Thursday, October 1, 2026
Brooke Dowler, a Long High Beach School junior, stepped hesitantly to the microphone at a Long Beach City Council public hearing Tuesday night on whether the city should allow the retail sale of marijuana, but her voice was strong.
“I am a witness as to how people get their substances,” she told the council. “If it is legalized, kids will find a way to get it,” even if they are under 21. “It’s scary for kids to have such easy access.” She said the council should opt out of a New York state program that allows municipalities to decide whether dispensaries can sell marijuana within their borders.
Meanwhile, Long Beach resident Jock Barshock took the opposite view. “Long Beach must opt in,” he said. “Why? It’s fiscally responsible. It’s tax revenue. It’s also socially responsible. By opting in, we cannot only set an example for our neighbors, we can take their money,” which elicited chuckles from the crowd of about 100 people. “Enough of this 1930s ‘Refer Madness,’” he said, referring to a 1936 film about drugs, which has become something of a joke on college campuses.
The City Council may decide on the issue at its next meeting on Dec. 20, although Council President John Bendo said that if the council believed another public hearing was necessary, it would hold one.
Dowler and Barshock represented both sides of the argument at the City Council’s second public hearing on the issue of whether to authorize the legal sale of marijuana to people 21 and older only. Municipalities must opt out by the state’s Dec. 31 deadline, though they can opt-in at a later date. Once a municipality opts in, however, the decision is permanent. The issue has generated heated debate in municipalities across Long Island.
Only hours before Tuesday night’s council meeting, the Hempstead Town Board voted unanimously to opt-out of legal marijuana sales. More than a dozen Nassau County municipalities, including Island Park, Lynbrook, Rockville Centre and Freeport, have also opted out. The Town of Riverhead, on Long Island’s East End, rejected a proposal to opt-out in a 3-2 vote last July.
Many at the Long Beach hearing said they would support holding a referendum to allow voters to decide the matter.
Judy Vining, executive director of Long Beach AWARE, a local organization dedicated to preventing substance abuse among young people, was a proponent of holding a vote. She noted that the state would not issue licenses to sell marijuana until 2023 at the earliest, and so the issue should be given careful consideration since there is time.
“We are not here to do anything but hit the pause button,” Vining said. “If we opt out, we have time to look at all of the regulations.”
The lack of clear state guidelines on the retail sale of marijuana troubled many at the hearing. The Marijuana Regulation and Taxation Act “sets out a framework that will comprehensively regulate cannabis…in a manner that will protect public health and safety, while promoting social equity and economic development,” the State Office of Cannabis says on its website. But specific rules and regulations are not laid out. The site says to “check back soon” for further details.
One key detail that was in dispute Tuesday night was how much tax revenue Long Beach might collect. Some advocates of retail sale say legalized marijuana dispensaries would generate 3 percent sales tax for Long Beach or any local municipality and 1 percent in sales tax for Nassau County, along with 7,000 jobs throughout the county.
Melissa Gibson, who said she ran a hemp store in upstate Woodstock, argued that a dispensary could be a boon to Long Beach. “Revenues will come to the community,” she said.
But Roy Lester, who won a seat on the City Council in the November election, said, “That’s not what this is about. There are no rules and regulations out for the next two years. I blame the state for putting the horse before the cart.” He said the council was “voting and doesn’t know what it’s voting on.” Voters should have the right to decide the issue, he said.
Resident Crystal Lake raised the issue of where such a dispensary would be located. “It should be located in an isolated area,” she said, “but there are not enough isolated areas in Long Beach.”
In other news. . .
Also at Tuesday’s meeting, the council voted, 4-1, to transfer about $50,000 in funds for the Street Maintenance Department “to replenish their overtime budget due to unexpected events, including, but not limited to, hurricanes…” Councilwoman Karen McInnis cast the lone no vote.
In an email, McInnis wrote, “I voted no because I felt the council should have been presented with a more thorough analysis of the costs to run the department before the vote. Moving $50,000, a large amount in my mind, from the Masonry Repairs line to Overtime gave me pause. What are we now not doing in masonry repairs?”
