Town of Irondequoit opts not to opt out of legal marijuana sales

IRONDEQUOIT, N.Y. (WHEC) — The Town of Irondequoit Board Tuesday night decided not to opt-out of legal marijuana sales.

The board held a hearing to talk about whether it will take part in the marijuana business, which is now legal in New York.

As News10NBC has reported before, every city, town, and village in the state can opt out by Dec. 31, 2021. If a local government does ban sales, those communities will not get any tax dollars from recreational marijuana.

Those who attended the Irondequoit Town Board meeting Tuesday were overwhelmingly supportive of dispensaries.

"We had a room full of people here and I was very grateful that they all came and spoke," said Acting Town Supervisor John Perticone. "A lot of us didn’t know how we were going to vote coming in but we did vote three to one that we opt-in."

Perticone said there’s still more to talk about and he looks forward to learning more about on-site consumption and dispensaries.

The Town of Gates decided to make the move to opt-out last week and the City of Watertown, not far from the 1000 Islands, also voted to opt-out of recreational marijuana sales back in July.