From WXXI news.

This is connections.

I'm Evan Dawson.

Our connection this hour is made in the town of Henrietta, where residents could have seen a tax increase, but that increase is being rolled back thanks to some perhaps unexpected revenue.

The money is from cannabis tax revenue.

Since the opening of its first two adult use dispensaries, MJ dispensary in 2023 and Rise Dispensary in 2024, Henrietta has generated more than three quarters of $1 million in tax revenue.

Now there are six dispensaries in town and the town is putting that money to work.

In addition to the rollback of the recent tax increase, the town has also been able to hire a law enforcement official dedicated to quality of life issues in the town, like addressing speeding, for example.

And according to the New York State Office of Cannabis Management, the state has generated more than $1 billion in total revenue since the recreational cannabis market opened in 2022.

That is thanks to business from nearly 300 adult use dispensaries, and I suspect that number continues to be on the rise.

Our guests this hour say what's happening in Henrietta is a cannabis success story of sorts, and they hope other towns and communities will see the same kind of results.

This hour, we're talking about how that money is being used, what's going on on the marketplace, and more.

Let me welcome our guests.

Steve Schultz is Henrietta town supervisor.

Mr. supervisor, welcome back to the program.

Thank you.

Ryan Martin is the owner of MJ dispensary.

They opened in December 2023.

It's been a good first year and a half.

Welcome.

Thank you for being here.

Thank you.

And on the line with us is Felicia Reed, who is deputy executive director and acting executive director of the New York State Office of Cannabis Management.

Felicia, thank you for making time for us.

Thank you for having me.

Felicia, what's the statewide?

So, I mean, how would before we kind of get into locally here, how are things going with this issue on a statewide level?

Well, so I think it's really, a hodgepodge, honestly.

You know, in New York State overall, about half of the jurisdictions, have opted out of adult use, dispensaries or adult use on site consumption.

And so I think for those jurisdictions that have opted in, like the town of Henrietta, they're seeing some really interesting economic development success stories in terms of monies going back into coffers, in terms of folks being served, but also in terms of community impact programs.

A lot of our dispensary is do a lot of good community work and making connections.

And so I think I'd love to see that.

Keep going.

You know, in Henrietta, of course, but also beyond and in other parts of the state.

Felicia, does the state take a position on what you would like municipalities to do?

In other words, if you'd rather they be on the opt in versus opt out list.

So I always sort of come at this question as a matter of from an economic development perspective, we'd love to see more opt in, but also be mindful.

And I'm, you know, putting on my attorney hat here is, you know, jurisdictions have the ability.

And they're also reflected by their their voter base in terms of what they want to see and what they don't.

And so I think the strategy for the Office of Cannabis Management is to try to provide as much information to jurisdictions that have opted out, but also, you know, showing them success stories like Henrietta and other localities where they've really brought in a significant amount of money through tax revenue.

That's going toward community improvement.

And, Felicia, forgive me, I am not a lawyer, so I need to make sure I understand this.

If, municipality has opted out.

What is the process?

If they change their mind to want to opt in?

So if they want to opt in, that kind of has to come to local resolution.

And the thing I think that's important to know is that once you opt in, you can't back out.

And so that makes sense from a sort of a bandwidth perspective.

Once you opt in, you have businesses start to develop locally and then back out.

Then what happens to those businesses?

So once a town elects to opt in, they are opting in for for the future.

I guess I understand that although, you know, I mean, we have seen certain things change with consumption.

I mean, a smoking ban in restaurants.

I don't know if that maybe you view that differently.

I don't know.

I guess I suppose it makes sense.

Is there an argument legally for saying municipalities should be allowed to opt in and then opt out if it's not going well?

Felicia so I think it's really taking the position of businesses that open if you opt in and all of these businesses developed, like I said, you know, then you opt out and they're sort of left, you know, gooey, in the middle of the water without an ability to understand if they could sort of continue their business.

And so I don't think jurisdictions or houses want that kind of environment for small business.

And I, and I underscore small business because most all of almost all of the dispensaries in New York State are local, you know, mom and pop, local families, local folks operating these businesses.

So I think, you know, they're yes, things can change over time, but from a matter of in a perspective of economic development, we can't really see saw with the with business owners because I think at the end of the day, one thing I've heard from a lot in the cannabis community is that businesses need to know what to expect.

And so if the threat of opting back out is hanging over their heads, that's not going to encourage, you know, the kind of business that can really see these sometimes positive impacts.

Yeah.

Like tariffs, you know, I mean like if you want to bring manufacturing back based on tariffs thing here for one month, you want to know that they're going to be here in a year or three.

but I'm not going to make Felicia comment on National Park.

I'm not talking about state policy.

Now Steve Schultz is the Henry out of town supervisor.

And let me start by asking, what do you make of the municipal issues who've said, we're going to wait and see here?

This is a legal cannabis rollout.

We've never done this before.

Before we opt in, we're going to see what happens in Henrietta.

We're going to see what happens elsewhere here.

Did you think about it that way, or did you think, look, we want to be on the leading edge of this.

You know, we want to do what is best for our business community.

