Andrea Macko reports in Porcupine Soup that the towns of New Baltimore, Durham, and Greenville voted just before Dec. 31 to not take in cannabis revenues and block retail sales and consumption lounges in their parts of Greene County. Greenville and Durham town boards voted Dec. 30 to opt-out, while New Baltimore officials took their action on Dec. 28. New York legalized cannabis everywhere in April, 2021, with towns and villages having until Dec. 31 to decide whether to opt-out of sales and/or consumption lounges. Towns can later vote to opt-in to sales and lounges, but they had only until Dec. 31 to opt-out. In Greene County, Ashland, Cairo, the Town and Village of Hunter, Jewett, Prattsville, and Windham have opted out of both retail sales and cannabis lounges, according to the Rockefeller Institute of Government website tracking the issue. In Catskill retail sales will be allowed, but consumption lounges will only be allowed in the village, but not the town of Catskill. Everywhere else, cannabis sales will be allowed. In Columbia County, the Village of Chatham, Clermont, the Village of Kinderhook, and Livingston have opted out of both. Ancram, Copake, the Town of Kinderhook, and the Village of Valatie will allow retail sales, but not lounges. Everywhere else in Columbia County will allow both. These local laws to opt-out are subject to permissive referendum, meaning residents can bring the issue to a public vote with enough signatures on a petition. Tremaine Wright, the head of the state’s Cannabis Control Board, said that licenses for the first recreational cannabis dispensaries won't likely be issued until the spring of 2023, at the earliest. Read more about this story in Porcupine Soup.