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The Yorktown Town Board has adopted a six-month moratorium on new shops opening that sell tobacco or vaping products. The moratorium gives officials time to decide whether and how to prevent the clustering of smoke shops in certain areas. It also is intended to provide time for them to decide what if any steps may be needed to make sure that smoking and vaping products are not being illegally sold to minors and that shops are not selling cannabis products without a state license and in violation of Yorktown’s decision not to allow such sales.
The moratorium came in part as a reaction to an investigation conducted by Yorktown police, which found that marijuana was being illegally sold to minors by a smoke shop in town.
Deputy Town Supervisor Edward Lachterman explained, “This is precipitated by a smoke and candy shop that opened next to Starbucks. Our police, doing great police work, went in and did some undercover operations, only to find out that they were selling marijuana, and selling to underage patrons.”
Lachterman said that the state’s Office of Cannabis Management has only 16 investigators for the entire state of New York and it is responsible for enforcing the law that legalized recreational marijuana sales. However, the smoke shop in question was found to have been breaking terms of the special use permit that had been issued by Yorktown and as a result the town was able to pull that permit to operate in the town.
“Our police did have to wait for the state taxation people to come in only to find out they were selling cigarettes and other items that were not properly purchased and taxed through the New York state system. They did not have New York state tax stamps on them. I think it’s a shame that we weren’t able to do it (close the store) based on that they were selling drugs to our children.”
Lachterman noted that Yorktown decided to opt out of allowing retail sales of cannabis, as municipalities are permitted to do under the 2021 state law that allowed marijuana dispensaries to operate in certain jurisdictions. State law only allows adults 21 and older to buy, possess and consume cannabis products.
The moratorium gives Yorktown officials time to reject applications for new smoke shops while they consider changes to town ordinances that permit such operations. Part of the deliberations will be whether to entirely ban new smoke shops.
“The New York State Office of Cannabis Management is woefully understaffed, making regulation of these stores very difficult,” said Yorktown Police Chief Robert Noble. “During my law enforcement career in the Town of Yorktown, each ‘smoke shop’ has proven to be problematic, in that they tend to market and sell their products to minors. I am hoping that this moratorium is the precursor to meaningful local legislation and I am proud of the work that my YPD (Yorktown Police Department) team continues to do every day.”