How did you see it?

really not, I would say neither of those.

okay.

You know, we're a big proponent of, home rule so that, you know, we were happy that the state gave us the ability to opt in and out.

And then as we were looking at it, you know, one of the things that a lot of people, when it first happened, didn't fully understand is that if you opt out, it doesn't mean that cannabis is illegal in your community.

Cannabis can be consumed anywhere in New York State.

What it just means is they can't sell it in your community.

But if you know, for those who thought there were going to be a bunch of problems, with the consumption, you know, I out my argument to the board was, and I wasn't the only one with the same shirt, but you know, if they what's the difference if they buy the cannabis on the north side of Brighton, Henrietta Town line Road or the south side of Brighton, Henrietta Town Line Road, we have the same problems.

The reason we opted in for the adult use cannabis sales.

If we're going to have the potential problems, then we might as well have the additional revenue.

And so that that was really where our decision came from.

And then once we made that decision, we took a look at where does it make sense for those, potential stores to be.

And this is from a zoning standpoint, a lot of communities put them in what are commonly referred to.

They're not technically called this, but they're usually referred to as they're adult use zones or adult use districts, which are usually hidden kind of back areas.

And those are for things like adult bookstores, adult video stores, things like that.

we chose to put them on our main retail area, but a subset of our retail area so that it wasn't near any schools, playgrounds, churches, things like that.

and one of the things that we think that that's helped with is that's why you're seeing, some significant participation in Henrietta is because these stores can be at the forefront where it's easy for people to get to as opposed to, you know, driving on to these, like I said, hidden areas that are where a lot of towns keep their adult use.

Side note entirely how has the internet not killed adult use bookstore?

adult use book stores and adult shops like that?

I don't know, but we still have one in Henrietta.

Okay, okay.

That's a whole separate conversation that nobody asked for today.

Mr.

Supervisor, did you want to know in general what the people of Henrietta thought?

Did you feel like you were speaking pretty well for what you think the people wanted in advocating for this?

Yeah.

I mean, so obviously we don't have a means to get to all 48,000 residents.

but we had numerous public hearings and we had a lot of people speaking, you know, for and against.

Yeah.

what I think really changed the board's mind because there were a lot of people who were a number of board members who were on the fence, and I think some of them were leaning against the opt out side.

But a number of residents came in and told stories about, like, one mother talked about her daughter, who had I think it was Ms..

I'm not positive, but, you know, she had a condition that she was getting treated with medical cannabis and there was a big difficulty in getting to the cannabis store, especially the medical cannabis store, especially if her daughter was having a bad day and couldn't go with her because a lot of times they required it was much more difficult for the mother to obtain it than it was for the patient.

And so, you know, she was very much a proponent of retail cannabis.

And her point was, you know, not that alcohol has medicinal values, but the point is you could go to, store to buy alcohol retail in your community.

Why can't you do the same for cannabis?

In addition to her, we had a veteran with PTSD.

We had an individual with significant, anxiety issues and all these people, you know, were obtaining their cannabis from medical dispensaries, of which there weren't any in the area.

So.

And so now you've got six in town.

That's correct.

That's six, dispensaries, one of which is also a medical dispensary, and two of which are also, what are called micro-businesses.

And that's where they're able to actually produce, on a limited basis.

They're able to actually produce product, not just sell it.

Felicia, how many in New York state do we know how many dispensaries so far?

yes.

As of today, we have 370.

And I think a good chunk of those have opened in just the first quarter of the year.

Is it likely that we're close to topping out?

Could we see a thousand eventually?

I mean, any idea where we're going.

Yeah.

No.

Our our market and policy team sort of thinks about this question and analyzes the data for this question all the time.

I think, you know, where we're at in New York just looking.

And again, we have a massive state.

If this is Rhode Island, it'd be a different sort of, question.

But, I think we're looking at anywhere between 1600 and 2000 state wide.

So to be at, you know, 370, we've got a pretty long way to go.

Okay.

Well, Steve, before we talk to Ryan about his experience, I want to get maybe your year and a half.

What's it been, two years?

About a year and a half since you.

It's about a year and a half.

They've been open.

Yeah.

Okay.

How's it going?

It's actually been going great.

The we have had zero issues with any of our legal cannabis dispensaries.

any issues we've had are with illegal shops like smoke shops or, hemp stores that are illegally selling cannabis.

And in fact, you know, we caught one illegally selling cannabis to minors.

and we know this because we've been working with the Monroe County Sheriff's Department.

They not we requested that they send in an, plainclothes officer because we had heard that, they were selling illegally.

in fact, they admitted it in a public hearing, which was kind of strange.

so the officer went, but they actually did one better.

They at the time, they had a 20 year old cadet, so they had him go in plainclothes and he actually made the purchase.

So now they sold cannabis to a minor, not checked ID.

And what's frustrating to us, it still hasn't been prosecuted two years later.

as to why, I don't know, you'd have to ask the district attorney, but that's that's particularly frustrating because, you know, here you have who's clearly a bad actor and they're still allowed to operate.

That doesn't make sense to me, but I think what you're saying is the bad actors are not the new dispensaries.

