Report by the New York Academy of Medicine declared emphatically that use of cannabis did not lead to violence, sex crimes, insanity or other drug use. It was not the reputed “gateway drug” of lurid propaganda like the film Reefer Madness. Nevertheless, the prohibitionists pushed harsh laws. In the 1950s, the Boggs Act and the Narcotics Control Act set minimum (federal) sentences of two to 10 years for a first offense, with a fine of $20,000.

Then-President Richard Nixon’s bipartisan Shafer Commission, in 1972, recommended decriminalization. Nixon rejected that course and began the “War on Drugs” instead. Presidents of both parties continued this, with Ronald Reagan and George HW Bush in particular promoting the “war.”

But once California voters passed Proposition 215 in 1996, which allowed for the sale and possession of marijuana for patients with cancer and AIDS, the tide began to turn. Since 2000, it has moved in fits and starts toward full legal use for adults across the country. There were many observers who opined that New York State would be the very last state to legalize cannabis. Another opinion that was proved to be mistaken by the passage of the MRTA last year and former Governor Andrew Cuomo’s signature on it.

New York’s Approach

Since MRTA’s passage last spring, our towns and villages have taken diverse approaches to the issue presented. They were given until December 31, 2021, to declare whether they would “opt out” of allowing businesses to open for legal sale or consumption within their boundaries. If they did nothing, they would effectively opt in. One wrinkle that has led to some confusion is that those who opt in can never opt out. However, opting out is not necessarily permanent and the decision can be revisited. The reason for the permanent “opt in” format was so that municipalities couldn’t reverse course and potentially disrupt legal businesses already in place, with large scale investments in a situation where a simple political change, perhaps a single seat on a town board, could lead to a reversal and opting out.

Legalizing cannabis was a momentous decision, reversing more than 80 years of prohibition. Easing the way forward was the passage in 2014 of New York’s “Compassionate Care Act,” which legalized a very limited program of medical or “medicinal” cannabis. The state has 38 legal medicinal “dispensaries” at this point. There are seven in the Hudson Valley and two in our area — Curaleaf in Newburgh and Etain in the Town of Ulster.

To come up with the rules and regulations for this new legal product, beset as it is with prejudicial attitudes from a large minority of the population, the state set up the Cannabis Control Board (CCB) to work with the Office of Cannabis Management (OCM). The legislature also tasked the CCB with rules for the new, nascent hemp industry. Cannabis is hemp. There are literally a hundred or more varieties of hemp, which is defined as a cannabis plant with no more than 0.3 percent THC content. Anything above that is considered “cannabis.” However, hemp also produces CBD (cannabidiol) oil. The cannabis plant is endlessly inventive in terms of producing useful products, fibers, oils and chemicals. CBD is derived from both hemp and cannabis and is currently enjoying a boom in use. Many people find CBD helpful for sleep, and alleviating feelings of anxiety.

CBD does not induce the kind of “high” associated with THC Delta 9, which is produced by molecules of THC locking onto the cannabinoid receptors that exist throughout our bodies and brains where natural Endocannabinoids lock in to help with a variety of necessary mental and emotional processes.

If this isn’t complicated enough for you, contemplate the idea that there are those who posit a future where hemp (and bamboo) will replace plastics, concrete and metal, both steel and aluminum, in numerous products. We will have to see how that works out, but the CCB has to consider what rules will govern what may become a massive agricultural business in New York State.

And it should be noted that hemp is now legal to grow in all 50 states, though Idaho is still working out its rules.

Nationally the issue appears stuck, along with so many things in the U.S. Senate. Moving full legalization through a starkly divided senate may not be possible at this point and it is quite likely that the current situation will continue, where individual states will have fully legal cannabis while the federal government will continue to register cannabis as a scheduled drug with full prohibitions. That will hamper the legal cannabis companies, especially in dealing with banks.

However, non-bank facilities have increased in recent years, including the boom in Bitcoin-like digital currencies. The wear and tear of this mostly legalized, but not federally recognized situation on the law, the banking system, and politics will doubtless continue and do damage to all three aspects of life.