CORONAVIRUS (COVID-19) RESOURCE CENTER Read More
Add To Favorites

EDITORIAL: Stop delay tactics on marijuana reform laws

The Daily Star - 9/21/2021

Sep. 21—Officials need to stop dragging their feet on the implementation of marijuana legalization.

We learned last week that state Sen. George Borrello, R-Jamestown, is leading an effort to extend by one year the deadline by which localities can decide to opt out of the marijuana program.

Under the law enacted in March, municipalities that opt out by Dec. 31 can later decide to allow pot shops. But if they take no action by year's end, they won't be able to ban the stores. County governments have no say over those local decisions. The key choices are in the hands of villages, towns and cities.

Borrello said local governments have had "zero information" from the state, and he's not wrong about that.

But this sounds more like an excuse from those who are not happy the government has legalized use of marijuana, and are trying to delay the inevitable.

Plattsburgh Mayor Christopher Rosenquest has it right. He told our Joe Mahoney last week there is no justification for slowing down the implementation of retail marijuana licenses.

"There has been so much discussion already on opting in or opting out that communities by now know the direction they want to go in," Rosenquest said.

He also took the reasonable position that a legal business is not something a responsible government should be trying to stifle.

"To say we don't want a retail location, I don't think that is the direction we are going to take," Rosenquest said.

Assemblyman Chris Tague, R-Schoharie, predictably agreed with Borrello's proposal of a delay.

"The state has done a poor job at getting this up and going," Tague said.

Delaware County Sheriff Craig DuMond has lobbied local governments to opt out of approving the shops. Last week, he said police do not yet have an approved testing device to determine the level of THC, the active ingredient in marijuana, in a motorist suspected of impaired driving.

That has nothing to do with retail pot shops. Recreational marijuana use is already legal in the state.

"The responsible thing to do now is to pump your brakes and do your due diligence," DuMond said.

The diligence has been exercised. The stigma against marijuana has lifted. Most now see it as no more harmful than alcohol, which has been used for centuries and legal in the U.S. since 1933. We know it does not belong in the same category as killer drugs such as opiates.

It's time for those who cling to old myths to catch up.

Supporters of allowing the production and retail sale of recreational marijuana in New York project the industry will result in up to $350 million per year in new revenue for state coffers.

Critics say legalization will fuel the underground black market in pot.

Predictions of a revenue windfall are probably overblown. The idea that a legal market for pot will somehow make the competing black market bigger is just silly. The fact is, the black market is now the only source within the state for a product it is legal to use. That needs to change.

State officials should get the licensing of pot shops sorted out. Lawmakers on the losing side of the issue should stop using gimmicks to delay the will of the majority.

Our localities should not shut their residents out of the ability to obtain a legal product locally and, in the process, shut themselves out of the revenue that will come from the sales.

___

(c)2021 The Daily Star (Oneonta, N.Y.)

Visit The Daily Star (Oneonta, N.Y.) at www.thedailystar.com

Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.