Correct.

It's people illicitly selling sometimes to minors, but the new dispensaries are operating above board.

They're doing well.

Absolutely.

You know, and to give you an example, when Rise Rise first came in as medical dispensary, they actually got their special use permit, for adult because they didn't want to go to a location that couldn't later become an adult dispensary.

So they relocated their medical into Henrietta.

and then later they went to, an adult, retail dispensary.

They wanted to have a, grand opening celebration type of thing.

And they were going to have, like, samples of infused cannabis infused tea.

And we pointed out to them that we opted out of the on on site consumption.

And so they switched it to where they were prepackaged and you took them home, right?

No questions asked, no arguments.

They said, oh, we didn't think about that.

We asked them.

They instantly changed.

You know, Ryan, as an example, anytime he's doing something, if it's even in the gray area, he reaches out to us to make sure it's okay if it is, he goes forward.

If it's not, he changes his plans.

So the the legal cannabis operators to date and again, for for pretty much this entire time it's been MMJ dispensary in the regional market and it's been rise dispensary a little further down.

But they've been phenomenal.

We've had zero issues, no problems whatsoever coming up here.

We're going to talk to Steve.

We're going to talk to Felicia Reed about tax revenue impact, what we've seen so far.

And it's certainly not nothing.

We're going to talk about some of that in just a moment.

Listeners, if you've got questions about legal cannabis, what's happening in in your town, whether it is an opt in or opt out town or how this all works, it's 844295 talk.

It's toll free.

844295825526365 here in Rochester.

2639994.

You can email the program connections at xorg, connections@sky.org.

Or you can join the chat if you're watching on YouTube on the Sky news YouTube channel.

You heard Felicia Reed, the deputy executive director and acting executive director of the New York State Office of Cannabis Management, say there's about 370 dispensaries operating in New York State.

That number will probably go up.

And in towns like Henrietta, there's six there.

They opened with two.

So there's been growth.

And, if you've got questions and how it works, this is a chance to to start there.

And Ryan Martin is the owner of MJ dispensary.

First question we got from listeners was how old do you have to be to buy and what is it that you are selling.

So you want to start with that?

Well, thanks for having me here today.

Yeah.

It's good having you.

Yes.

we have to be 21 years of age 21.

We do a card.

Every individual that walks into our store with, hired security and, we sell, flower, we sell, pre-rolls, we sell plants, we sell edibles.

tinctures.

we also sell CBD at our store, not just THC products.

So, there's a wide variety.

We have one of the largest selections in all of New York State with all these dispensaries that are open and 370, we're one of the top, as far as SKUs.

so there's there's so much to choose from at our store.

And you opened on December 12th, 2023.

How long did it take you to get open?

Oh, my.

That was a very long time.

Take me through that.

that was a very long process.

I secured that location in June of 2021, so it didn't take longer than you thought to open.

Oh, yes.

We went through two injunctions.

This Finger Lakes region was the, the region that was held out longest out of any region that was made in this, you know, business here.

so, yeah, it's a pretty much two years.

to, to get open.

And it was a struggle.

I had no kids when I, got that building and when I opened, I had to.

well, I hope they're doing well.

It sounds like.

It sounds like your business is is doing well.

How's it going?

I couldn't be more pleased with the way things are going.

we're averaging 15,000 customers a month.

We're over $1 million in sales per month.

We're hearing we're one of the top dispensaries in all of New York State.

it's it's been tremendous.

I, I know that struggle that I just talked about.

It was hard, but I would go back and do it again every single time.

Why do you think all your competitors should close?

I, I actually don't think that, at MJ dispensary, we're all about the power of the plant and ending the stigma.

So I really like the fact, that Henrietta is, opening doors.

supervisor Schultz and his constituents have made a seamless process for businesses such as mine to get open.

and I just wish other towns around here would actually take a look at what's going on and maybe start to implement this type of thing moving into next year, because I know this year's a voting year, so it's probably not going to happen this year.

So my goal is for 2026 is to go around Rochester to the towns that said no and have a discussion who's on the no list around Rochester?

Everybody, Penfield said.

Yes.

Brighton said yes.

Er said yes.

Matter of fact er is the only other village or, and or town that has a dispensary aside from Henrietta, it's said it's Henrietta Penfield, Brighton, Brighton and East Rochester support village expense support.

Honeoye falls that's that's pretty much it.

And Finger Lakes listeners on was Victor sorry.

Yeah.

And if you if you know down through the region I want to create a little list.

It'll be interesting to see what changes over time here.

And by the way, I also want to ask Ryan, you know, very, very seriously, this is not my expertise.

This this issue is not at all my expertise.

One thing that I've read recently from a number of political commentators who've been watching not only New York State, but other states where legalization is happening, is there's some regret from people who've supported it on these grounds.

What they say is the weed that they grew up around.

is not the weed that's out there today, that it is more powerful, it is more potent.

It might be more addictive, I don't know, but the concern is that what we've legalized is not what they grew up with, and they feel like we might regret that.

What do you say to that?

