49 Clinton Avenue Dobbs Ferry, N.Y. 10522
ROBERT FISH
VOLUME 78, NUMBER 4
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TOWER The Masters School
DISCUSSING MIDDLE CELEBRATING LUNAR SCHOOLERS IN THE LIBRARY NEW YEAR PAGE 10
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FEBRUARY 11, 2022
Dobbs Ferry not high on marijuana legalization Kira Ratan
Editor-in-Chief
O
n Nov. 23, 2021 the Dobbs Ferry Board of Trustees voted to optout of allowing any marijuana dispensaries or marijuana consumption sites in the village of Dobbs Ferry. The decision against dispensaries was made on a 4-3 vote, and the decision against lounges was made on a 6-1 vote. Vincent Rosillo, the mayor of Dobbs Ferry, voted alongside the six trustees, and said that there were just too many uncertainties to vote in favor of this legislation. He said that if the town opted in they wouldn’t be able to back out, but clarified that the Town has the opportunity to opt into the new legislation in the future. He said, “We had two public forums and people were very emotional and nervous that middle and highschoolers would see adults over 21 walking out of dispensaries and think it was normal.” The town ended up holding a total of three public hearings in order to gauge the opinion of people in the community. The third hearing lasted three hours
and involved both voting and non-voting members discussing possibilities. There seemed to be two schools of thought: those against the legislation have attached themselves to the rhetoric of marijuana being a ‘gateway drug’ to more dangerous substances, and the possibility of increased access leading to increased use, particularly with underage children. Those in favor have been citing the already-widespread use and spreading legalization of marijuana in the United States, and also noted that the money from the dispensaries would be put back into the village. In March of 2021, the New York State Marijuana Regulation and Taxation Act (MRTA) was signed into law, officially legalizing the recreational use of marijuana for adults over the age of 21. Before that, medical marijuana use was legalized in New York State in July of 2014. Along with the MRTA, a new Office of Cannabis Management (OCM) was created for New York State in order to “comprehensively regulate adult-use, medical and hemp cannabis.” The OCM will also be the body that issues licenses for production and selling, and develops regulations for businesses participating in the new recreational industry.
Hillary Peckham ‘09 is the Chief Operations Officer for Etain Health, one of the first five legal medical marijuana dispensaries in New York State. She started the business with her mother and sister in June 2015, just a year after medical use and distribution were legalized in New York. Peckham said she thinks there are many misconceptions about marijuana use and that making sure people are purchasing from legal venues is the first step to mitigate those fears. “Right now we’re at a point where there’s a lot of education that needs to happen about the program and the status. If you’re not purchasing from a legal entity, there’s no testing involved in the products, so you have no idea if there are contaminants or something like that,” Peckham said. Out of the 45 cities, towns and villages in Westchester County, nine have opted in to allowing both dispensaries and consumption lounges. Out of the 1,520 municipalities in New York State, 885 have chosen to opt-out of consumption sites, and 770 have opted out of dispensaries. The decisions of the municipalities do not affect the legality of marijuana within its borders, but restrictions on sales and places of consumption are likely to significantly decrease the presence of marijuana in the area. Those that are allowing dispensaries will only be allowed to open their doors starting in 2023. Other villages in the nearby area, like Ardsley and Irvington, have also opted out of both dispensaries and consumption lounges. Hastings-on-Hudson voted to allow a dispensary, but not a place of consumption. Sleepy Hollow didn’t have a vote, which meant they defaulted to opting in to the new laws. Towns like Dobbs Ferry still have the option to opt-in at any time, but towns that have already opted in cannot reverse the decision by opting out, given that the deadline was Dec. 31, 2021. School counselor Lydia Whitney is a proponent of substance use prevention, having previously worked for five years at a substance abuse prevention agency directed towards youth in Tarrytown, NY. She said delaying any sort of exposure of the brain before it’s fully developed to chemicals found in drugs is most important. She said she supports Dobbs Ferry’s decision to opt out of having a dispensary in town from the perspective of prevention, not “judging whether marijuana is good or bad.” “We’re talking about accessibility here, and there are just
TOWER PHOTO ILLUSTRATION
A WOMAN AT THE Dobbs Ferry waterfront smokes marijuana as a result of the recent legalization of recreational cannabis. While marijuana is legal and decriminalized for all adults 21 or older in New York State, Dobbs Ferry opted to not allow any dispensaries or lounges in the town. so many risk factors to consider for students,” Whitney said. Senior and boarding student Sophia Tsoukalas said she supports the town’s decision to opt-out of allowing dispensaries and consumption sites. She said she sees the benefits for Masters as two fold: the decision is in alignment with Masters’ substance use policies and advances the mission of the School to protect its students, especially boarding students who wouldn’t have any other way to obtain it. Tsoukalas said, “I think it’s going to be very helpful to the entire school community; it reinforces the School’s policies and protects students, which is really important to me.” Masters’ Dean of Residential Life
Jayde Bennett said they understand the fear that some residents may have about marijuana being readily available, leading to increased drug use in their community, but said they believe that fear is misplaced. Bennet said that they think the greater community would benefit from the increased revenue from dispensaries, which could then be channeled back into education and safety. Instead, opting out misses the opportunity to teach younger people about substance use. “There’s a conversation we’re avoiding having about safe drug use when we restrict these establishments. The truth is, kids are going to get it if they want it, and it could be much more dangerous if left unregulated,”
