Democratic Ulster County executive candidate Pat Ryan announced his support for marijuana legalization in New York and for welcoming pot businesses in Ulster, which like other New York counties would have the ability to ban pot stores and farms under an “opt-out” clause in Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s legalization proposal.
“I believe this represents a tremendous economic opportunity for us, both in terms of boosting our agriculture community and generating additional revenues to support all of our county’s critical programs,” Ryan said in a press release. “As County Executive, I will establish a task force to study how we can responsibly capitalize on this opportunity from an economic standpoint, while ensuring public safety and effective implementation.”
Ryan, who’s running in an April 30 special election to fill the office Mike Hein vacated last month, pledged to work closely with Sheriff Juan Figueroa and other law enforcement officers.
“I’m excited about the myriad advantages to marijuana legalization for our county, from assisting fellow veterans suffering from PTSD to the significant economic impact it will have as a new industry,” Ryan said.
Cuomo’s proposal would allow all 62 counties and municipalities with more than 100,000 people to prohibit any or all of the six reefer business licenses the law would create. Counties that allow pot stores would get a cut of the tax revenue — a 2 percent charge on the weed retailers buy from wholesalers.
Majority support for legalizing marijuana dips in Siena poll
A majority of New Yorkers polled by Siena College still support legalizing pot, but the margin favoring legalization narrowed from 15 percentage points in the college’s January poll to 10 points in survey results released Monday.
In the latest Siena poll, 53 percent of the 700 registered voters surveyed by phone from March 10-14 supported legalization, 43 percent opposed it, and 4 percent took no position. By comparison, the split in January was 56 percent to 41 percent, with 3 percent giving no opinion.
Support among Democratic voters remained strong, at 65 percent. But it dipped slightly among Republican voters — to 36 percent from 39 percent — and dropped to 50 percent from 57 percent among independent and third-party voters. Support also softened among voters ages 18-34 (to 67 percent from 77 percent) and among people earning less than $50,000 a year (to 44 percent from 54 percent).
Gov. Andrew Cuomo included a plan to legalize, regulate and tax marijuana production and sales in his budget proposal in January. Whether the legalization of “adult-use cannabis” remains in the budget due by April 1 or is debated during the post-budget session that is scheduled to end on June 19 remains to be seen.