By Dan Murphy
This past weekend, I traveled with my family to Times Square. It was the first real visit to midtown Manhattan for us in some time. As I waited outside the Disney store in Times Square for my daughter and her friend to come out, I was approached several times by young men selling marijuana.
And all types of marijuana. They had a plastic bag full of pre-rolled joints, but also had edibles, gummies and liquid form. Also on my street corner were alot of people smoking marijuana, which is now legal to smoke, but still illegal for anyone to sell, except in a few licensed marijuana stores (dispensaries).
Even though I support the concept of legalization, I also agree with former NYC Mayor Michael Bloomberg, in his recent Op-Ed, Lax Enforcement of New York’s Marijuana Law Endangers Kids, that the rollout of legal pot in New York State has been a failure.
“About a decade after states began legalizing recreational marijuana use, there’s little doubt who the biggest winners have been: criminals. And it’s equally apparent who the biggest losers have been: kids. New York state’s disastrous experiment with legalization is making both of those facts painfully — and dangerously — obvious.”
In his Op-Ed for the Washington Post, Bloomberg estimates that there are over 1,500 illegal pot stores in New York City, who sell about $2 Billion in illegal pot per year. Many of these illegal pot stores, “openly advertising their wares on brick-and-mortar storefronts,” said Bloomberg, adding “It’s as easy to buy an ounce of pot as it is a slice of pizza.”
The people selling pot in Times Square know that they can possess up to 3 ounces legally. Bloomberg also cites the dangers to kids, and the unknown harms that some of these untested products have in addition to marijuana, the worst of all Fentanyl.
Bloomberg is also correct in calling for law enforcement to crack down on illegal stores. He writes, “In New York, the legislature rushed legalization into law without having any system in place for licensing or enforcement. The state took so long to get a licensing operation up and running that entrepreneurs had nearly two years to establish illicit operations — and they took full advantage.
Calling the notion of collecting Billions in sales tax revenue for legal pot sales, “a fairy tale,” the former three term Mayor of NYC calls for the Governor and State legislators to “take responsibility for this mess and fix it,” and warns the rest of the country about what has happened here.
While we are sure that there are certainly many illegal marijuana stores in Westchester, they are not openly advertising it. You have to know where the stores are to make a buy. I have heard of a few pot stores in Yonkers, and the Yonkers Police have shut down three stores caught selling marijuana and THC products illegally. Other busts have been made in Greenburgh and Mamaroneck.
If you find a store selling pot or THC products in Westchester it is illegal. That is because there has been no licence given to any dispensary to sell in Westchester.
According to the New York Marijuana Regulation and Taxation Act (MRTA), it is legal to grow and deliver marijuana in Westchester and in all of New York State.
Before any marijuana sales licenses have been given to a Westchester store, many local communities have banned its practice. This was the legal mechanism given to towns, villages and cities, who did not want marijuana sold on their main street, even if it was legal.
According to the Rockefeller tracker, 23 Westchester local governments have opted out. They are:
Ardsley, Bronxville, Eastchester, Elmsford, Irvington, Larchmont, Lewisboro, Mamaroneck Town, Mamaroneck Village, Mount Kisco, Mount Pleasant, New Castle, North Castle, North Salem, Pelham Manor, Pleasantville, Port Chester, Rye City, Rye Brook, Somers, Tuckahoe, Yorktown and Harrison, with a split vote in Greenburgh.
In the Town of Greenburgh, some of the villages have opted in, while others have opted out. Tarrytown and Hastings have opted In, while Ardsley, Elmsford, Dobbs Ferry and Irvington have opted out.
And according to the tracker, the Westchester cities of Mount Vernon, New Rochelle, White Plains, Yonkers and the Town of Pound Ridge and the Village of Sleepy Hollow will permit both cafes and dispensiaries.
