Survey shows: Legal marijuana sellers in New York want to maintain 300-meter-wide buffer zone

According to an industry survey, an overwhelming majority of legal marijuana shop owners and licensees oppose relaxing the buffer zone that prohibits cannabis shops from being located within 1,000 feet of each other.

The survey, conducted by the 300-member New York Cannabis Retail Association, found that 94% of respondents opposed changing the “proximity protection” rule.

The state Cannabis Control Board is considering granting exemptions to the 1,000-foot rule to municipalities with more than 20,000 residents and exemptions to the 2,000-foot buffer zone to cities with smaller populations.

“The numbers speak for themselves. Our market is far too fragile to change distancing rules,” said Jayson Tantalo, vice president of operations for the Retail Cannabis Association.

“Why are we doing this now? We are still in the early stages of the market. And there is still an incredible amount of illegal business. That should be a message to government regulators,” he said of the survey.

Tantalo and his wife, Britni, said they spent tens of thousands of dollars on rent while waiting for a license to open their cannabis dispensary, Flower City Dispensary, in Victor, near Rochester.

Tantalo said he heard that cannabis regulators wanted to expand the buffer zone in smaller towns from 1,000 feet to 750 feet and from 2,000 feet to 1,750 feet.

“Our members don’t want change. It brings instability to the market. There should be no exceptions at all,” he said.

An analysis of the survey results states: “NYCRA members strongly support existing standards for considering exceptions to proximity protections.

“If changes to existing regulations are to be implemented, NYCRA members would like to see additional regulatory guardrails put in place to ensure that such exemptions do not make their businesses economically unsustainable.”

Many New York politicians also oppose any deviation from the social distancing rule. They argue that there are still too many illegal pot shops and that they do not want their neighborhoods to be flooded with legal cannabis shops.

“You must be stoned,” Queens City Councilman Robert Holden recently told the Washington Post, only half-jokingly, referring to cannabis regulators’ plans to potentially allow stores to proliferate.

Some licensed operators have threatened to sue the state if it relaxes distancing requirements.

The dispute comes after a judge recently issued a ruling that could allow numerous allegedly unlicensed marijuana shops to reopen, claiming the city’s cannabis police did not properly follow regulations in locking down the shops.

Governor Kathy Hochul passed a stricter law earlier this year to make it easier for authorities to shut down illegal businesses and clear the way for legal operators, while Mayor Eric Adams launched “Operation Padlock to Protect” to put a stop to unlicensed marijuana dealers.

There are now 164 licensed cannabis dispensaries in the Empire State, about half of which are in the city and on Long Island – and there are dozens more illegal locations.