As the adult-use cannabis industry slowly gets established in New York, one piece of the law allows local municipalities a choice to opt-out of retail dispensaries and social smoking lounges. The deadline for that legal opt-out is December 31, 2021. Municipalities do not have the ability to limit growing, production, processing, or wholesale of cannabis. Those towns and cities which do not institute a local ban on retail and lounges before December 31st may not decide to opt-out in the future. The municipalities who decide to pass a local law to ban dispensaries and lounges may recant in the future. They will have the ability to amend the local law to opt-in for either dispensaries, lounges, or both.
Officials in the Town of Alfred are putting this question to the citizens with the survey and link below. We will publish the results when they emerge.
