marijuana

Matthew Starowitz arrived at Empire Hemp early this afternoon, well before the 1 p.m. opening time for legal cannabis sales, with the goal of being the first customer to make a legal weed purchase in Batavia.

Goal accomplished.

"That's the way I was raised," Starowitz said. "You support local people, and so you're there; you're the first one."

It's been a struggle to bring legal cannabis sales to Batavia as state regulators figure out the ins and outs of licensing and legal distribution. Empire Hemp has had products ready to sell for some time.  With the "pop-up" store, called the Cannabis Growers Showcase, opening on Tuesday, they've been allowed to open to cannabis buyers on a limited basis.

The adult-use dispensary for licensed cultivators of high-quality cannabis products will run from 1 to 7 p.m. every Tuesday through Saturday through Dec. 30. 

It provides local shoppers with the opportunity to purchase certified cannabis products, but the showcase opens the door for Empire Hemp to sell its THC products as well. Typically, the state doesn’t allow one company to be a grower, a processor and a retailer, VanDusen said, and this will allow his company to sell Empire Hemp products through Dank as the retailer set up within Empire Hemp shop. 

Starowitz said he was happy the long process of marijuana legalization has gotten to the point that there is now a locally owned and operated retail location in Batavia.

"I've smoked it since I was like 12 years old," Starowitz said. "I'm 35 years old now. I have always loved it. It's just always been that way. So now that it's legal 100 percent, I'm going to support it locally."

He purchased several different products as a kind of sampler.

"I feel like I just want to sample everything that they have here, at least as far as sativa and sativa hybrids, because then I'll figure out what I like, you know," Starowitz said. "I think that this is better than the stuff I'll ever get from the Res because a lot of their stuff is unregulated. It's not lab-tested. At least this here is legit and lab-tested."

Why sativa?
"Because with indica, I feel like I get too lazy, and I really don't want to do too much," Starowitz said. "Whereas with sativa, I'm always active and going around and doing things. "I'm a vegetable farmer, so sativa is for me as the way to go. This way, I don't get lazy."

Previously: Making history: first-time legal cannabis sales begin Tuesday at Empire Hemp in Batavia

Press Release:

State Senator George Borrello has introduced legislation that would prohibit the smoking and consumption of marijuana in public places unless specifically authorized by the locality.

“Since the enactment of the Marijuana Regulation and Taxation Act (MRTA) in 2021, I’ve received many complaints from concerned constituents about the increase in public pot consumption,” said Sen. Borrello. “State residents, including children, are now regularly assailed with the pungent odor of marijuana on public sidewalks, in parking lots and other public spaces. Many New Yorkers don’t want to be exposed to either the effects of marijuana smoke or its smell and don’t want their children subjected to it.” 

Under Senate Bill 7604, public marijuana use would be prohibited, although cities and towns would be able to enact ordinances regarding whether and where marijuana could be publicly consumed. This is a significant departure from current state law which authorizes public marijuana use anywhere tobacco smoking is permitted. The measure would also establish a $125 fine for violations of the law. Current violations of the public consumption provisions of the law are subject to a $25 fine. 

Sen. Borrello noted that equating tobacco smoking with marijuana use is a false comparison.

“There is a world of difference between tobacco consumption and marijuana use, which is why it is inappropriate to apply the same public usage rules. Marijuana has THC, a potent psychoactive drug that causes a ‘high’ and can result in cognitive and motor impairment, similar to alcohol. Individuals in this condition, on sidewalks or other public places, represent a potential hazard to themselves or others. That is why the same public consumption restrictions that apply to alcohol should apply to marijuana,” said Sen. Borrello. 

“It is important to emphasize that nearly all of the states that have legalized recreational marijuana have limited its usage to private property – one’s home or another private residence or a licensed, designated consumption establishment. That is the more responsible policy,” said Sen. Borrello. “However, in recent years, when given a choice between ‘responsible’ or ‘reckless’, New York leaders have typically chosen the latter, as they did with the recreational marijuana law.”

