ALBANY, N.Y. (NEWS10) — A new report by Leafly shows that municipalities opting out of cannabis sales may create unintended consequences. In the Capital Region, almost 100 municipalities have opted out of on-site consumption, retail dispensaries, or both.
Leafly’s report, developed in partnership with Whitney Economics, reveals that there could be adverse consequences of opting out and explores why local regulation is the right way to handle cannabis. According to the report, municipalities opting out of cannabis sales effectively create an economic protection zone for illegal street sellers to continue business.
“This report demonstrates that legal, regulated cannabis stores put illicit marijuana dealers out of business,” said Bruce Barcott, the report’s lead author and Leafly’s Senior Editor. “Fears surrounding local cannabis stores may prompt elected officials to prohibit cannabis companies in their towns. But adults in every community already purchase and enjoy cannabis, legal or not. The cities and counties that skip out on cannabis are essentially voting to keep their local illegal marijuana markets in business.”
The report found that when municipalities opt out, they also indirectly encourage adult consumers to purchase illegal products, put public health at risk by allowing the circulation of untested products, allow illegal sales to local teens, and turn away local jobs and tax revenue.
“Access and taxes, those are the keys to customer migration to the legal market,” said co-author Beau Whitney, founder of Whitney Economics. “And right now we’re seeing illegal cannabis sales propped up by opt-out cities and counties.”
Methodology
For this report, the percentage of cannabis sales captured by the legal market was found by comparing each legal state’s annual cannabis sales with that state’s Total Market Estimation, the value of total cannabis sales in a calendar year. In this report, TME is based on a Whitney Economics model that presumes about one-third of the adult population has consumed cannabis at least once in the past year.
You can read the full report on the Leafly website.
Capital Region opt-out municipalities
According to New York’s Office of Cannabis Management (OCM), cities, towns, and villages had until the end of 2021 to opt out and are unable to opt out going forward if they did not decide. Any municipality that did not specifically opt out automatically opted in. Municipalities that opted out will still be able to reverse their decision or opt in later.
These are the municipalities in the Capital Region that opted out of on-site consumption sites, retail dispensaries, or both. If a city, town, or village is not on this list, they opted into both on-site consumption sites and retail dispensaries. OCM last updated this list on September 9.
Albany County
Columbia County
Fulton County
Greene County
Montgomery County
Rensselaer County
Saratoga County
Schenectady County
Schoharie County
Ulster County
Warren County
Washington County
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