I mean, I could probably say that maybe it is a little stronger nowadays because it's just it's everywhere.

it's a, you know, all these other states have legalized it, and, you know, you got professional growers who are trying to hone in their craft and, you know, but just because it's a little stronger, you don't have to buy the strong.

We have stuff that's not as strong.

You know, there's different levels of THC in every strain of cannabis that comes out, and there's different and there's different terrapins that are in these, this flower that help certain things.

So, you know, you don't have to buy a 30% THC product.

You could buy a 19% THC product.

And, you know, have a lower level of, experience.

We'll say, okay, can I ask Felicia about that as well?

Is the state at all concerned about the strength of these products?

Yeah, that's that's something that's certainly on the radar.

What I will say, and this goes to, to Ryan's point, is that, you know, a lot of the cannabis dispensaries have a range of products.

I've seen products as low as 12%.

I've seen products.

And I think, you know, I start to get suspicious when I see folks, and products going over 30% because it's really incredibly difficult to do that with fidelity.

But I think, you know, what's interesting about the market right now is that there is a range and as the as the officers perspective, we are always saying, you know, if you're new to cannabis, you know, start low, go slow.

We just launched, on April 17th, our higher education campaign.

So if you went to cannabis dot nigga slash, education, there's all of these resources on there about how to navigate, you know, cannabis if you're looking for information.

And that's the one thing that I'd always tell somebody who's unfamiliar or unsure is like, you have to educate yourself about what is out there first and then going, you know, to your local dispensary and having a conversation.

If you don't feel your questions are getting answered, then, you know, try, you know, something else.

But potency is certainly something that that we're paying attention to.

I don't think the entirety of the market is a race to the most potent, because that's not for everybody.

It really and truly isn't.

So I'm glad to see is such a variety and variance in and potency types, but also keeping in mind for consumers, you know, you don't don't do it all at once.

you know, start doing that, start low and go slow and see how you feel after a half hour or two hours.

Like there's nothing wrong with pacing yourself if it's something you're interested in and finding what works for you.

And that's the most important thing, I think, in this industry.

All right, let me get Michael and Henrietta on the phone.

Hey, Michael, go ahead.

Hi there.

I have a question about the, what what's being done, about, people that are driving under the influence.

I know the people, drunk driver.

They drink alcohol and they drive.

But I also know that there are people out there that are smoking pot and driving.

You know, I don't I don't see anything wrong with, with, with, recreational marijuana, but, I don't know that they even have a test for these that they can use to determine if they're driving.

And very.

Okay, Michael.

Thank you.

Felicia, you want to start with that one?

Yeah, I can, and thank you for that question.

It's a good one.

And so, you know, we also are concerned about folks driving under the influence.

We don't want to see, you know, an increase in accidents or an increase in incidence because of cannabis.

So it's something we're monitoring with our law enforcement partners.

One of the things we are also doing, it is called our Dr. is our drug recognition expert.

So we're working with law enforcement, units to train folks on how to detect cannabis beyond, you know, the odor of cannabis.

And the reason I underscore odor of cannabis is because, you know, historically, it's been used as a pretext to investigate or look into somebody more.

But there are other ways that our drug recognition experts can recognize somebody under the influence of cannabis if there's impairment.

So I think it's also requiring, you know, our law enforcement partners to, to take these types of trainings and sort of have a more nuanced understanding of recognizing when someone's under the influence of cannabis, such as are presenting a danger to the public because that is not something we want to see.

And so we're we're really glad for the relationships we have with those various law enforcement partners to, to, to, train more, doctors.

And I think at this point there around that, there are around 200, I want to say, across the state.

and so, you know, looking to see that number increase over time for sure.

But that is less scientific.

Felicia, than a breathalyzer or a back right?

Right.

Well, that's relative to alcohol.

Like, a breathalyzer wouldn't work for cannabis.

Neither would blood alcohol content.

also, with cannabis, you know, it can stay in your system for an incredibly long time, even with minimal exposure.

So, you know, those types of analyzes aren't exactly going to tell you if someone's impaired.

It's more of an observation than sort of, you know, getting into testing somebody.

Okay, Steve, anything you want to add on this?

Yeah.

So, it's exactly that's the reason why we opted out for On-Site consumption.

We figured especially, you know, as people not used to, you know, the availability of higher strains, we were very much afraid of somebody going to a cannabis bar, we'll call it, and consuming and then driving home.

So, you know, the idea was buy it, go home, veg out on your couch, have at it.

Right.

one of the things I will say, I was I've been speaking to some folks in the industry, there's somebody who's got an interesting approach.

It's using a device similar to like an Oculus, you know, virtual reality display type of thing that you put it on and it measures, essentially focus and reaction time.

Because, you know, one of the things I know, some of the impairments that you see, you know, with everybody, you know, with any of the I don't care what substance you're taking, if your reaction times are impaired, your driving is impaired.

Right?

you the ability to focus, the ability to see peripherally.

Right.

it measures things like that.

It's interesting.

It will actually based on the study it or the product that are developing in it, it hasn't, finished testing or anything like that, but it's it's would be an interesting approach because it would test any type of impairment, not just cannabis related.

