Hundreds of towns in New York have decided to opt out of legal cannabis sales. Over 400 towns have decided not to allow dispensaries and cannabis lounges to open ahead of the Dec. 31st deadline to opt-out.

Melissa Moore, director of civil systems reform at the Drug Policy Alliance, told Cannabis News Box that 90 percent of towns have decided to allow cannabis sales. She said the towns that have decided to opt out are often doing so based on misinformation and wrong assumptions.

“My sense is that there has been more concern about on-site consumption locations and opting out of that category versus opting out of retail sites. On-site consumption and lounges are the newer policy provision and have not been done at scale in other legal states, so there are more question marks over that in some people’s minds,” Moore said. “However we knew that on-site consumption locations would be crucial in New York because we have the largest population in the country in public housing, where smoking is banned because of federal prohibition.”

Residents of these towns will still be able to consume cannabis if they’re 21 years of age or older, and they will also be protected from being fired over cannabis use. The smell of cannabis will also not be a valid excuse for a police stop and search in these towns. They simply won’t have dispensaries or consumption lounges available to them in their towns.

“The same goes for home cultivation, which will be permissible across the state once we hit that window of the bill. All of those aspects of the law apply across the state no matter whether a jurisdiction has opted out – and that’s really important from a racial and economic justice perspective because of the track record of targeted enforcement that was particularly extreme in New York,” Moore said.

The towns that decided to opt out will not receive tax money from cannabis sales, so that could become an issue if residents decide they want those funds. Towns that decide to opt out now will be able to opt in later on if it’s decided that they want to participate in the cannabis market.

Moore said towns across the country in legal states have decided to opt out of the cannabis market, and this decision is often not part of a democratic process. Opting out of cannabis sales can cause the illicit cannabis market in an area to remain active.

“In a state like California that has legalized and where people still decry the presence of the illicit market, a significant consideration around that is municipalities that have banned retail locations but yet where people still want to consume – so people will access their cannabis from the illicit market just as they did under prohibition,” Moore said. “If people are truly concerned with reducing the illicit market, then the track record shows so far that opt-outs have not been effective and rather can serve to further entrench it.”