Hundreds of NY towns opt out of marijuana dispensaries.

NEW YORK — More than 400 towns and villages across New York have opted to block local marijuana dispensaries and consumption lounges from opening as a statewide deadline nears.

The law that legalized recreational marijuana in New York gave municipalities until Dec. 31 to “opt out” of hosting dispensaries or on-site consumption lounges once retail sales start in a year or so.

The Rockefeller Institute of Government reported that with three weeks left to act, more than a quarter of New York’s towns and 31% of its villages have voted to become the cannabis equivalent of dry towns when it comes to dispensaries — at least initially. Numbers are slightly higher for consumption lounges.

The opt-out list includes more than 30 villages in Nassau County, about 20 towns or villages in Westchester County, and over a dozen villages and several towns in Suffolk County.

The Rockefeller Institute, the nonpartisan public policy research arm of the State University of New York, launched a “Marijuana Opt-Out Tracker,” which allows users to search for individual towns and villages to see if they’ve opted out of dispensaries and/or on-site consumption lounges.