And in their initial tests, they've even been able to based on the type of impairment they have a good guess as to, what, alcohol intoxicant that you might be on.

it's so it'll be interesting to see where that goes and hopefully that'll come out because, you know, like you, I'd like to see some test, you know, as we say, the, the, cannabis, we'll call it blood, cannabis content.

Right.

The problem with that is it can't tell the difference if I smoked ten minutes ago or ten days ago.

Yeah, yeah.

You know, so I'm no longer impaired, but it's still in my system and shows up on the drug test?

No, it's a challenge for sure.

By the way, Ryan Martin, owner of MMJ Dispensary in Henrietta, the supervisor says we didn't want people smoking on or consuming on site.

because of the issue of driving.

I can go to a bar and get a beer and and drive it through.

And you feel like this is fair?

I mean, I get it.

a lot of the states that have legalized decades ago are just rolling out smoke lounges.

So, that just goes to show you, where, you know, this market is, you know, 12, 20 years California has been legal for a long, long time.

And they're just rolling those out.

Vegas just rolled one out.

just rolled it out a few years ago.

So, I understand the apprehension.

you know, people take pills all the time and drive to.

So, you know, there's no way to tell that, I just, I get it.

We have stuff at our store that tells people, you know, you shouldn't be, you know, driving when you when you use cannabis.

So, it can stay in your system for literally 30 days.

And like Mr. Schultz just said, you're not able to tell whether or not somebody did it an hour ago or to two days.

I just wanted to know if you would disagree with the supervisor or anything on the air.

I mean, I would love to have a consumption lounge someday.

I don't think it's the right time right now.

New York State pretty much just legalized.

I know people are going to say, oh, it's been three years, but let's just legalizing.

So you seem to think consumption lounges are coming down the line here.

Yes, I do think it is in the future.

as as the years go on and we start ending the stigma on cannabis, I believe that stores like mine will have lounges where you can go in there and you can partake in maybe having an edible or a drink or smoking a joint.

and then, you know, be on your way eventually.

Well, we are.

Wow, wow, wow.

We've got a lot of emails.

I have got to get our only break in.

And then what we'll do is we're going to come back.

I want to talk about.

I think listeners will be very keen to know, is this actually raising revenue for local governments like the supervisor indicated they wanted to be in on if this is going to be legalized.

So we'll talk to the supervisor about what has already happened in about a year and a half of legalization.

We'll talk to Felicia Reid from the state office about that.

And, and then you have sent a lot of good questions on this issue to connections, and that org will continue to let those emails flow.

We'll take questions on the other side of this.

Only break.

I'm Evan Dawson Thursday on the next connections.

Oh Canada Canada completing their elections this week choosing a Liberal government with Mark Carney at the head.

We'll talk about what that means for Canada and its relationship with the United States.

In our second hour, we sit down with Shashi Sinha, who is running for mayor in the city of Rochester.

Talk with you on Thursday.

Support for your public radio station comes from our members and from Mary Carey Ola Center, providing education and life skills solutions designed to empower individual and the families of those with complex disabilities.

Mary Carey Ola Center Transforming Lives of people with disabilities More at Mary Carey, ola.org.

This is connections.

I'm Evan Dawson.

It was, as you heard, Ryan Martin, the owner of MJ dispensary, say a long process of rolling out legal cannabis across New York State.

And as you heard Felicia Reid mentioned earlier, that is up to municipalities.

Home rule is in effect here.

So whatever town you live in, whatever village you live in, they can decide, do we want cannabis dispensaries in our town?

I think the majority right now are saying no.

There's significant numbers saying yes.

We've got about 370 dispensaries statewide, six in the town of Henrietta.

We're talking to Supervisor Steve Schultz this hour.

So in that year and a half of legalization, what's the tax revenue for the town been?

So the receipts we've received to date as just over 600,000, if you if you basically that was through November.

If you prorated in December, it would have been 750.

I expect by this point we don't have the, the the revenues always lag.

So even though the, the the previous quarter's closed, we won't actually get the amount in dollars until May.

But at this point we're probably over the million dollar a million bucks.

Yeah.

Yeah.

So and that looks like it's about what is that about six, seven, $800,000 a year?

Is that what is projecting it annually.

So again, that first year that was 600.

But 600.

But I will say the second the last two quarters were significantly higher than the first two quarters.

Okay.

So you could be around a million a year.

Could be give or take.

How are you?

How is the town using that money?

So the first thing we did with it was use it to hire an additional deputy.

we don't have our own police force.

There was some question, you know, during the public hearings, there was some thought that there might be people who hang out in cause issues at, dispensaries, whether it's, you know, who knows what the nature of the problem was.

So, and then the potential for other problems, we'll just say on the street, we've not seen those, but what we did is we hired an additional deputy, for Monroe County.

Now, what they they work for Monroe County.

We pay their salary.

Essentially, we pay, Monroe County through an inter municipal agreement.

The cost to put that deputy on and that deputy focuses on what's called special attention detail.

So the town board has a list of these are the things we want.

You're paying attention to them.