“There is no question that the exponential growth in public marijuana consumption since the passage of the MRTA has resulted in a significant quality of life problem in cities and communities across the state. It is our duty to address this issue and this proposal is an important first step,” Sen. Borrello said.

The Assembly version of the legislation is sponsored by Assemblyman Michael Novakhov.

Rather than a potential revenue windfall, marijuana legalization could drive up costs for county government, County Manager Jay Gsell warns, as the county will need to cope with several matters related to law enforcement, public health, and federal contracts.

He's concerned state officials pushing for legalization haven't fully thought through these issues.

"I see it mostly as there could be more negative cost implications to the county as far as what we'll be dealing with in terms of our social service agencies or treatment agencies, and the related people that are part of what we fund in county government, such as law enforcement, and the public health considerations, rather than, 'oh, I see this as just another nice thing to do -- a little bit of a revenue stream,' " Gsell said. "I just don't even see that happening per se."

State officials are talking about implementing a 2 percent or 4 percent sales tax on marijuana sales and remitting some portion of that tax to local jurisdictions that don't opt out of permitting sales.

Gsell said since consumption will be legal in all counties in the state, opting out of allowing local sales will really be just turning down whatever revenue a county might be able to recoup for the potential increase in expenses that go with legal pot.

Both Sheriff William Sheron and Batavia Police Chief Shawn Heubusch have publicly opposed legalization of marijuana, expressing concern about the potential for more highway fatalities, easier access to cannabis for teens, and the potential for increased crimes. Last month they shared these concerns with the county's Public Service Committee.

"The public safety issue is really what has law enforcement against it," Sheron said.

Both top cops have sent out press releases generated by their respective state law enforcement associations opposing legalized marijuana. In both cases, the Sheriff and the Police Chief say that marijuana-related traffic deaths have increased in Colorado since recreational use of cannabis became legal.

However, various reports available online contradict this assertion.

The Colorado Springs Gazette reported last summer that while the number of fatal accidents where some trace of marijuana was present in one or more of the drivers involved had increased, fatalities in accidents where a driver was considered impaired by marijuana dropped significantly, from 52 in 2016 to 35 in 2017.

The Reason Foundation compiled a comprehensive report on driving and marijuana use that also suggested there is little correlation between legalized marijuana and increased traffic fatalities. Reason also found some data to suggest that legalized marijuana helps reduce drunken driving fatalities either because people consume less alcohol or since states like Colorado ban public consumption of marijuana, people who mix alcohol and marijuana are more likely to do so at home.

On the law enforcement front, a report from Police Quarterly, cited in a story from the Seattle Times, said that legalized marijuana seems to correlate to high clearance rates (cases solved) for reported crimes as officers spend less time on drug offenses.

It might surprise some that Jeremy Almeter, owner of Glass Roots on Center Street, isn't exactly eager to start selling marijuana from his shop, should it become legal. But he does support legalization and takes issue with opponents who say marijuana will lead to more traffic accidents or that it's some sort of gateway drug.

"I've been hearing marijuana is a gateway drugs since I was a kid, and I can tell you that the only true gateway drug in our society right now is alcohol," Almeter said. "You know, nobody smokes a joint and then goes out and decides to rob a liquor store. Bad decisions are made by people when they're inebriated.

"You know they're making decisions that they wouldn't normally make. I have seen, firsthand, the effect of alcohol on people doing exactly that. I think marijuana is one of the safest plants on the planet. I think hemp is right in the same plant family and they both deserve access for every person on the planet.

"If they if they're helping you, great, but they've never killed anyone. How many people are we losing a year to drunken driving?"

Almeter added, "Alcohol kills 88,000 people a year. Cigarettes kill 480,000. Cannabis has never killed anybody."

Whether marijuana has ever killed anyone is a disputed assertion. Here's Politifact on the topic.

