Pine Plains opts out: Marijuana can’t be sold or smoked publicly, for now

PINE PLAINS — Like the neighboring town of North East did at its board meeting on Aug. 12, the Pine Plains Town Board decided to refrain from permitting marijuana dispensaries and/or lounges to operate anywhere within its 31.2-square mile town when it met to discuss the Marijuana Regulation and Taxation Act (MRTA) on Thursday, Aug. 19. The board had met days earlier on Monday, Aug. 16, to discuss the MRTA in greater detail but had failed to come to a decision.

The MRTA was adopted by the State of New York in March, when it legalized adult-use recreational marijuana. The State of New York approved medical marijuana in 2014. 

Governor Andrew Cuomo, who will have turned over his office to incoming governor, Kathy Hochul, on Aug. 24, gave municipalities a Dec. 31 deadline to opt out of allowing commercial sales of cannabis as well as lounges where the drug can be openly smoked.

The rationale

Pine Plains town Supervisor Darrah Cloud explained it was the way Cuomo designed the new law, coupled with advice from the town attorney, which nudged her Town Board to opt out at this time.

“As regards the laws, if we do nothing, we automatically opt-in to allowing both dispensaries and lounges, but we cannot opt-out ever again,” explained Cloud to local residents in her Dear Pine Plains community newsletter email last week. “If we opt-out, we can still opt-in at a later date. It’s complex. So in order to maintain control over the situation, on the advice of our town attorney, last night we voted to ‘opt-out’ of both of these laws, so that we can ‘opt-in’ by either deciding to do nothing, or later, after the December deadline, when we will have more information about the State Law. That will give us guidance over what we need to re-zone or put it into an ordinance to make this work in Pine Plains.”

It is complicated, as Cloud’s counterparts in North East and Millerton agreed a week earlier. Millerton Mayor Jenn Najdek explained in an interview how some of the financials would work if a municipality were to approve a dispensary or a lounge within its borders. 

“How it works is basically 11% goes to the state, 1% goes to the county and then the other 3% goes to the municipality the dispensary is in,” she said, adding it would vary depending, in Millerton’s case, if it were to share the profits with the town of North East, if it also were to opt in. 

For Pine Plains, which does not have a village within its town lines like North East does with Millerton, but rather has hamlets within its town borders like the town of Amenia does with the hamlets of Wassaic, Amenia Union, Smithfield, etc., it would not have to share any revenue. 

Towns with hamlets, meanwhile, do not have to split profits with those hamlets as hamlets do not have their own governments and are not separate taxing entities.

A case study

Cloud noted that she researched the issue before meeting with the Town Board on Monday night. She even reached out to the mayor of Gunnison, Colo., Jim Gelwicks “on the impact of dispensaries and lounges in his small rural town in the mountains.” She wanted to see what lessons could be applied to Pine Plains. Cloud said she came away from that discussion learning two important points. 

“One, the state does have a lot to regulate already,” she said. “Also, the licenses for these things are extremely expensive, and there are only 700 and change that are going to be available in New York. That is quite different than in Colorado, which does not restrict licenses. That was an important thing for me to learn.”

Cloud said Pine Plains can also create zoning so cannabis is not allowed in its downtown area.

A cap on dispensaries,

sales dollars put to good use

“So we can do a lot,” she said. “That was a good thing to know. There can only be 700 stores in the whole state of New York, so that greatly reduces the overrunning of these stores.”

While she wasn’t sure how those 700 dispensaries will be approved, the supervisor did not believe it will be on a “first-come, first-served” basis. 

“I think it might be how many are allowed in an area,” she said, “and they’re going to be very judicious about it. That was important to understand.”

Another useful tip she learned from Mayor Gelwicks was how he uses the tax revenue his town earns from marijuana sales; it planted a seed in her mind for possible future ideas in Pine Plains, she said.

“One of the main things he mentioned was that they used their sales tax money to create their first-ever mental health services for the town,” said an enthusiastic Cloud, noting Gunnison is about 90 minutes from civilization and in desperate need of health services. “This is aimed at mitigating the impact of marijuana sales in the town. His observation has been that those with issues would find the drug no matter who sells it, and if it were illegal, there would be no way to control the quality.”

Community feedback

Cloud, who had appealed to the community for input before the board voted on the whether to opt in or out, said she received about 40 emails from residents, and spoke with many more on the streets, taking numerous “straw polls.” 

The overall sentiment among those living and working in town, she said, was “hugely in favor of having a dispensary while the lounge is of great concern.”

Another frequent comment, she said, “People want medical marijuana to be more accessible to them because they need it. That’s a good key point, because right now to get it, they have to drive Kingston or Wappingers or Albany.”

As far as whether someone can openly smoke pot on the streets of Pine Plains, Cloud said definitely not.

Stay tuned

Wanting to stress that the board’s decision to opt out of allowing commercial sales and marijuana lounges at this time gives the town “power over the situation because we can always opt in,” Cloud encouraged the community to stay abreast of the issue and to tune in for a public hearing in September, when the town will seek more formal input on the MRTA. 

Residents may attend the September public hearing in person or submit written comments to be entered into the record for the meeting to the Pine Plains Town Hall, 3284 Route 199, P.O. Box 955, Pine Plains, NY 12567 or email them to supervisor@pineplains-ny.gov.