And one of them is the the issues with any issues that might arise with cannabis.

Okay.

Have you seen any unexpected issues that have arisen with cannabis that maybe it wasn't discussed, but you now say a year and a half later, okay, this is an issue that has to be addressed.

you know, it's funny, the biggest issue I see with it isn't with the cannabis nature, but the smoking nature.

There's a lot of people who get upset that they have to smell the secondhand smoke, essentially, of cannabis.

but that's really not they call your cigaret, more likely email or go on social media.

And what do you tell them?

that I don't disagree with them.

You know, to me, when one of the things we did before we enabled it is we updated our code.

So anywhere we don't allow smoking of cigarets, we don't we, we broaden that to be cigarets, cigars, cannabis products, vaping.

You know, to me, that's not it's not the issue of the cannabis.

It's the issue of the second hand smoke.

you know the, the as far as, like I said, the only issues we've really seen with cannabis is, is illegal dispensaries.

And, you know, one of the things we saw, one of the, smoke shops was, raided, last year and, a large, block of cannabis was, was, recovered and included in that was a bunch of cannabis that was filled with mold spores.

So wherever they were doing this, wherever they were making the product was not a clean location.

And, and mold spores were getting in the cannabis.

And if kids were to not, I shouldn't say kids, but that's one of our fears that they're being solved.

It's all the kids.

If anybody smokes that, that's a problem.

That's a health problem, you know?

So one of the other things that you look at is the benefits of having legal dispensaries.

There are quality control checks.

There are adult, you know, basically childproof containers.

There's there's a whole bunch of regulations that ensure that product is safe that you don't have on the illegal market.

And so, you know, as a consumer, you know, there was there was always this argument is, are people going to go to the legal dispensary and pay more because of the taxes?

Or will the the black market continue to thrive?

And, I think you'd be nuts to go to the black market because again, for your own health, safety and my counter argument, when people would bring that up, I pointed out to them, well, there was an illegal market for liquor during the prohibition, and as soon as prohibition ended that black market.

Right.

You don't you don't find a speakeasy in town anymore?

No.

Right now they've all been converted into something else.

by the way, Ryan Martin, are there less weedy strains of weed these days?

I mean, I understand the supervisor is talking about a quality of life issue in towns that don't want to smell marijuana all the time.

Other strains that don't smells bad.

I mean, it's hard to say.

so.

No, probably not.

You're going to smell it.

I guess there's probably some that are a little bit more potent than others, I would say with maybe like a skunk smell or something like that.

Yeah.

But, you know, more or less, if you are smoking it, whether it's through, ball or joint or whatever, you're going to smell it if you're blowing it into the public air.

There are other means, right?

You can get gummies, consumables, teas.

There's all these other means that don't put it into the air for other people to smell.

And do you want are you worried about a quality of life issue in Henrietta with the smell?

I wouldn't say I'm worried about it.

but I don't appreciate it again any more than I remember the days and go into bars when you would come home and you'd have to put your clothes in another room because they reeked of cigaret smoke.

I had a friend who worked at a bar who died of throat cancer.

you know, that's.

I don't miss those days one bit.

I mean, remember when the smoking bans hit and people were like, how are people going to survive?

And 20 years later, people are like, I cannot believe we smoked in bars, right?

Yeah.

I mean, it's interesting.

okay, so you mentioned hiring a deputy with three quarters of $1 million in tax revenue already from cannabis.

What about the rest of that money?

Tell me about the tax increase and the situation there for your residents.

Yeah.

So, at the time when we were putting this budget, this last budget together, we only had the first two quarters in which only represented 30% of that total, years revenues.

Had we known what the numbers were going to be, you know, because of all the inflation, last year we actually put in a tax increase.

Had we known that the larger dollar amount, we wouldn't have had to put that in.

So this year, we're in fact, tonight we're applying a bunch of the excess revenue to reduce taxes for next year.

Revenue from cannabis.

it's revenue from cannabis sales tax.

It's it's additional revenues in Henrietta.

We've always budgeted very conservatively so that if there's a downturn in the economy, we don't have to cut programs back.

That was essential during Covid.

We were able to continue everything.

Obviously, there were things we had to shut down because you couldn't do them due to crowds.

But the point is, we didn't have to lay anybody off.

We didn't have to cut other essential services.

and part of it's that ability, you know, what we do is we budget revenues conservatively, and when we get a good revenue year, then we apply that to the following year to keep budgets down.

That allowed us to keep the tax levy flat for five straight years.

So that means five years, no tax increases.

That streak ended when the residents voted to build a spray park.

but what the the the thing I'll clarify by the way, in your opening statement about us rolling back the taxes that's in the plans to do that this fall.

So not only are we planning to keep the taxes flat, we're actually going to roll back that increase that we put in place last year that we wouldn't have had to because of the cannabis.

So, I will say that's predicated on there not being a massive downturn in the economy, whether due to tariffs or other stuff happening at the national level.

That has an adverse effect on other revenues.

But, you know, typically, interestingly enough, inflation doesn't affect those revenues.

If you think about it, sales tax, it might mean you buy less things, but you're spending that you have the same amount of money to spend.

