SKUNKY TOWN
Cops told: Let people smoke pot in public
Get ready for some secondhand toke. After Gov. Cuomo signed the bill legalizing marijuana this week, the NYPD sent a memo to its officers: Don’t arrest or ticket anyone smoking on the streets.
They really don’t want to become the Town of Hemp-stead.
The governing board of the Town of Hempstead, LI, right on the Queens border, wants all of its 59 municipalities to opt out of selling marijuana under the new state law legalizing cannabis.
With nearly 800,000 residents, 22 villages and 37 hamlets, it is the largest “town” in the state — as well as in the entire United States.
“The Town Board is united in its opposition to the sale of recreational marijuana and also stands firmly against ‘on premises’ consumption of marijuana at facilities within the Town of Hempstead,” said town spokesman Greg Blower.
The “just say no” statement to pot was unanimously endorsed by Republican Supervisor Donald Clavin and six council members representing all parts of the town — including Democrat Dorothy Goosby, the first African-American woman elected to the council, whose district includes the villages of Hempstead and Roosevelt.
Some of the villages in the Town of Hempstead are incorporated and, therefore, are not legally bound by the larger town’s decision.
But the unanimous sentiment of the governing board represents all parts of the town and is an indication that the opt-out movement is growing in Long Island’s suburban enclaves east of New York City — which has embraced marijuana sales at retail outlets within the five boroughs.
The Town of Hempstead includes: Baldwin, Atlantic Beach, Bellerose Terrace, Bellmore, Bethpage, Cedarhurst, East Meadow, East Rockaway, Elmont, Franklin Square, Freeport, Garden City, Hempstead, Hewlett, Inwood, Island Park, Lawrence, Levittown, Lynbrook, Malverne, Merrick, North Lynbrook, North Valley Stream, North Woodmere, Oceanside, Point Lookout, Rockville Centre, Roosevelt, Seaford, South Hempstead, Uniondale, Valley Stream, Wantagh, West Hempstead and Woodmere.
Popular Jones Beach is also located in the Town of Hempstead.