As the state continues to discuss when and how legalized marijuana will come to New York, local institutions are preparing for a change many see as inevitable. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cI think that we are of the attitude that it is coming, but what we are waiting for is for the state of New York to make up its mind about how it will look,\u201d said Martha Sauerbrey, chair of the Tioga County Legislature.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Saying that the state process has gone largely quiet, Sauerbrey said she doesn\u2019t know what freedom individual counties will have when it comes to regulating the drug. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cSo in other words let’s say the law says marijuana is legal and you can smoke and ingest it in the state of New York, will the state allow counties or towns to have the option to say you can\u2019t sell it here? There is also taxing issues, what percentage goes where and how it works. There are a lot of unanswered questions that we need the information about to make decisions,\u201d said Sauerbrey. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
If there were an option for counties to opt in or out of allowing the sale of recreational marijuana, Saubrey said that would be something the county would strongly consider. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cWe would definitely consider whether to opt in or opt out, it all depends on what the state does. So we\u2019re just waiting and it\u2019s been quiet. I just don\u2019t know what it will look like so we stopped talking about it until we get the information we need,\u201d Sauerbrey added. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Christine Horton, owner of Owego Hemp said that while she might not sell recreational marijuana once it becomes legal, she does believe it will have a positive local impact. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cI am for it, I think it would be an economic boom and I think that the state would regulate it and the tax base would be helpful,\u201d Horton said. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Horton added that concerns over the negative impact of selling recreational marijuana is overstated. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cI think so long as policy and regulation is diligent that there really won\u2019t be that much negative to it,\u201d Horton said. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
While Tioga County Sheriff Gary Howard said he had no comment on the potential legalization of marijuana, Sauerbrey said that local police departments do have concerns. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cDriving under the influence, it will be interesting to see how that plays out, will that have the same bearing as driving under the influence of alcohol and how do you test it? It\u2019s very complicated,\u201d Sauerbrey said. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Along with potentially selling it, Horton said that there could also be a benefit for local farmers looking for a new crop to cultivate when recreational marijuana becomes legal. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cMarijuana could be grown in Tioga. We are already seeing a huge boom in the growth of hemp, and if farmers can grow legalized marijuana that would definitely be a benefit not just for farmers struggling for a profitable crop but all the people who benefit from the processing and then the end users,\u201d Horton said. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Sauerbrey agreed that hemp and CBD products have had a positive impact on the local economy already. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cWe\u2019re seeing a lot of hemp business pop up and it is important to note that the products they sell are different than marijuana, they are not designed to get you high,\u201d Sauerbrey said. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
However, she noted that growing marijuana is far more complicated than just planting a seed and letting it grow. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cI think the Farm Bureau and Cornell Cooperative Extension would want to weigh in, and farmers are pretty conservative but we’ll see. I\u2019ve been trying to read up on this, really growing marijuana is a lot more complicated than throwing some seeds in the ground. In California they do a lot of growing in controlled small spaces so they know what they plant will have the intended impact. It\u2019s quite technical so we’ll see how that works out as well,\u201d Sauerbrey added. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
As the state continues to discuss when and how legalized marijuana will come to New York, local institutions are preparing for a change many see…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":76145,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-76144","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"yoast_head":"\n