N. Hempstead looks at local laws to regulate marijuana sales, locations

Officials in North Hempstead plan to enact three laws aimed at controlling how and where marijuana dispensaries can operate within the town.

Town council members on Tuesday unanimously passed one of the laws — a zoning amendment that makes it illegal for medical marijuana dispensaries to convert to retail stores should state lawmakers legalize recreational marijuana use. Officials said they hope to restrict locations where dispensaries can operate in a law to be considered Dec. 18 and take up a law to ban recreational marijuana sales on Jan. 8. 

Supervisor Judi Bosworth said the laws are in response to two dispensaries opening in North Hempstead, the only ones planned in Nassau.

"There's a facility in Lake Success [and] there's a facility that's going to open up in Carle Place," Bosworth said. "They are the only two facilities in all of Nassau County, so it would seem that there are other places in the county as well that people could have access to."

The Lake Success dispensary is owned by California-based MedMen, and the Carle Place dispensary is owned by Massachusetts-based CuraLeaf, which is awaiting a certificate of occupancy to open the facility.

Next month, Bosworth will present the zoning law amendment that restricts future dispensaries to four areas: the town's Industrial A or B districts, planned industrial districts, or in areas zoned for hospitals. The amendment states dispensaries cannot be within 1,000 feet of schools, day care centers, parks and places of worship, and they cannot be within 500 feet of residential areas. There can only be two dispensaries open in North Hempstead at a time, under the proposed amendment. 

Restricting dispensaries to industrial sections of town is problematic, said attorney Kathleen Deegan Dickson, whose firm, Forchelli Deegan Terrana of Uniondale, represents MedMen and CuraLeaf.

"It's an attempt to hide these uses and the result is that it's going to stigmatize the users," Dickson said. 

In January, the town plans to vote on banning the sale of recreational marijuana. 

Town council members said they support medical marijuana usage in North Hempstead but want to prevent its use for recreational purposes.

Councilwoman Dina De Giorgio said last month that regulating the two dispensaries now is important because if recreational marijuana becomes legal, it will be difficult for local governments to establish who can and cannot sell it.

State lawmakers have drafted a bill that would legalize recreational marijuana. A law allowing the open sale of marijuana could be enacted in the legislative session that begins in January, Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo has said. 

“The convenience stores, the stores that are part of gas stations that sell cigarettes and beer, those are all going to start selling recreational marijuana,” De Giorgio said.

If North Hempstead bans recreational marijuana sales, but the state legalizes it, the state law would supersede town law, which town officials have said they are willing to challenge in court.