So it really doesn't affect sales tax, which is the other.

That's the that's our biggest revenue.

All right.

So let me ask Felicia Reed, who is the acting executive director of the New York State Office of Cannabis Management.

What do you think the impact has been on tax revenue?

Has it been what the state expected so far with the legalization of cannabis and yeah, so, you know, I think what we're seeing and and I'm able to look back at least until 2023 is, you know, 2023, there is around 16.3 million total in state tax revenue last year, 2024.

There's 43.3, which is great for a few reasons.

One, you know, the, the money's from tax revenue, through the Marijuana Regulation Taxation Act are supposed to be spent in a, in a particular way.

we call it like 40, 20, 20, but a portion of that money goes into the Cannabis Revenue Fund, which is about putting that money back into programs and local communities.

Another portion is for drug treatment and rehabilitation, education and efforts through our partners at the Office of Addiction Support and Services and then of course, the other piece is for, you know, public education.

I think a lot of folks forget that OPM has this mandate to engage in, you know, public education as well as in putting some of that money toward, you know, rehabilitation efforts.

And so, you know, to see those coffers increase year on year is really exciting because it allows some of the things and some of the harms overall, around, you know, you know, substance use disorder, to be addressed, but also allows for, you know, community investment impacts.

All right.

So we have a lot of really good questions.

I'm going to get through as many as I can hear from listeners.

First of all, Charlie says, even at Thanksgiving, I was to spend five days with the in-laws, nice people.

But I knew I needed something to take the edge off.

While certainly not a regular user, I thought trying some cannabis might help.

This is the first email I've ever gotten on connections of someone who looked for a little bit of weed to deal with.

Thanksgiving family.

Here we go, he says.

I drove to Henrietta, thinking I might find a dispensary in a dark corner or a back alley, but to my surprise, there it was, right next to a coffee shop.

Ha!

I laughed at myself for being so foolish.

The people in the store were helpful as I told them my situation.

Everyone had a good chuckle.

The young lady recommended a very light dose of gummies and suggested I cut the gummy in half.

Well, a few days later I did just that at the in-laws and I was fine.

I have to laugh now, thinking about the lengths people in the 70s and beyond went to to attain a little pot.

This is the right way to go.

That is from Charlie.

A very good experience with you guys.

Thank you Charlie.

Not in a back alley MJ dispensary for the record.

where are you?

Ryan, if you people do want to find you, we're in the Genesee Valley Regional Market, 900 Jefferson Road, suite 902.

Adam in Fairport says, what about the social and equity initiatives that were talked about for owners of cannabis stores in New York State?

Is that happening?

Is that happening here in across the state?

Felicia Reid Yeah, so it is, you know, even in my time, I think we've raised it by 1%.

But overall, 55% of business owners, in cannabis are social economic equity applicants.

So that means, minority women owned businesses, veterans, folks with, who've been previously impacted by, marijuana prohibition.

And so it's really exciting to see that, you know, these are, you know, local folks who've been locally impacted, owning these businesses with a particular priority on social and economic equity.

Again, one of the things that I think a lot about in this business is that in a lot of ways, our social economic equity applicants and licensees were excluded from so many business opportunities.

Right.

And so I think this, this, this program that we have presents an opportunity to address that and to rectify that to an extent, you know, cannabis isn't going to save the world.

I'd love to think that it would.

But I think we could start by meaningfully making sure that these programs are are meeting the goals of the marijuana and regulation and taxation that that is at 50%, see, ownership, but we're at 55.

So, you know, that is still going strong.

And every time that we have a cannabis control board meeting, I'm delighted to see how many folks are, you know, see represented in what the board is approving.

All right.

and and go ahead, Steve Schultz, oh.

I'm sorry.

I just wanted to add that was right.

Yeah.

Go ahead.

Ryan.

we we aren't necessarily se, but my better half mile is Filipino, and she's half owner of MJ, so we kind of fit that bill.

But, MJ did something very special.

I think that needs to be known.

we did a round up campaign, when we, we worked with Senator Cooney hard to get this, up and running and when we opened, we, allowed people to round up their change, throughout the whole year.

And we raised $6,000, for local school number 12 here in Rochester and then MJ dispensary, me and Mylan matched that.

So we actually raised $12,000 for ironically for school number 12.

And they they have have that now.

And we're going to do that every single year for a different inner city school.

Steve Schultz, do you get a sense of, of how many dispensaries you expect to kind of be the cruising altitude in Henrietta?

I'd be fine with six.

You got six right now?

Yeah, yeah, I think we're, you know, you're right about there.

Yeah, I would say so.

I, I, I wouldn't want to see too many more going because then that adversely impacts the others.

well and so on that note, I mean, I've got a number of questions, comments, and I'm looking, first of all, Aaron Van Camp is the owner of dank 716, Buffalo's first.

Oh, you know this?

Yeah, I know they're all right.

So dank.

716 Buffalo's first licensed cannabis dispensary.

Here's what he told WGRZ.

He said, quote, people are doing very poorly when you see the numbers that are being released out here currently.

