Several Five Towns villages say no to cannabis businesses

All seven villages in the Five Towns area are among the roughly 400 New York municipalities that opted out of allowing licenses for either marijuana consumption lounges or retail dispensaries within their jurisdictions by the mandated state deadline of Dec. 31.

Towns and villages were permitted to opt out, but counties did not have that choice.
Atlantic Beach was at the forefront, with Mayor George Pappas telling the Herald last April that the village of more than 1,300 was planning to opt out.

“We are not swayed by the potential impact addition to the municipality’s coffers,” Pappas said, adding that village officials do not want marijuana available to children as the smoking of e-cigarettes, especially popular among young people, remains a concern.

Nearly five years ago, Atlantic Beach passed a no-smoking ordinance that covers the village’s eight beaches and its private beach clubs. In the time the local law has been in effect, Pappas said, there have been no problems with enforcement, and people have been respectful of the law, heading to a parking lot to smoke.

The Village of Lawrence has also opted out, and in addition, the five-member board of trustees unanimously approved the prohibition of smoking in designated public places around the village last July.

Those who are found smoking in those areas, including vaping and newly legalized marijuana smoking, can be ticketed and fined up to $250. The local law exempts private property and private commercial establishments.

“I think it has many benefits to opt out,” Lawrence Mayor Alex Edelman said. “We have to be careful, as cannabis is something of a gateway to other drugs, and that’s something we don’t want to be a part of. There is no reason to allow those shops, and it’s something we’re not very interested in having in our community.” Edelman added that there is no opposition to the medical use of marijuana.

The Village of Cedarhurst opted out in May, Mayor Benjamin Weinstock said, initially through a permissive referendum that the public could challenge, and then re-adopting the resolution in December, after some legal wrangling over the ordinance’s language.

The village also received input from a number of social workers and the Saving Lives Five Towns Drug and Alcohol Coalition, which operates under the auspices of the Marion & Aaron Gural JCC.

“It is out of character as the type of community we see ourselves as,” Weinstock said of allowing commercial cannabis shops, noting the difference between businesses selling marijuana and the existing Hemp Supply Plus – CBD Dispensary, on Spruce Street in Cedarhurst, which sells products without tetrahydrocannabinol, or THC, the chemical responsible for most of marijuana’s psychological effects. CBD or cannabidiol, and THC are both compounds found in marijuana, but CBD does not produce a high.

At a Dec. 20 village meeting, Hewlett Neck opted out of licensing or establishing retail cannabis dispensaries and onsite cannabis consumption establishments in the village. The vote took place with no on-camera discussion. Hewlett Bay Park has also opted out, as have Hewlett Harbor and Woodsburgh.

“The village has no retail space,” Hewlett Harbor Village Clerk Michael Ryder said.
“We just felt it wasn’t in the best interest of the village,” said Woodsburgh Mayor Lee Israel.

Barry Wilansky, the Town of Hempstead’s director of substance abuse and mental health services, said that, once again, the marketing of a mind-altering substance, this time recreational cannabis, could be hazardous, as it ignores history and science as a guide. The town has opted out as well.

“It’s never about the drug — it’s about messaging,” said Wilansky, who spent 43 years as the head of Tempo Group, which specializes in drug and alcohol addiction programs for individuals and families.

Wilansky compared the marketing of marijuana to the way alcohol and tobacco have been sold to the public, leaving out their mind-altering potential. “If you make decisions on drugs and alcohol when the brain is formed — early 20s — you are highly unlikely to develop a problem,” he said, “but if you make that decision at 14, 15, 16, culture teaches us that you are at great risk.”

Susan Blauner, director of the Saving Lives Five Towns Drug and Alcohol Coalition, said that one of the biggest problems with cannabis stores is the selling of edibles that are packaged to look like candy or cookies, which makes access easier for young people. Blauner also said that there are higher levels of THC in today’s marijuana.

Not everyone who smokes marijuana, she said, has a predisposition to become addicted to other drugs, but she noted that many young people who use other drugs, such as cocaine or heroin, first smoked pot.

As someone who focuses on youth, Blauner said that young people are more prone to becoming addicted to alcohol or drugs, because their brains are still developing up to age 26.

“I’m really, really proud of the government officials of the entire community who have opted out to protect our kids,” she said. “We’re here to protect the kids.”

Have an opinion on cannabis shops? Send a letter to jbessen@liherald.com.