BUFFALO, N.Y. — It has been one day since Western New York opened its first state-licensed cannabis dispensary in Buffalo, and 2 On Your Side thought it would be a good idea to look at the rules you need to know when it comes to where you can consume cannabis.
2 On Your Side got a call from a Kenmore business owner who said people were smoking marijuana at the business next door to his and that the smoke was venting into his shop. The business owner told us the place he was having issues with recently closed, so it isn't a problem anymore, but he still wanted us to look into the laws covering where you're allowed to smoke marijuana.
An easy way to remember the laws: if you can't smoke tobacco cigarettes there, you can't smoke cannabis there.
"Easiest way to remember this is the state treats public use of cannabis, almost, nearly identically to public use of tobacco or vaping. So where ever you can smoke a cigarette, where ever you can vape, that's where you can consume, smoke cannabis," attorney Joe Schafer said.
The business in Kenmore was one of the places where you were not allowed to smoke cigarettes inside, so people weren't supposed to be smoking marijuana either. According to New York State law, you are not allowed to smoke cannabis in a car, or a private business, or outside at a public park, or restaurant patio.
But eventually, some businesses will have on-site consumption licenses for marijuana.
"It's like a cigar bar, it could also be a mocktail bar. It could be, you know, realistically, the state didn't want to get in the way of our state's entrepreneurs and say this is exactly what an on-site consumption license should look like, because in the end, there aren't too many of these operating. There are some in California, there are some in legal states, but they want the state's entrepreneurs to do this. Really, the idea is behind it is let's have a safe space, an acceptable space, to go and smoke a joint, or enjoy an infused beverage, or enjoy an edible," Schafer said.
New York also recently passed a law banning smoking cannabis and tobacco in all New York State Parks and other public outdoor spaces. That law went into effect last October.
The Cannabis Control Board met Wednesday morning and issued 212 new dispensary licenses. Nine are in the Western New York region.