With adult-use cannabis now legal in New York state, some local leaders are discussing how they will handle the option for its retail selling.

Lakewood Mayor Randy Holcomb attended a recent Busti Town Board meeting regarding recreational marijuana. “That was an informational meeting on what cities, towns and villages need to do to opt out of the cannabis retail within their jurisdiction,” Holcomb said. “It was information on how we do that. We received the legalities on how we would go about doing that.”

He said neither Lakewood or Busti have announced how they will handle the opt-out option, but discussions will be had throughout the summer and fall.

“We need to do it by the end of the year, and we certainly will be having discussions on it,” Holcomb said. “I cannot answer for the board about how they feel, but that will be taking place in the summer and fall months.”

Busti Town Supervisor Jesse Robbins was also unsure how Busti will act on the opt-out options.

“We are working on that,” he said. “We just started the last board meeting. There’s a lot of things to look at there. You have to remember, we spent a lot of time chasing the culprits, and now all of a sudden it’s going to be legal. … We’re just at the beginning stages. It’s a decision with a lasting impact and we want to make sure we do it the right way.”

New Yorkers aged 21 or older are legally able to own and possess marijuana in accordance with the Marijuana Regulation & Taxation Act. It is projected that taxes collected from the adult-use cannabis program have the potential to reach $350 million annually and create 30,000 to 60,000 jobs within the state.

Although municipalities cannot opt-out of adult-use of recreational marijuana, officials do have the option to opt-out of adult-use cannabis retail dispensaries or on-site consumption licenses from operating within their jurisdiction.

In order to opt-out, municipalities must pass a local law by Dec. 31, 2021, or nine months after the date of the legislation.

If a local law regarding the prohibition of adult-use cannabis licenses has already been passed, a new one must be passed conforming to the requirements in the MRTA.

If a municipality fails to opt-out by Dec. 21, 2021, they will be unable to do so at a later date. A municipality that opted-out will have the ability to opt-in to allow either adult-use retail sale or on-site consumption licenses, or both, by repealing the local law that prohibited it.

Local laws passed by municipalities to opt-out of on-site consumption and retail sale licenses are subject to a permissive referendum, outlined in section 24 of the Municipal Home Rule Law.

All municipalities, including counties, are preempted from adopting any law, rule, ordinance, regulation or prohibition regarding the operation or licensing of adult-use, medical or cannabanoid hemp licenses.

Municipalities are, however, able to pass local laws determining the time, place and manner of retail dispensaries and on-site consumption licenses if they do not make the operation of licenses unreasonably difficult.

A local tax excise of four percent of the products price will be imposed on the retail sale of cannabis products. Twenty-five percent of the tax revenue goes to the county in which the retail dispensary is located, and 75% goes to the cities, towns, or villages .

If a town and a village within that town allow the retail sale of cannabis, the tax revenue is to be distributed based on an agreement between the town and village.