Bennett said. “I understand that it can bring peace of mind, but I really do think it’s a missed opportunity.” “I think that people also need to recognize that [New York] has the largest illicit cannabis market today. If you’re not giving people legal avenues to purchase this from reputable businesses, they are purchasing it illegally,” Peckham said. “You’re not really helping anybody by keeping this illicit or by opting out of having a dispensary because people will find it in some mechanism. mMy preference would be that they purchase it knowing that it’s been tested, it’s safe and there’s accountability for it.” Note: Matthias Sandoval also contributed to this article
Cannabis business; how the market has changed Andrew Mitchell
Lead News Editor
W
hen Hillary Peckham ‘09 was in college, her grandmother was diagnosed with ALS, taking 20-25 pills a day as she battled the terminal illness. Her doctor recommended marijuana as a pill-replacement to improve her quality of life, but the Peckham family wasn’t able to find any legal avenues to obtain it. So, when former Governor Andrew Cuomo signed legislation permitting the use of medical cannabis in New York, Peckham’s mother came to her with an idea. A 3000 page business proposal and competitive licensing process later, Etain Health was born. Etain Health now has four dispensaries across the state, in Yonkers, Kingston, Manhattan and Syracuse. The family business functions as one of the largest medical marijuna companies in New York. In addition to running operations at the company, Peckham serves on the Board of Trustees at Masters. Even though marijuana has become decriminalized and recreationally legalized for adults over the age of 21, marijuana sales are still illegal in New York until licenses are distributed, a process expected to happen by 2023. While it is legal to possess marijuana,
there’s no way that the general public can purchase it. Peckham explained that this has led to many loopholes. “So what you see popping up is people who are selling items like posters for $80 and then they’ll gift you cannabis with it. There’s a whole illicit business that’s operating in this gray space because there’s no regulations right now,” Peckham said. While legalization has posed a competitive challenge to many medical dispensaries, it has slightly relaxed some of the regulations under which medical marijuana facilities have to operate. For example, prior to recreational legalization, dispensaries couldn’t sell the actual flower, but now they can. Peckham described one of the biggest upsides of the regulations shifts for Etain was the relaxed qualifications. “There used to be a list of 10 conditions that qualify for the program. Now whenever you see a doctor, if they think you’ll benefit from medical marijuana, they can prescribe it to you, which puts this much more in line with any other pharmaceutical,” she said. Peckham noted this as one of the largest challenges medical dispensaries, such as Etain, are facing right now. “It is very challenging to navigate because we still have this sort of restrictive medical market where you have to go see a doctor and then take all these steps to get to our doors and
then like there’s literally people who are selling cannabis down the street.” This “gray area” is due mainly to the current lack of formal legislation to regulate marijuana. The Office of Cannabis Management is in the process of being built, effectively creating a new branch of government to regulate hemp. Peckham described that because cannabis is still illegal on the federal level, New York State has to form this branch from scratch. “They have to hire 200 or 300 employees, train them all, and launch this program. We are expecting a set of regulations which would be ‘Here’s all of the guidelines for how you would operate and sell cannabis in the next three months or so,’ by April 1,” Peckham said. “But I don’t expect anyone to actually get a license for selling adult use or recreational cannabis probably until the beginning of next year at the earliest because it just takes that like so long to set up this whole government agency,” she continued. The lack of government has created a period in which rules are uncertain and policing has become a challenge. Part of The Office of Cannabis Management’s mission is to “give people impacted by the war on drugs an opportunity to enter the market,” as Peckham put it. The department has proposed a $200 million fund
that would go towards licenses for social equity and MWBE (Minority/ Women-owned Business Enterprises.) This fund would aim to balance the marijuana field which is currently dominated by white men, who make up 70% of top executives at the 14 largest cannabis companies, yet were statistically four times less likely to face marijuana related arrests. While the intention is to promote equity, Peckham noted the importance of how the funds are allocated. Because marijuana is federally illegal, there aren’t traditionally banking resources available to business owners. Peckham highlighted that cannabis companies can only be funded privately or through hedge funds on the Canadian stock market. “So that in and of itself creates a lack of diversity because you don’t have funding options,” Peckham explained. In order to address these issues and push for properly allocated funds, Peckham has worked to promote diverse businesses, such as Etain which is almost entirely woman-run. “Something that Etain has been passionate about is explaining the difficulties of running a cannabis business and what needs to happen to provide long term support to these businesses to COURTESY OF HILLARY PECKHAM make sure that it’s not just diverse HILLARY PECKHAM ‘09 SERVES as the COO at Etain Health, a female on day one, but you’ve created a sus- -run medical cannabis company. Peckham explained that the medical tainably diverse industry,” she said. cannabis industry was greatly impacted by New York’s legalization.