400 New York localities opt out of cannabis sales. Here’s where

Amid the expected revelry of bringing in the new year, New Yorkers will also have a clearer picture of where they might be able to buy and consume legal marijuana.

Dec. 31 marks the deadline of when cities, villages, and towns can opt-out of allowing licenses for either marijuana consumption lounges or retail dispensaries within their jurisdictions, according to New York’s cannabis law. Counties don’t have that option

And so far, about 400 municipalities have done so.

The localities were given the authority to adopt a law to withhold either or both of those licenses as part of the Marijuana Regulation and Taxation Act, the state law approved in March that legalized the sale of recreational marijuana.

The communities are not allowed to opt-out of marijuana as a whole, as investors can still obtain other types of licenses, such as those for cultivation or delivery. But it would certainly mean that those localities would lose out on some tax revenues associated with the new legal market.