RED HOOK, N.Y. – Town Board members have voted to opt out of allowing on-site consumption of cannabis but will move forward with rules that permit retail marijuana sales.
The votes were taken during a video conference meeting Wednesday, with the on-site consumption prohibition coming in a 3-0 vote that had board members Christine Kane, Jacob Testa and William O’Neill in favor while Supervisor Robert McKeon and Bill Hamel made the motion and second but did not formally vote.
A vote on opting out of the retail sales was defeated in a 4-1 vote that had Hamel opposed.
“I have no moral objection to cannabis,” he said. “I view it the same way I do alcohol. … I do have a legal objection, however. I want to remind the public that it is still a federal crime to possess, cultivate, use, or sell cannabis products.”
McKeon said he does not expect state legalization of cannabis to provide significant tax revenue from sales and suggested that adopt land-use regulations to determine where retail operations could be conducted.
“I would like us to jump on the zoning and get to work … because we need to (also) talk about the growing operations,” he said.
“I’m not convinced this is some sort of economic miracle that’s coming to our community,” McKeon said. “I’m not convinced to it’s not going to have some potentially negative impacts upon our residents. … So I want to be very careful about where we allow these retail stores and I will probably be advocating for a moratorium.”
Officials noted that there is a 45-day period for residents to submit a petition that requests a public referendum on overturning the vote to opt out of the on-site consumption provisions of state law.
In the village of Red Hook, officials have set a public hearing for 7 p.m. on Nov. 8 on a proposed board vote to opt out of the on-site consumption provisions but have not developed a draft resolution for the retail operations.
In the village Rhinebeck, residents will vote on Nov. 16 on whether to support a Board decision to opt out of the state marijuana law.
Town of Rhinebeck Board members on Sept. 1 voted 4-1 to opt out of the state law.
For more local stories on this topic, visit https://www.dailyfreeman.com/tag/marijuana/
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Town of Red Hook opts out of on-site marijuana consumption, but will allow sales - The Daily Freeman
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