Like this is one of the tougher markets.

And there's a lot of stores here and things are going poorly where it's it's just not a lottery ticket.

You've got to put a lot of work in.

There's a significant dip in revenue per store going on currently in certain areas of the state.

It's looking like the stores won't be profitable very soon if the numbers continue to dip.

End quote again, that's Aaron Van Camp dank 716 in Buffalo.

What do you make of that?

Right.

what's up country?

How are you doing?

That's his nickname.

I know Buffalo is a saturated market, so I just helped the youngest, dispensary licensee in the state get her store open.

We financed her whole project.

Shout out to Sidney Barrett at GM days dispensary, 5100 Transit Road in Buffalo.

so we know about the Buffalo market.

There is a saturation going on there.

You got to think you got the most stores, I think out of any region, that are open in Buffalo.

You add on the illegal stores, you add on the reservation where people can go and get, tax free cannabis.

And it's like there's one every 200ft out there.

Not to mention you got Canada, which is a bordering, country that is also fully legal there.

So there's a lot of competition going on in Buffalo.

So what he's describing is you think unique to Buffalo.

It's not happening here right now, not currently in Rochester.

And it's because the majority of the towns said no.

So Henrietta is actually benefiting from that because like I the biggest town in Rochester is what Greece.

they said no.

So people from Greece, that's our number one delivery area.

People from Webster Webster will never legalize.

They they shot that down.

That's our second delivery area is Webster.

So, you know, these people in these towns think that cannabis isn't there?

Well, surprise, surprise, NJ dispensary is delivering all over your town.

So it is.

They're just Henrietta's reaping the benefits.

Your town is not okay.

And Felicia Reid, what do you make of the comments from the gentleman in Buffalo about his concern about a saturated market?

Yeah, I think that that tracks with, you know, again, going back to the fact that we have a big state with different, you know, jurisdictional, preferences and abilities for, for businesses.

I mean, I think you see this in different parts, of, of the state, but it's also sort of a national thing.

And I'll point it this way.

Before New York legalized, many people were going to Massachusetts.

Right now, many, many people are going to Massachusetts after New York legalized all of those dispensaries on the Massachusetts border, saw drop in revenue, because now folks will be able to able to buy locally.

I think that's also true intrastate.

That is to say, when you have an area and I think there's a bit of strategy in this, but when you have an area that is largely opt out, the area that does opt in among all of the opt outs tends to see more revenue per store because of that very reason.

But as, municipalities start to opt in around, then you start to see that drop in revenue in a in a place like, you know, Buffalo, which is a large area, you have a large area that allows dispensaries.

And so you're going to see some of that competition.

Also, as I mentioned, you know, from Canada and from, you know, Indian reservations where the structures are very different.

Okay.

So I think there I think for some folks, it's it's going to be really difficult to, to maintain profitability over time, not just relative to, as New York approves, and open more stores, but also with competition from various places in other markets.

All right.

Last minute or so.

Real quick for Ryan.

Two quick ones.

Where's your supply come from?

brands in New York State.

So you have to be a cultivator or processor, within New York State in order for us to carry your product.

And, that's how we get it.

It's all prepackaged.

we don't do any packaging on site.

so that's mainly where we get most of our products.

You squeeze this in about 40s.

question for you.

Aside from the slow rollout, what do you want to see change about New York State dispensary law compared to or other states where this has already been happening, like Colorado, for instance, this person says, my cousin says he wished you could see the bud out in the open.

Apparently they can't do that in New York State.

we do have a Bud bar where you can see it and smell it.

you can't touch it, but you can see it and smell it.

so.

Okay, we do have that I would like to see, you know, a cap on license.

I don't want to see an oversaturation going on, like, what's going on in Buffalo.

I think there should be a way for a town or municipality to deny or say no, we have a not.

We have six already, so no, thank you.

and I also would like, you know, more towns to opt in.

So it's not just in one town.

Let's, let's see some other people say yes.

Steve Schultz, supervisor of Henrietta, you're pretty good being one of the few.

Oh, yeah.

To that, to any other town supervisor, town board members.

It's horrible.

Don't do it this year.

I don't okay, so that's that's the supervisors way of saying they're enjoying the roughly $1 million, give or take an extra tax revenue, and it's gone pretty well.

Hey, thank you for being here, Mr.

Supervisor.

My pleasure.

Steve Schultz from the town of Henrietta Ryan Martin, owner of MMJ dispensary.

Thank you for being here.

Thank you so much.

Felicia Reed from the state office of Cannabis Management.

Thanks for sharing your expertise this hour.

Felicia.

Thank you all so much.

And from all of us at connections, thank you for listening.

Thank you for watching on the news YouTube channel.

We're back with you tomorrow on member supported public media.

This program is a production of WXXI Public Radio.

The views expressed do not necessarily represent those of this station.

Its staff, management, or underwriters.

The broadcast is meant for the private use of our audience.

Any rebroadcast or use in another medium without express written consent of WXXI is strictly prohibited.

Connections with Evan Dawson is available as a podcast.

Just click on the connections link.

At WXXI news.

Org.