Dealing with drivers who are so high their ability is impaired, regardless of what the statistics out of Colorado and elsewhere say, is a major concern for both Sheron and Heubusch. The chemical test for driving under the influence of alcohol is pretty straightforward. Blood alcohol content is scientific, objective and reliable. Busting a driver impaired by marijuana is more of a judgment call, and getting such a charge to stick in court requires officers who are trained as drug recognition experts.

It's an expensive proposition to have a DRE on a department's force. The Sheriff's Office has six currently. Batavia PD, only two.

It takes an experienced officer six months of training before obtaining DRE certification.

"In the law enforcement realm, the DRE program is one of the most difficult and time-consuming certifications that you can obtain," said Undersheriff Bradley Mazur.

During a recent interview, Deputy Ryan DeLong (top photo), who is DRE certified, discussed the process involved in making an arrest of a driver suspected of driving while impaired by a drug.

First, there needs to be probable cause to make a traffic stop. Second, the officer must observe something about the driver that indicates he or she is either high or intoxicated. Then the officer can initiate a field sobriety test.

If the officer isn't DRE certified but has a good reason to believe the driver is impaired by marijuana or another drug, then the officer will require the assistance of a DRE officer.

"The first thing that we do really doesn't change and that's just the administration of standardized field sobriety testing," DeLong said. "At the roadside, we're doing the battery of tests --  horizontal nystagmus (follow a pen with your eyes), walk and turn, and the one-legged stand. If we determine that the person is intoxicated or impaired by drugs, we take them into custody and start the process of bringing in a drug recognition expert. The drug recognition expert's job is to do three things: Determine is a person impaired? Is the impairment a medical impairment or a drug-induced impairment? And what category of drug or drugs is a person under the influence of, and how the DRE determines that is a 12-step process."

The process involves question, observation, and chemical testing (and those results can take some time to come back from the lab).

"What we're looking for, is there an abnormal dilation of the pupil for the lighting conditions or an abnormal constriction of the pupil and also how the pupil will react to a light stimulus," DeLong said. "We're looking at their muscle tone. We're going to check to see where it's most rigid or flaccid. We're checking for any injection sites for intravenous drug use throughout this whole process, and also just conducting an interview as we're interacting with the person.

"We're looking for observable signs of a drug usage such as somebody being on the nod, as we call it, where they're basically falling asleep in front of us, or different body tremors, or different signs of impairment. If we determine that this person is under the influence of a drug and what category of drug they are under, they'll go for a blood test or spittle test and (depending on the results) they'll be charged accordingly."

When it comes to law enforcement, marijuana legalization and the correlating expenses, the potential need for more DREs, aren't the only concerns for the county.

The Sheriff's Office has two new K-9s coming into service and of course, today's K-9s are trained to detect marijuana. That's a skill a K-9 won't unlearn, so there is some question about whether weed-sniffing dogs can remain in service.

Gsell is also worried about how legalization might impact Federal grants. The county receives more than $11 million a year from the Federal government and many of those contracts are contingent on the county maintaining a drug-free environment. Even if the state decriminalizes cannabis, that won't change Federal law or policy.

"As far as where federal money is used to fund positions and things of that nature, we have to provide assurances, like we do with our CDL drivers at the County Highway Department, that there are random drug tests done and there is a zero tolerance with regard to persons having any of that stuff in their systems," Gsell said.

While the state is promising an increase in revenue if marijuana sales become legal, a share of that revenue will only be available to counties that don't opt-out of legal pot sales within their borders. Given the anticipated increase in expenses, Gsell suggested the county will have little choice to allow local sales even if the additional revenue doesn't totally offset the additional expenses.

"The prospect of revenue or increased revenue is an ephemeral situation at this point," Gsell said. "There's no way to predict what that is and the things that we see from the state are not what I would call vetted enough, nor necessarily what I believe is actually going to come to reality."

In a blog post, GCASA's executive director David Markham muses that perhaps society would be better off if marijuana were legal and taxed.

But it's no libertarian turn by Markham. He also suggests that the legal drinking age should be raised to 35.

