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Cannabis Is Available In Rockland County With New Dispensaries Coming On Line In The Town Of Haverstraw And Several Rockland Villages
“Can someone smoke cannabis on the sidewalk outside your facility?”
That was one of several questions members of the Town of Haverstraw Planning Board asked the representative of Blaze 420, a licensed cannabis retailer that is hoping to set up shop in the former Commerce Bank building at 81 West Ramapo Road (Route 202) in Garnerville.
The answer is technically no — patrons would be prohibited from smoking on the future property of the cannabis retailer. But New Yorkers are free to smoke on public sidewalks.
Haverstraw is the only town in Rockland County that did not opt-out of retail cannabis shops and consumption lounges opening in its borders. The other four towns – Clarkstown, Ramapo, Orangetown and Stony Point – all opted out in the window of time New York regulators established back in 2022.
During a presentation at the Planning Board this month, representatives from Blaze 420 were questioned about their hours of operation (many days until 11:00pm), proximity to residential neighbors (screening would be installed), and whether their customers could consume cannabis at the shop (they can’t). Issues of enhanced security, use of the former bank’s drive-through lane, and how many employees would be onsite were also raised.
In addition to Haverstraw, some Rockland County villages chose not to opt out, effectively opting into retail dispensaries: Nyack, Piermont, Chestnut Ridge, Spring Valley and Airmont allow adult use cannabis retailers. Only Spring Valley allows consumption lounges. Villages control their own land use and zoning.
Only one legally licensed adult use cannabis retailer – Treehouse Cannabis on Route 59 in Nyack — is open and operating in Rockland. The Office of Cannabis Management provides a scannable QR code that enables the public to verify a retailer’s license online.
Towns cannot restrict medical cannabis providers, wholesale distributors, cultivators or processors from opening in their borders. Valley Agriceuticals has been open and providing medical marijuana since 2019.
Kluglino, an adult-use distributor, has a license pending to open its operations at 380 Route 210 in Stony Point. Hudson Health Extracts, 80 Main Street in Nyack has an application pending to provide medical sales.
What’s Coming To Rockland County
Several retailers have licenses pending and/or permission to open. To secure locations with the Office of Cannabis Management (OCM), they submitted the locations to OCM, which in turn gave them “proximity protection.” This prevents another operator from opening within 2,000 feet of a protected retail location in municipalities with a population less than 20,000. For municipalities with populations over 20,000, the distance shrinks to 1,000 feet.
Some protected licensees and possible future dispensary locations include:
- Blaze 420, 81 West Ramapo Road (Town of Haverstraw)
- 296 Retail Venture, 296 Route 59 (Village of Airmont)
- Joint Resolution, 575 Chestnut Ridge Road (Village of Chestnut Ridge)
- AJA Cannabis 1010, 2 South Central Avenue (Village of Spring Valley)
- Highland Gallery, 501 Route 9W (Village of Piermont)
- Excelsior Dispensary, 162 Main Street, (Village of Nyack)
Towns and Villages that opted out back in 2022 can opt back in by resolution. There is a financial benefit to the municipalities that opt in – they collect a 3 percent sales tax on retail cannabis sales. With the average dispensary expected to have gross revenue of $4-5 million, each dispensary brings in a potential $150,000 in taxes to the village or town.
Unlicensed Sellers Operate Outside The Law
Despite the State’s efforts to control the supply of adult-use cannabis, illegal operators have opened all over the state, selling untested, unregulated, and untaxed cannabis. Recently the Village of Piermont police working with the Office of Cannabis Management shuttered the Hazy Joint, an illegal seller operating from a storefront on Route 9W in Piermont.
In June, the Rockland County Sheriff’s Office and District Attorney raided several smoke shops selling illegal cannabis in Clarkstown, Orangetown and Suffern – municipalities that have all opted out of adult-use retail sales.
Other shops will likely be targeted and shuttered as the state, county and local law enforcement continue to expand the power to seize, shutter, and prosecute illegal sellers.
According to New York State OCM, cannabis sales will likely reach $1 billion this year, a financial win for the state and the municipalities that participate in allowing retail in their borders.
Grow Your Own
New Yorkers over 21 years old can grow up to three mature and three immature plants at any one time but no residence can have more than six mature and six immature plants. New Yorkers can have up to five pounds of trimmed cannabis at a private home, and individuals can carry and transport up to three ounces of cannabis within the state.
Cannabis can be grown in residences that are owned or rented, like a room, home, apartment, mobile home, co-op or other residential space. Landlords can only refuse to lease space to or penalize a tenant if they risk losing federal benefits, such as subsidies, voucher payments, or federal loans. Cannabis is still a Schedule I drug (think heroin, Ecstacy, and opium) under federal law, though efforts to reschedule it to Schedule III are underway.
Cannabis seeds and immature plants are only available from licensed nurseries or retailers.
