Almost Half of New York Towns Opt Out of Pot, for Now

Around half of New York cities and towns don’t want marijuana dispensaries or consumption lounges, a cautionary signal for companies hoping to do business in the Empire State.

New York is expected to start recreational marijuana sales in the next year or so, likely becoming the second-biggest market after California, with around $4.2 billion in projected sales. Yet when given a Dec. 31 deadline to opt out of participating, 47% of the state’s 1,521 municipalities opted out of having dispensaries and 54% opted out of having consumption sites, according to data compiled by the Rockefeller Institute of Government as of Jan. 7.

“At first blush it’s a large number,” said James Ansorge, a principal at lobbying firm Cozen O’Connor Public Strategies. “But many municipalities said, ‘We want more information before making a decision’ — that’s the No. 1 reason why so many places opted out.”

Sixty percent of Americans say marijuana should be legal for recreational and medical use, according to the Pew Research Center. The “not in my backyard” mentality of many New York towns seems in part due to the fact that the state hasn’t laid out exact parameters for how cities and towns can regulate things like advertising, signage and operating hours, Ansorge said. [Read more at Bloomberg]