Markham cites a recent study that looks at the benefitial impact of drinkers and drug users substituting cannabis.

I found this study interesting because I have observed the use of cannabis in my private practice clients who often report beneficial effects. It seems to me that cannabis is less toxic and has fewer behavioral and social negative consequences than alcohol. I have also noted that cannabis seems to have fewer adverse side effects and better symptom relief than prescription drugs.

We saw a couple of busts this summer of people accused of growing pot, and of course the State Police flew its helicopter around looking for marijuana fields, but it turns out, increased domestic production maybe putting more hurt on Mexican drug cartels than years of "the war on drugs."

American pot growers now produce half of all the weed sold in the United States.

Contrary to traditional images of rural pot farming, small-scale production and indoor farming may have played a large role in the increased production. "While the trafficking of cocaine, heroin and methamphetamine is the main focus of U.S. law enforcement, it is marijuana that has long provided most of the revenue for Mexican drug cartels," the reporters write.

And like Starbuck adjusting its brand to meet increased local competition, the drug cartels are changing the way they do business.

Mexican cartels are improving their product and streamlining delivery to compete with increased U.S. production, they report. The National Drug Intelligence Center says cartels are increasingly growing pot on public lands in the U.S. to move closer to the market.

Of course, state treasuries aren't seeing a dime of benefit from all of this commerce.

A few people had a question for us yesterday: Why was a State Police helicopter circling over the City of Batavia?

Answer: Marijuana eradication.

Rebecca Gibbons, spokeswoman for the State Police, just provided the answer.

"This is the time of year that it is very visible," Gibbons said.

The helicopter is in the air again today, but Gibbon's doesn't have information what areas it would be covering during its marijuana eradication mission.

Assemblyman Steve Hawley says he will vote against a bill aimed at legalizing marijuana for medical uses.

"I voted against it last year and unless something miraculous happens I'll be representing my constituents and their wishes and will be voting against it," said Assemblyman Steve Hawley (R,I,C Batavia).

Bill A07542 was submitted by Assemblyman Richard Gottfried, chairman of the Health Committee.

It would allow New Yorkers with serious medical conditions to grow up to 12 marijuana plants or possess up to 2.5 ounces of the weed. The bill includes legal protection for a patient's primary caregiver and physician. A similar proposal was previously passed by the Assembly only to die in the Senate.

Even though the bill hasn't cleared the Assembly yet, we have a call into Sen. Mike Ranzenhofer as well to check his position on the topic.  We will update this post with his response, should we get one.

Hawley said last year's bill had a number of problems. He thought it lacked sufficient controls and made marijuana too easy to get.

Thirteen states allow medicinal use of marijuana. According to a 1999 report by the National Academy of Sciences' Institute of Medicine, "nausea, appetite loss, pain and anxiety. . .all can be mitigated by marijuana."

The active ingredient in marijuana, THC, has been approved for medical use by the Federal Food and Drug Administration and the Drug Enforcement Agency since 1986 in synthetic pill form (Marinol). But consuming it in natural form -- which many physicians say is more effective -- continues to be illegal.

The New England Journal of Medicine says inhaling THC is more effective than taking the synthetic pill because "smoking marijuana produces a rapid increase in the blood level of the active ingredients and is thus more likely to be therapeutic." It also enables tighter control of the amount ingested.

Proponents claim marijuana can be an effective treatment where other medications have failed -- for at least some patients who suffer from HIV/AIDS, cancer, epilepsy, multiple sclerosis and other life-threatening or debilitating conditions.

Gottfried and other supporters of medicinal marijuana use maintain that this usage doesn't undermine the message that using illegal drugs is wrong. They note that many controlled substances that are legal for medical use (such as morphine, Valium and steroids) are otherwise illegal.

But opponents of medicinal cannabis say making it lawful indeed sends a mixed message about drug use, at best. They say the legislation exploits public sympathy in order to legitimize drug use and provides loopholes to drug dealers.